United States Eventing Association

Support the USEA Instructors’ Certification Program by Hosting an ICP Workshop!

Before Instructors’ Certification Program (ICP) candidates may be assessed for certification at an Assessment, they must participate in the appropriate ICP Workshop(s). ICP Workshop hosts are wonderful people who offer up their farms and volunteer their organizational skills to make these required ICP Workshops available to candidates, and the ICP is grateful for hosts’ commitment to high-quality instruction and to the many participating ICP candidates.

What does hosting an ICP Workshop involve? The host first contacts an ICP faculty member and together they decide upon dates that work for both of them to run an ICP Workshop. Then, the host shares those dates with Nancy Knight so that she can list that Workshop’s information on the USEA website’s ICP Workshop/Assessment calendar (visible in the upper right-hand corner of the ICP page under “Upcoming Events”). Interested candidates can then contact that host to register for that Workshop. Workshop hosts are also responsible for publicizing the Workshop and inviting the participation of local instructor candidates or YEH instructor and YEH professional horse trainer candidates, depending upon the kind of Workshop being offered.

In 2003, the ICP Committee established that the ICP Workshop candidate fee and faculty salary would be the same for each Workshop type, regardless of Workshop host or location. These fees are as low as they reasonably can be. However, Workshop hosts are responsible for managing the Workshop’s finances and often find that it can be hard to break even, especially at ICP Workshops with lower attendance numbers. Thus, the ICP created the Workshop Subsidy Grant.

The ICP Workshop Subsidy Grant was first funded in 2016 by generous individuals committed to the mission of the Instructors’ Certification Program. Since then, the USEA has been able to provide money to assist Workshop hosts who work diligently to keep the costs of hosting an ICP workshop at a minimum but are still left with a deficit at the conclusion of the Workshop. These grants are awarded only if the Workshop operates at a loss despite every effort having been made to limit expenses as much as possible.

ICP Workshop hosts who wish to submit for a grant to help offset expenses should, at the end of the Workshop, submit to Nancy Knight the actual amounts received and spent, clearly itemized. A Workshop host will receive compensation for some portion or all of that Workshop’s deficit. Click here to download the ICP Workshop Subsidy Grant request form.

Below are several ideas for running an efficient and cost-effective Workshop, regardless of the number of candidates at a Workshop:

• Choose an ICP faculty member whose travel expenses will not be high.
• Have private housing available for the ICP faculty member.
• Provide meals for that faculty member.
• Charge Workshop participants a fee for lunch that will cover your food expense for that lunch.

ICP candidate instructors, please thank your Workshop host! Workshop hosts are essential to USEA’s and ICP’s ability to offer the ICP program. A special thank you is due to those ICP Workshop hosts who offered Workshops before the initiation of the ICP Workshop Subsidy Grant. The ICP program would not exist without you!

For more information on hosting an ICP Workshop, please contact Nancy Knight at [email protected] or (703) 669-9997 or Sue Hershey at [email protected] or (412) 963-6359.

About the Instructors’ Certification Program

Instructors are essential to the training of riders and horses for safe and educated participation in the sport of eventing. The USEA Instructors’ Certification Program (ICP) was initiated in 2002 to educate all levels of eventing instructor with essential training principles upon which those instructors can continue to build throughout their teaching careers. ICP offers educational Workshops and Assessments by which both regular instructors, Level I through Level IV, Young Event Horse (YEH) instructors, and Young Event Horse professional horse trainers can become ICP certified. Additional Information about ICP’s goals, benefits, Workshops, and Assessments is available on the USEA website. Names and contact information for current ICP-certified instructors, YEH instructors, and YEH professional horse trainers are available on the USEA website as well, listed by ICP certificate level and type and by USEA Area.