Within the plan of activities scheduled by the Foundation to Promote Equestrian Sports for year 2012, the first Symposium aimed at Horse-Riding Technicians was held on 13th, 14th and 15th November at the Spanish Horse-Riding School Somosaguas, where the attendants enriched their knowledge thanks to professionals like Luis Álvarez Cervera, Luis Lucio, Elisa Moya, Lucy Rees and a broad range of lecturers who, over three days, covered different topics of common interest.
An overall 45 technicians attended and participated in the various lectures.

The opening of the Symposium and its Main Lecture were delivered by Luis Álvarez Cervera, with the topic: “The seat: how to improve it to use independent aids”; developing a theoretical and a practical part, with the help (as a “guinea pig”) of Diana Marsá, who was recently awarded in the Merit Recognition Event of the Foundation.
This was followed by conferences and practical horse-riding by Luis Lucio in Classic Dressage and Luis Álvarez Cervera himself in Obstacle Jumping, who worked in different tracks together with specialized technicians, in their respective modalities.

The Symposium included other lectures which also had a practical part, such as the ones delivered by the English ethologist Lucy Rees, covering topics like: “Understanding the horse and its life in the equestrian sport” and “Explanations to students”.
Theoretical lectures, also interactive, were delivered by:

• Antonio Rubio Pastor (from Overlap company): “Learning Trends: the IN’s and OUT’s of an Equestrian Technician in relation to their trainee”.
• Fernando Vizcaíno (Technical Director of RFHE): “Professional Future of the Horse-Riding Technician”.
• Luis Fernández Gil-Fournier (Training Manager at the Horse-Riding Federation of Madrid): “The use of digital platforms in equestrian teaching”.
• Elisa Moya (Expert in trainers’ training): “Equestrian Center Management”.
• Roberto Abitbol (Horse Homeopath and Osteopath: “Introduction to Equine Osteopathy”.
• Mercedes Jiménez Horwitz (Technical Director of the Paraequestrian Discipline of RFHE): “Introduction to Adapted Equestrian Sports”.

Over the 3 days of the Symposium, the attendants carried out horse-riding practices with Luis Álvarez Cervera and Luis Lucio during the first two hours of the day, then moving forward to the lectures and practices delivered by Lucy Rees, thus ending the morning shift.
The remaining theoretical lectures were delivered in the afternoon at the Events Room of the Somosaguas Horse-Riding School.
In parallel to the Symposium, on the 15th, a course on galloping assessment was given by the Royal Spanish Horse-Riding Federation, with the attendance of 40 people interested in the subject.