Bending, keeping the cadence, riding transitions, warming up alone

Four skills that serve all three parts of Galop 6: a horse that bends, keeps its cadence, listens in its transitions and is properly warmed up is ready for the test and the course alike.

In the exam programme

Bend your horse on wide curves in all three gaits.Specific part
Keep an even cadence in all three gaits.Specific part
Ride energetic upward transitions and clean, fluent downward ones.Specific part
Warm your horse up on your own, under your instructor’s eye.Specific part

Bending in all three gaits

In Galop 5 you looked for the bend; in Galop 6 you achieve it in all three gaits on wide curves: 15 to 20 m circles, rounded corners, serpentines with big loops. The horse follows the curve from poll to tail, and its hind feet follow the track of its forefeet.

Inside leg at the girth: it keeps the horse active and acts as the pillar the horse bends around.
Outside leg slightly behind: it stops the hindquarters swinging out.
Inside rein: it asks for the flexion, without pulling or drawing back.
Outside rein: it limits the flexion, controls the speed and supports the outside shoulder.
Seat and eyes: your shoulders follow the horse’s shoulders, your hips its hips, your eyes on the curve.

Keeping an even cadence

Cadence is the regularity of the movement in time: strides of the same duration and the same energy, that you could beat out on a metronome. It must not change on curves, in lengthenings or as a transition approaches. Rhythm is the sequence of beats that belongs to each gait: four at the walk, two at the trot, three at the canter. Count under your breath: if your count speeds up or drags, so does your horse.

Energetic, clean transitions

You defined transitions in Galop 5; in Galop 6 their quality is judged. An upward transition must be energetic: the horse moves off promptly, as soon as it is asked, without hurried strides. A downward transition must be clean and fluent: the gait changes at the marker, without the horse falling onto its forehand or throwing its head up. Work on them between gaits (walk–trot, trot–canter, trot–halt…) and within a gait (from working trot to a few longer strides, and back).

Tip

Prepare every transition with a half-halt: a brief closing of the fingers, backed up by the legs and a seat that grows taller, to warn the horse and rebalance it. Then let go: a half-halt that lasts becomes a pull.

Warming up on your own

Walk on a long reinFive to ten minutes on large lines, to warm up the muscles and joints. Use the time to check the girth and take stock of the horse’s mood of the day.
Rising trotStraight lines and large curves, changes of rein, letting the horse stretch and look for a soft contact.
CanterOn both reins, in a light seat or sitting lightly, to loosen the back and open up the gaits.
Suppling exercisesTransitions, circles, serpentines, outside flexion, leg-yield: the horse becomes attentive and responsive.
Preparatory workA few movements from the test or a few warm-up fences, depending on the competition, then a short break at the walk.

Adapt the warm-up to the horse you have that day: a lazy horse needs more waking up, a sharp one needs calm and simple lines; a young horse, heavy going or a cold morning all call for more time. Your instructor watches and advises, but you decide the order of the exercises. In the collecting ring at a show, keep to the traffic rules — pass left hand to left hand — and jump the practice fence the right way: red flag on the right, white on the left.

Ekidemy

The Galops^®, from the first step to Galop 7