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Credentials Licenses Balimo Program Certified Instructor, Clinician, or Rider  If Certification Must Wait  Therapeutic Riding Center or Instructor or Therapist, Visiting Pet, Animal Rescue or Sanctuary 

Associations for Professional Standards

Other Resources  Back to Horse Non-Profit Resources Main Page

National Volunteer Week is April 19-25, 2009

NEWS FLASH-OUR 2008 Best Humane Business Innovation Award went to the National Black Farmers Association for Project Wanted Horse

How This Non-Profit Resource Section Works          (Top of Page)

None of these listings were solicited. 
This page distills information from a variety of sources, as well as our own experience, before sending you off on your own quest.  
The descriptive paragraphs at the start of a section are there because we believe they are important.

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Credentials, Certifications and Licenses

Often the founders of a start-up small business or non-profit relegate the initial dues and other expenses of important memberships, certificates or licenses to the "nice to have someday when we have the money" category of their initial planning.  This is a serious mistake in any field of endeavor, but particularly hobbling to the animal, youth or special needs oriented non-profit agency or center.  As Benjamin Franklin warned our forefathers, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

Here's why is it not merely important, but vitally necessary for you to budget for licensing, credentialing, and membership in appropriate associations as part of your start-up organizational expenses, but also as an annual expense for renewals like any other overhead administrative expense.

Independently established credibility stands as one of the main benefits of a nationally-recognized certification/credential. For fields such as animal rescue management, horse training, stable management, riding instruction, or therapeutic horsemanship where there is no recognized academic degree, certification is the only authoritative, independent measure available by which to determine a person’s experience, skill and knowledge as defined by our peers.

For organizations soliciting the time of volunteers, or the money of donors, be they individuals, government agencies, corporations, or philanthropic foundations, membership credentials in recognized groups, such as the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Combined Federal Campaign, etc. vastly upgrades the quality of the impression your non-profit makes on the communities you serve and solicit. In a modern, mobile, fast-paced world, few people have the time to truly research with whom they do business or non-profits they support.  If this work has not already been done for them, many people, bombarded by media stories of scams and scandals, simply pass a worthy cause by.  Sophisticated, accountable corporations, philanthropic foundations, and government agencies, unlike individual contributors, are invariably required by by-laws, legislation, or departmental rules to require these safeguards as part of their due diligence.

Likewise, besides the myriad of benefits to us as individuals and to the beneficiaries whose lives we affect, certification is important as we track the movement by government to regulate and/or license the therapeutic activities and equine rescue professions. Illinois now requires horse rescues to be licensed to receive many benefits, and to help make it more difficult for hoarders to operate.  Arizona has a grassroots effort to develop such a system.  Equine assisted therapy organizations should take the initiative in their states to do the same. The question becomes “should the equine non-profit professionals influence government by providing them with valid information and mechanisms that we, as equine professionals have produced, or should government take the lead and define our profession?”

Certification should not be viewed as a policing agent or gatekeeper, and it should not be thought of as a noose around our necks. Certification allows us to stand out as a profession, increase our stature among other professions and influence authority.  Certification helps you establish credibility with potential donors and corporate sponsors.

Professional organizations are able to pool modest membership fees to purchase lending libraries, put on workshops that individual small non-profits or professionals could not otherwise afford, produce industry newsletters of real value with "how to" expertise and the current events coverage not available from mainstream media.  The benefits to your long term success are numerous and profound.

If you peruse our page for owners of senior horses about choosing a hippotherapy center or horse rescue to work with, you will notice that we repeatedly advise that they discriminately prefer a center that adheres to industry standards of safety and horse care and emergency planning, and that belongs to some appropriate credentialing associations and/or their personnel have invested the time and training in their field to obtain certification by a third party.

"Titles are granted, but it's your behavior that wins you respect." Opening words to the first practice of The Leadership Challenge.

Horsemanship, Stable Management, Riding Instruction

American Riding Instructors Association (ARIA) ARIA does not certify facilities.  However, since 1984 ARIA certifies Instructors in Training (Level I) Instructors of Beginner to Intermediate Riders (Level II) Instructors of Intermediate to Advanced Riders (Level III) in

Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) CHA certifies about 250 facilities, and has about 4,000 members of whom about 3,000 are certified instructors, in the United States, holds regional and national conferences and clinics and offers benefits, including insurance discounts.  For over 40 years CHA certified horse camp counselors in basic riding instruction, safety, grooming and tacking.  In the last decade it has expanded to a program competitive with the ARIA to certify from assistant instructor to master clinician levels in

American Association for Horsemanship Safety certifies instructors and assistant instructors who participate in their clinic and pass the required exam.  Member stables and instructors receive a quarterly newsletter and have access to an equine law library and safe horsemanship books and videos.

United States Pony Club has a Riding Center Program to include stables that own lesson horses and are able to offer instruction on the flat, over fences and in the open, and horsemanship training to students who do not own their own horses, according to USPC standards. Pony Club proficiency standards have enjoyed worldwide recognition for decades and supports members with a wealth of lesson plans in various disciplines, games, and horse management.

Balimo Program Certified Instructor, Clinician, or Rider

From the Equestrian Education Systems, Inc. you can acquire excellent skills as a sports coach and teacher who understands the horse's body in motion and the human's body in motion and how they work together in horseback riding of any kind.  The complete rider certification program takes about 2 years and costs $3,000, and the trainer/instructor program costs about double that using a combination of distance learning courseware and in-person workshops.  However, the quality and systematic organization of the curriculum is outstanding.  Proponents of Centered Riding will take their teaching skills to a higher level, learn anatomical movement at a higher level, and teach horseback riding skills from beginner's mounting for the first time, to upper level dressage movements in a safer, more successful, less stressful manner.  Particularly useful are the floor exercises and ground warm-up routines for the humans that are otherwise sadly lacking in most horseback riding programs, regular and designed for persons with disabilities.  Balance and natural movement is everything for skill development, safety, security, and communication.  Investing in and learning to effectively use the Balimo Balance Chair is a worthwhile goal.

If Certification Must Wait

Without this formal certification, but with similar principles oriented toward western disciplines, you can get started with Will Howe's Balance Board which comes with an instructional video.  We purchased one several years ago and used it, along with vaulting exercises on the ground with vaulting equipment, and traditional gymnastic balance boards like the IndoFLO® Balance Stimulator, to teach our campers balance and skills quickly before putting the children on lesson horses.  These boards are used by physical education instructors for children and adults, and by licensed physical therapists and sports chiropractors for therapeutic purposes. Many boards come with instructional video, exercises, and student assessment tools, or these tools and accessories for using the boards properly for safety and maximum benefit can be purchased separately. The child's first ride on the bareback pad for even the most timid with the poorest posture improved dramatically.  We also used it to get adult beginners back in touch with their own balance and posture before their first ride. ( Note: Be sure to use a board of the proper size and strength for children or adults. )

The instructor and horse struggled less to correct for their stiffness and imbalance in the first session. For our schoolmasters who specialized in working with beginners this helped protect their backs, minimize stumbling, and thus helped maintain their happiness in their work.  Also, many people who considered themselves athletic or fit realized for themselves that riding was not going to be sitting on a horse — it was going to be work on themselves for posture, relaxation, and many small adjustments of position to stay in rhythm with the horse's movement.  Accomplishing this on the ground spared the horses and created a professional, positive learning atmosphere, thus maximizing the quality of their time spent with, and on, the horse, their confidence, and fun!

Balance Board Exercises from Fitter First

Therapeutic Riding Center or Instructor or Therapist, Visiting Pet, Animal Rescue or Sanctuary

NARHA (formerly the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) certifies over 700 facilities at regular and premiere levels. It offers states, regional and national conferences and workshops, insurance and other discounts and limited national marketing.  Members include thousands of instructors at registered, advanced and master levels in teaching English or Western riding to persons with disabilities.  There is also specialty certification in therapeutic driving and interactive vaulting.  There is not equine facility management certification for individuals.

Also see CHA above

St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, North Carolina.   St. Andrews is an accredited undergraduate college that offers, in addition to full baccalaureate degrees, two online courses resulting in certificates:  Therapeutic Horsemanship Business Management and Equine Business Management.  Administering the full operations of a bustling equestrian facility or a therapeutic riding center, from business law and finance, to marketing and human resources are addressed in the curriculum designed specifically for horse-based operations. 

The American Hippotherapy Association (AHA) Founded in 1987, AHA credentials licensed physical, occupational, and speech therapists to use the characteristics and movements of the horse in their treatment protocols and to work with equine therapeutic center personnel. Therapists and businesses may join to benefit from education and other resources without seeking formal status as a Certified Hippotherapy Clinical Specialist.   There are fewer than 100 members according to their website.

The Certification Board for Equine Interaction Professionals (CBEIP) credentials licensed mental health professionals and education professionals. CBEIP certification tests professionals for a body of knowledge required in order to effectively partner with animals in mental health and educational settings.  Mental health and education professionals are already defined by their licensure and their credentials, so the addition of the CBEIP credential demonstrates their knowledge and skills to incorporate animals in their practice. There are 15 certified for mental health equine-facilitated practice and 11 certified for education equine-facilitated practice as of December 2008 according to their website.

Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) Since 1999 this organization has provided education and certification for equine-assisted learning and mental health practitioners and programs.  There are about 3,075 members, not all of whom are certified, and 94 organizations that belong.  Certification and advanced certification tracks are available to mental health professionals and equine specialists.  There is no site certification.

Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA) is a subsidiary of NARHA since 1996.  As of 2007 EFMHA had about 700 members nationally, with 60 NARHA centers offering equine-facilitated learning, and 123 offering equine-facilitated psychotherapy.  They began offering workshops, and expect to offer Certification as an Equine Specialist for the horse professional who partners with the licensed mental health professional beginning in 2008.  For mental health professionals and education professionals, including teachers, coaches, recreation therapists, and guidance counselors who work with equines or equine programs, EFMHA began offering certification exams in late 2007.

O.K. Corral Series EAP/EAL Certification Series  EAGALA Founder Greg Kersten offers a collection of five multi-day seminars for mental health professionals and educators.  Participants can earn CEUs for state licensing board continuing education requirements. Kersten offers certification in EAP or EAL for work with individuals, families, or teams to achieve goals for growth, crisis-management, leadership, and team-building.

TIP: Horse Sense Business Sense offers Equine Assisted Psychotherapy curricula for At-Risk Youth, Eating Disorders and Girl Teens to help qualified professionals jump start their EAP programs with horses.

Equine Guided Education Association (EGEA) exists

"to create and support a unified discourse involving the interaction of the horse as a respected 'guide' in human growth, learning and development. Equine Guided Education (EGE) integrates equine activities, kinesthetic learning and cognitive insight in developing self-responsibility, a healthy self-image, as well as social and relationship building skills.

 

EGE can be found in a wide variety of human learning methods including psychotherapy, coaching, holistic health practices, general education, youth at risk and rehabilitation programs.  

 

EGEA stands for the respectful integration of horses into human learning methods. We see that the horse does more than assist or facilitate learning, the horse actually "Guides"-"(One who can find paths through unexplored territory) the process of “Education”-(Discipline of mind or character through study or instruction).  Members include: Coaches, educators, consultants, mental health therapists, wholistic health educators, human development facilitators, teachers, alternative education specialists, horse trainers, riding instructors, human resources professionals, etc.

The EGE Certification Program is open to educators, coaches, equestrians, teachers, college students, artists, therapists and other individuals who want to incorporate horses into their professional offers or simply immerse themselves in in-depth learning of  spiritual nature. The program includes 3 weeks of instruction, experiential learning, practice sessions and supervision. "

TIP:  If you have the facilities and a background in education and horsemanship, take advantage of existing professional materials to jump start your EFL/EGE business.  Strides to Success, Inc. offers equine facilitated learning curriculums that have been used successfully thought the U.S. with mounted and ground-based lesson plans for schools, camps, therapeutic riding centers and mental health facilities.

Delta Society Pet Partners offers certification of Handler and Animal Teams, and Team Instructors.

The Association of Sanctuaries, Inc. founded in 1992 offers accreditation for

with further specialization in farmed or domestic companion or wild animals.  Here are their standards in .PDF format.

The HSUS through Animal Sheltering offers training, site evaluation, networking and other resources.

The Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA) offers a certification program for career professionals.

There are two other American professional associations of animal welfare agencies that subscribe to professional standards but do not offer any certification.  See Associations for Professional Standards on this page.

For working with your horses, your Equine Manager or Lead Volunteers may want to pursue this online accredited equine studies program, licensed by the state of Wyoming: Global Equine Academy.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has established guidelines for the selection, care, client interaction with, appropriate activities of and well-being of animals that work in animal assisted activities and therapies.

Safety, Emergency, and Disaster Planning                              (Top of Page)

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month each year.  The prestige and credibility of your equine non-profit can be enhanced by providing community service as a partner with the Department of Homeland Security.  Using materials conveniently available through Ready.gov, you can distribute information and tools for large animal emergency planning, or coordinate local large stables, fairgrounds, racetracks, horse show venues, rodeo or roping arenas as temporary shelters in the event of an emergency. 

TIP: If your non-profit works with the special needs population, consider a link on your website to: Disabilities/911, the disaster preparedness website for persons with disabilities.

As you develop your equine charity's own safety, emergency, and disaster plans, don't forget to maintain good regular backups of your computer software and data, from email address books to online accounts to actual accounting data, contact databases, and horse records.  The first thing you may need to access following an evacuation may be your lists of volunteers and donors.  No backups should be more than a week old, and if you need to subscribe to an automatic online service to get this peace of mind, you only need to use it once when a computer's hard disk crashes to realize it is worth every penny.

Security as Safety

If you intend to recruit women and teenagers as volunteers around your farm, or if you intend to provide equine-assisted activities to vulnerable populations, such as children at a summer camp, or persons with mental, emotional or physical conditions, you must attend to their safety and security needs.  You must provide adequate visitor identification and control, proper lighting for those walking to their cars at night, safe restrooms, and clear training and operational procedures.

Special Olympics offers excellent free online training on best practices for working with vulnerable populations. All equine facilities that serve women and children, whether for profit or non-profit, can learn a great deal by taking this course.  Non-profits should formally subscribe to their protective behaviors guidelines and mention it in their recruiting materials. 

If you have volunteers or vulnerable clients, also consider checking your city, county, or state list of Registered Offenders periodically.  Here in Phoenix, it displays a map of the locations of their residences.  I was surprised how many lived in our neighborhood, within a couple of blocks of the schools.  A beautiful little horse farm that attracts kids or women is as attractive to these bad apples as a public park, carnival, gym or playground.  Sorry, but that is the modern world in which we live.  Just because you are on a back country road is no longer a reason to feel a false sense of security.

Budget for small security improvements like gate alarms, lighting, cameras and so on each year.  Few of us have a Sugar Daddy providing the ideal secured perimeter and monitoring from day one.  But you can plan to handle the most urgent needs first, and keep improving.  Plus, you can get your local sheriff or police department to pay a courtesy visit at a time convenient to them to meet you and discuss what you are doing to protect your assets, your animals, and your visitors.

Associations for Professional Standards         (Top of Page)

 Join professional groups that offer training, newsletters, websites, blogs, forums, and other helpful networking. 

Society of Animal Welfare Administrators offers many resources, including professional certification

National Animal Control Association  Excellent links to state, county and municipal animal control groups and law enforcement agencies, and timely information affecting them.

DisabilityEtiquette.pdf  Excellent guide published by the United Spinal Association.

Special Olympics also has excellent language usage guidelines.

National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs sets Principles of Good Practice for members and offers a professional journal, networking, publishes a directory for potential clients of member programs, insurance discounts,  business referrals, and templates for forms and procedures  NATSP members include therapeutic schools, residential treatment programs, wilderness programs, outdoor therapeutic programs, young adult programs and home-based residential programs. NATSAP requires the members to be licensed by the appropriate state agency authorized to set and oversee standards of therapeutic and/or behavioral healthcare for youth and adolescents or accredited by a nationally recognized behavioral health accreditation agency and to have therapeutic services with oversight by a qualified clinician.

Cost-Savings

 Visit our Quarterly Tips, Forums, Blog, or Products for Horse Businesses for ways to save money.

Encouragement and Motivation

 Sponsor a Horse.org is a network of Equine Rescues with members only forums.

Management Skills                                             (Top of Page)

Horse rescues and sanctuaries need to be well-managed, just like for-profit businesses to survive and benefit the rescued animals.  The knowledge, skills and abilities of a successful manager of a non-profit business are special, and take time to acquire and practice.  While experience working with horses, clients and vendors, and marketing services are good starting points, the Founder or Executive Director of a horse-related non -profit needs more.  Mis-steps in fundraising, accounting, personnel management, volunteer management, or board relations can do more than cost the executive the job - they can seriously harm the organization for a long time, or even jeopardize the welfare of the clients and horses.  Running a charity today, with the constant economic pressures, and the inevitable turn over of horses, staff, and volunteers, can be a lonely job sometimes.  The old adage, "it is lonely at the top" comes to mind occasionally.  But a manager who really learns non-profit organizational management techniques and procedures, can combine equine professionalism and non-profit professionalism to dramatically impact the success of the charity, and thus help many more clients and horses.

Fortunately, there are training or self-study guides to help new or newly promoted horse-related charity managers.  In fact, it is a good idea to share this education with barn managers, volunteer managers, program managers, development (fund raising) managers, and others on the charity management team.  They too, need to understand how their role differs from comparable positions in the commercial horse industry.  Many organizational and communication problems can be avoided by understanding how non-profits need to work.  We've linked here two useful resources to get started managing your horse non-profit professionally.

 Working with volunteers presents special opportunities and challenges from working with agency staff.  Visit the Horse Non-Profit Volunteer Management page for many valuable resources to recruit, train, manage, schedule and recognize your volunteers. 

Other Resources                                                               (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Horse Owner Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses, and horses being retrained or rehabilitated.

The Del Camino Stable Manager's Product and Services catalog offers products and services of interest to those operating a horse facility.

  Mounting ramps and blocks for persons with disabilities, walker and gait belts, breakaway stirrups, bareback pads, therapeutic riding surcingles, reinbow loops, instructional aids for therapeutic riding programs.

The Del Camino forums provide a place to network with other horse non-profits, and the blog covers related timely topics.

Charity Advantage is an online source for deeply discounted computers and software for non-profits.

Horse Welfare Statistics

EqRescQ101: Equine Rescue Yahoo Forum and Message Board.  Network with other Horse Rescues about rescue specific concerns.

National Equine Rescue Coalition

Equine Rescue News and Resources

Equine Rescue Webring

Save a Forgotten Equine Forum

Horse Rescue and Information Network Forum

Society of Animal Welfare Administrators

National Animal Control Association  Excellent links to state, county and municipal animal control groups and law enforcement agencies, and timely information affecting them.

National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy  This is an excellent resource for how to keep logs and statistics of calls from surrenderers, understanding how the bond is broken, the top ten reasons people relinquish their animals, the bias that almost always enters the conversation between the volunteer who is receiving the animal and the person who is relinquishing it.

Ehorseeducation - teleseminars assisting therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted activities non-profit centers in management and professionalism areas. 

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