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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"When you are in the Comfort Zone, you can ride without thinking. In the Stretch Zone, you are working on something you can’t do by habit. In the Panic Zone, you can’t think clearly and are paralyzed. These zones apply to both horses and riders. If both
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"To become a rider it is not enough to be able to sit elegantly on a horse. Even a good seat and balance does not make you a ‘rider’. To be able to ride you must be able to influence your horse and to extract the best performance from
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"To ensure correct bend in the haunches-in, imagine wrapping your horse’s body around your inside leg." ~ Charlotte Bredahl-Baker
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"The volte is one of the most important movements you can ride. It is teaching the horse to bend in his ribcage, within his body, and then to maintain a rhythm – in the future this movement will become a half pass. We are working on control over the balance
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Rows of small bounce fences are a great way to build strength in your horse's canter.
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"The goal of our training is to build the horse's mind and his muscles. Suppleness and relaxation require adequate muscle strength. strengthening requires both contraction and relaxation. Blood flow and oxygenation occur when the muscle relaxes. If the muscle is kept in a constant state of contraction,
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"Routine becomes even more important when you are somewhere that you’ve never been." ~ Tonya Johnston
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When you hurry a horse's training, you just get to the wrong place more quickly.
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"Land in your feet from every jump to avoid tipping forward." ~ Chris Bartle
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A horse has to be straight to have true impulsion. Any stored energy leaks out where the body is crooked, changing the energy in the stride from impulsion to merely forward momentum.
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A correct inside bend in the horse's body is truly evident only when there is a soft, almost loose inside rein.
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"The most important thing is for the horse to be thinking on its own. Unless you’re Michael Jung, you make mistakes and things go wrong. You have to teach the horse the stride isn’t always right, the line isn’t always right, and that’s why we
