Certified by Whom?

As more and more people embrace the concept of natural hoof care more and more "experts" emerge to guide them in the proper methods for producing happy barefoot horses. Everyone has a theory it would seem.  What amazes me is the brashness of people who have engaged in the totally barefoot ideology for only a few years and yet have set up programs to certify others. What does that mean exactly? Who gives them the authority to certify anyone? Who recognizes that certification and what exactly does that mean? 

It means no more that if you or I decided to  hang a shingle and hand out diplomas. Such students are certified by nobody.  Certification - to mean anything - should be recognized and sanctioned by an authoritative body of something, an organizatrion that has legal standing and affiliation with other established legal organizations.
These people, vets , farriers and who knows who else are exactly only that - people. Individuals not recognized by anyone, or anything, other than themselves and a few devotees. 

If someone comes along and says, "I am certified by Billy-Bob's School of Hoof Care" ...what does it mean to you, the consumer? One definition of certified is "having a document that proves that you have successfully completed a course of training."  Who set up the course? Who teaches it? Who administers student evaluations?  What is their claim of expertise - exactly? 

If I choose a physician who is "certified to practice medicine", I want to be darn sure that certification was issued from an accredited institution, don't you? I wouldn't want that physician to have been certified only by another  individual physician.  I think of it this way....if I were certified and presented myself professionally as certified, I would want to have the backing of an organization consisting of more than one individual should I run into trouble. Maybe its my medical background, but I tend to assess things with an eye to the courtroom, meaning that if I were ever in a court of law having to defend my certification, I would much prefer to be able to point to a group of other professionals comprising the organization who certified me, than to little ol' Billy Bob sitting alone in the back of the courtroom.

Its a case of "buyer beware".  Know what you are getting when you hire a certified person - for anything.

Now, some of you are probably itching to tell me that I'm nuts because there are no such organizations for natural hoofcare certification, so its not possible to certify people under the such a mandate. RIGHT! So until there are such organizations that are established and recognized by other professionals, that are staffed with professionals that represent years of experience and expertise, why certify anyone?

By the way, the other definition of certified is: " to attest officially to the insanity of"....
hmmmm....something to think about!
 

Hawk