National Shooting Horse Association

How We Support Instructors

NaSHA’s goal is to support people who want to teach within the shooting horse discipline by providing clear tools, shared language, and practical frameworks—without adding red tape or interfering with individual teaching styles.

Instruction carries real responsibility. The resources outlined here exist to help instructors teach with clarity and consistency while protecting horses as speed, pressure, and complexity increase.

Instructor Pathway

The Instructor Pathway provides structure and guidance for riders who want to teach responsibly. It offers shared frameworks and support tools instructors can choose to use in their own programs. There are no certifications, approvals, or required processes. Instructors remain responsible for their own teaching decisions.

Lesson Levels: Built From Real-World Instruction

Lesson Levels are a training and communication tool designed to help instructors identify readiness, organize training priorities, and provide clear feedback based on observable skills and the horse’s response.

They are most commonly used within lesson programs, where progress can be observed and adjusted over time. Lesson Levels are not competition rankings, certifications, or requirements, and they do not replace existing classifications. They exist to support instruction—nothing more, and nothing less.

Instructor Toolkit & Resources

To support the use of Lesson Levels, NaSHA provides an Instructor Toolkit made up of practical, instructor-facing resources for day-to-day teaching. These include lesson planning and tracking tools, lesson-level guides, visual progression references, and instructor quick guides.

Foundational Instructor Toolkit resources are publicly available. A Professional Instructor Toolkit is also available for instructors who want deeper teaching guidance, integrated materials, and readiness decision tools. Use as much or as little as is helpful.

Use and Attribution

If you choose to use NaSHA Lesson Levels or Instructor Toolkit materials in lessons, clinics, or educational content, please credit NaSHA as the source. Clear attribution helps maintain consistency, supports continued development of shared resources, and allows others to locate the original materials.

What This Is—and Isn’t

This is not a certification program.
It is not a ranking system.
It is not an attempt to control instruction.

It is a set of practical tools and shared frameworks, built from real-world experience, intended to support instructors and protect horses within the shooting horse discipline.

How These Pieces Fit Together

• The Instructor Pathway provides structure and guidance

• Lesson Levels provide clarity and feedback in lessons

• The Instructor Toolkit provides practical, day-to-day teaching tools

Used together or individually, these resources form a flexible system instructors can adapt to their own programs—always with the horse at the center of the work.

NaSHA Standards & Frameworks are published by the National Shooting Horse Association and support safe, ethical shooting horse education.

This isn’t about certification. It’s about building a confident new generation of educators who can keep this sport growing the right way — with integrity, skill, and a horse-first mindset.