Unless otherwise noted, all quotes on this page are the work of Lesley Stevenson. Please ensure proper attribution when sharing. Thank you!
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"If you don’t take into account the fact that the horse is narrower through the shoulders than the croup, and you try to straighten the horse, you will place his outside parallel to the wall, but not his spine. Therefore you will miss the goal of riding him
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"Half my work in canter is in counter canter. I live in counter canter." ~ George Morris
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"Lightness sounds very good, if it is light, but it is better if it is not too light because a horse that is too light in the hand is more difficult to ride than a horse that is a little bit heavy on the hand. Okay we always have
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The tempo in the rein back should be the same as in the walk. Don't let your horse rush through the rein back.
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In your Dressage seat, let your legs hang quietly down - close to your horse's sides for easy and intimate communication, but not tight, which would lessen your ability to communicate in a subtle manner.
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The fastest way to get where you're going is to take your time.
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"The quality of the seat determines whether we can even speak of 'riding', or whether the horse simply has to 'deal with' the load on his back." ~ Kurt Albrecht
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Thinking about keeping your head up and still throughout the jumping motion will help to keep your upper body more quietly poised over fences.
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"The seat and weight aids are supporting aids. They support either a leg or rein aid, or both. Don’t underestimate their significance though. They are important aids, especially in the fine tuning of advanced horses. The leg and rein aids will fail to achieve their full effectiveness without
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"Amateurs ride from movement to movement. Professionals ride from half halt to half halt." ~ Robert Dover
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A good horse will forgive you when you make a mistake - and expects you to do the same.
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"For me, the walk is indispensible. If a horse is not walking correctly – extended, collected, two tracks with all the lateral work – then he doesn’t show that he is relaxed, supple, together. I do it all the time, with young horses, with educated horses, I do some lateral
