Novices buying & competing advanced horses

[Muddywellies]

I came across a post today about a fairly well known tv celeb/entrepreneur competing adv med on her dressage horses. The clip showed a rather novice rider wearing swan neck spurs, jabbing the horse with every stride with a poor seat and hands. Whilst rider and horse are beautifully turned out, is isn't a pretty picture with a rather hollow unbalanced horse, trying its very best. A good friend of mine lives in France and previously showjumped here at BSJA discovery, but cannot compete in France without taking the Galops exams. The clip I saw today just had me wondering why we don't have a similar system here where riders have to go up through the ranks rather than going straight in at a fairly advanced level ?

 

[Barton Bounty]

Sadly, there are plenty of people riding horses they really can’t or shouldn't be. You should definitely be at a certain standard and on a horse you can adequately manage before competing.

 

[w1bbler]

Hopefully she'll meet the right judges who will mark her appropriately, She should be getting a low rider score & if her horse is hollowing rather than lifting marks should reflect that, particularly at higher levels.
My instructor does a fair bit of dressage judging, She regularly discusses how riders are purely yanking in the front end & not teaching the horse how to engage. She scores them appropriately & has had to have several conversations with upset riders

 

[shortstuff99]

There are many very rich people in the world who buy horses they are not capable of riding in an effort to ride at the top level. Was ever thus

 

[j1ffy]

Thankfully, in the UK, she would need to get a minimum score at Advanced to be allowed to go to Prix St George and minimum requirements were recently introduced to move up through the remaining FEI levels I think. I recall an awful video from the US a few years ago of a novice rider bouncing their way through a GP test and it was grim viewing - apparently there are no restrictions at all over there (although it created such an outcry that maybe they've changed the rules now!).

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

Unfortunately, the galop exam system is not as good a protection as it could be. There are 9 galops you can get, but as I understand it galop 8 and 9 are a bit like a Masters and Doctorate in horsemanship and very few people take them. You can compete up to any level with a galop 7.
When I started riding, you needed a galop 3 to start competing, now you can compete from a galop 2. I think you need a galop 4 to jump club 1 (95cm) but you can enter any préparatoire (up to 1m10 with just the galop 2). Not overly logical. Some places will also hand out the exams because someone paid for a weeks course or so that their riders can compete, meaning people's riding ability doesn't necessarily match what you would expect on paper.
The Swiss also have an exam system with two levels (brevet and licence) that determine what competitions you can enter.
It's better than nothing, but in France I don't think you need to qualify at a lower level before moving up. In theory, you need your galop 7, the correct licence, that you simply buy, and then you enter whichever competition you want. (I haven't reached these heady levels yet, so don't quote me)