Ekidemy

Galop^® 6 matches the level of Club 2 competitions, the FFE’s club classes. It certifies that you can prepare your horse yourself, from the warm-up to its care after work, and ride it in a dressage test, over a show-jumping course and round a cross-country course at that level. It builds on everything Galop 5 put in place: a secure seat without stirrups, a bend sought on curves, the leg-yield at the walk, the letters of the arena, and lungeing at the walk and trot.

What you will be able to do

• Riding: bend your horse in all three gaits on wide curves, keep an even cadence, ride energetic, clean transitions, counter-canter, leg-yield at the trot, rein back a few steps, and warm up on your own.
• On the ground: lunge in all three gaits, move the circle, jump a small fence on the lunge, and work on long reins at the walk and trot.
• Care: trim and plait a horse for a competition, and look after it when the work is done.
• Knowledge: the foot and shoeing, diseases, feed requirements, breeding, identification, the gaits, judging a dressage test, training aids, cross-country fences.

How the exam works

Like every Galop, Galop 6 has three modules. Module 1, the specific part, brings together the riding, the care and the knowledge that belong to this Galop. Modules 2 and 3, shared by every level-6 Galop, cover groundwork and knowledge of the horse; once passed, they stay passed. Your instructor, who holds an FFE examiner’s code, can sign everything off in one session or module by module, lesson by lesson. If you are under 18, the specific module can only be passed once you hold the whole of Galop 5.

• Part 1

  Dressage

  A test at Club 2 level, or the equivalent Pony test, and a sequence of movements at that level: 12 m circles, leg-yield at the trot, lengthened strides, accurate canter transitions, rein-back.

• Part 2

  Show jumping

  Grids of about 1 m, then a Club 2 show-jumping or Hunter round: fences of about 90 cm, set distances and combinations.

• Part 3

  Cross-country

  A Club 2 cross-country course over varied ground: fences of about 80 cm with different profiles, and one or more combinations.

The rider’s Galop 6 — the FFE’s Galop de cavalier — covers all three parts: on the flat, over fences and across country. A hat to current safety standards is compulsory whenever you ride, and a body protector across country.

How to use these pages

Each page covers one topic. Read the Knowledge pages somewhere quiet, pencil in hand; reread the Riding and Groundwork pages the day before a lesson, so that you arrive at the school with a clear goal. The last page gathers a revision sheet, a quiz and a list of what you need to know. Reminders from earlier Galops are flagged: if they feel hazy, go back to them before moving on.