Ekidemy

Your club

Your club — a riding centre, a pony school or a riding school — is an establishment affiliated to the FFE. It stables and cares for the ponies and horses, welcomes riders and puts them in the hands of qualified instructors. It is also through your club that you take out your licence and that your Galops are signed off.

Reception

Where you sign up and check the lesson timetable and the noticeboard. There is often a clubhouse where you can wait for your lesson.

The stable block

The buildings where the horses live, most often each in his own stable, or loose box. You will study the different ways horses are kept in Galop 2.

The tack room

The room where the saddles, bridles and other equipment are kept. Each pony often has his own place there, marked with his name.

The grooming area

Where horses are tied up to be brushed and got ready, often under cover.

The wash-down area

A space with a non-slip floor for washing the legs or the whole body after work.

The indoor school

A covered riding area with a soft surface. Its walls often have kickboards, a sloping lining that keeps the rider’s legs away from the wall.

The outdoor arena

A fenced riding area in the open air, with a soft surface.

The lunge pen

A small round enclosure, for lungeing or for the very first lessons.

Paddocks and fields

Outdoor enclosures where the horses unwind: a paddock is small, a field bigger and grassy.

The muck heap

Where the manure mucked out of the stables is taken.

Your licence

The FFE licence is your membership card of the Federation. You take it out every year, usually through your club. Each licence carries the name of a year and stays valid until 31 December of that year; you can take it out from 1 September of the year before. The 2026 licence, for example, can be taken out from 1 September 2025 and is valid until 31 December 2026.

• It includes insurance for your riding, from getting your pony ready to his return to the stable or the field.
• It lets you take your Galops, and keeps a record of them for life.
• It opens your rider page on the FFE website, where you will find your certificates.
• It is what you will need, later on, to take part in competitions.

Your federation

The Fédération Française d’Équitation (FFE), the French Equestrian Federation, brings together the clubs and licensed riders of the whole of France. It is an association, entrusted by the Ministry of Sport with organising riding: it issues licences, writes the Galop programmes, runs competitions from club shows to the French championships, and supports the training of instructors. Its great showground, the Parc Équestre Fédéral — the Federation’s equestrian park — is at Lamotte-Beuvron, in the Loir-et-Cher, south of Orléans.