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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Remind yourself to breathe before and after every difficult exercise. Of course you need to breathe while riding each exercise as well! But thinking about checking your breathing before and after is a good first step.
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"Only use the spur to correct. The spur is not intended to ride a movement. It cannot just support the gait or the movement. Make a clear correction with the spur. If you are constantly giving your horse an aid, he will get numb to it." ~ Steffen Peters
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True lightness does not come from playing with the bit until the horse feels lighter in your hand. Only hind leg engagement and lowering of the horse's quarters will bring about true lightness.
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If your horse does not offer to stretch near the end of a workout, there is a good chance that you didn't have him working correctly through his topline during your ride.
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When working with a horse that does not have a great natural trot lengthening, make sure that you don't ask for too much too soon. Compare this to a singer who is training their vocal cords… they gradually expand their vocal range until they hit their limit. This
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We first have to teach the horse to enjoy learning from humans.
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Only precise riding trains the horse correctly. Be exact in your geometry, figures, and lines.
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"Relaxation is the bread and butter without which you cannot advance to stage two, balance." ~ Charles de Kunffy
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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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Whenever you are facing any type of jump with a ditch in front of it, think of it as a "free" front rail, or a rolled out ground rail. Focus on the top of the jump (ignoring the ditch), and ride freely forward to it in a balanced,
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If you want to improve your medium and extended gaits, improve your collected work. The more your horse can "sit" behind, the more expressive your mediums and extensions will be.
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"I find it better to often have short, intensive moments – ten or fifteen minutes – not longer, then a break to allow the muscles to recover. If you want the horse to carry more weight, then you need time for muscle recovery." ~ Johan Hamminga
