Cathy Rothery and Tuff, who is checking over the afternoon schedule.
I just recently came off of a ‘killer trip’ again with my most long term agent, Christiane Noelting of the Christiane Noelting Dressage Center in Vacaville, CA, where I saw 150 of our valued California clients in less than two weeks. It was – as always – wonderfully gratifying to see how well everyone is doing, but I have to admit that it is getting harder and harder to work these long days with so much driving and so little sleep. So to have to go directly from there to Amarillo, TX to the CHA conference this past weekend where I was speaking again was quite difficult – but the response from the attendees was extremely uplifting and made it all worthwhile. And now I actually get to spend a week in Florida – on vacation! – with two of our best friends. So this blog may be a bit shorter than usual because the beach calls….
What I love about the CHA is their inclusiveness. It doesn’t matter what breed, what discipline, what level – everyone is welcome and very welcoming. The choice of conference site is linked to the home bases of the board members, so this year it was Amarillo, and next year it will be Nashville, TN. The presentations all have to do with the welfare of the horse, which is entirely in alignment with my own passion.The level of clinicians such as Julie Goodnight (who is also a CHA board member) makes this a truly worthwhile investment for the attendees – who come from every corner of North America including Canada! Everyone comes away with a new insight at some level. The Executive Director Christy Landwehr is a powerhouse of organizational talents and I give her great credit for pulling these annual events together with her excellent team. But what I particularly like is the fact that their certification process requires RE-certification and ongoing educational development. This is very much in line with how trainers are qualified and certified in Europe; it is also the model upon which we have create the Saddlefit4Life training curriculum and (re)-certification process. We were lucky enough to speak with a couple of the attendees who are considering joining S4L in the future and training to become Equine Ergonomists.
When I was doing my master’s certification in saddlery under Max Hoepfner in Germany he once said to me “when you stop learning you die.” Read the full article here.
~ Jochen Schleese CMS, CSFT, CSE, courtesy of Saddlefit 4 Life
