Horses inspire, motivate, engage and reward us. The Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) & Long Term Equestrian Development (LTED) models strives to cement the lifelong relationship between horse and athlete. As models, LTAD and LTED provides the Canadian equestrian community with a vision to help us improve our infrastructure, programs and initiatives to ensure the best opportunities are available for all athletes and participants – whatever their personal goals or stage of development. It serves as our true north.

 

Long-Term Equestrian Development 2.0 Information:

Horses inspire, motivate, engage and reward us.

LTED 2.0 is an athlete development model built upon proven sport principles and customized to equestrian athletes. It provides a clear and effective pathway for all equestrian athletes - regardless of age, experience, or discipline - to enjoy equestrian sport, whether they aim to compete for Canada on the world stage, or ride, drive or vault recreationally.

LTED is not only about building successful high-performance athletes, but also about ensuring the highest quality riding experience for every person engaged in equestrian sport, including riders with disabilities.

https://www.equestrian.ca/programs-services/lted

A Parent’s Guide to LTED

Long-Term Athlete Development Backgrounder

LTED Stages

Active Start (0-6)

    Physical activity as a fun part of a child’s everyday life.
    Active play in a safe environment with unstructured access to a wide variety of colourful toys and equipment

Fundamentals

    Participation and fun with horses while learning within a peer group.
    Development of familiarity and respect for equine behaviour, and education on rules and etiquette for handling horses.
    Motor skills are introduced, and durability, emotional control and positive attitudes to new challenges encouraged.

Learn to Train

    Support of multi-sport and diverse life experience while inspiring increased commitment to equestrian activities.
    Focus on increased repertoire of equestrian skills and introduction of some specialization.
    Introduction of independent decision making and mental training, such as visualization and relaxation.

Train the Athlete

    Introduction to competitive experience, including coping with winning and losing, analysis and evaluation of performance, and understanding of rules and ethics.
    Physical fitness and good training habits (warm-up, peak, cool down, and breaks) are emphasized for both athletes and horses.
    Understanding of what it means to be part of a team with peers and professional support.

Learn to Compete

    Consolidation and refinement of basic equestrian skills with consistent performance as the goal.
    Learning to cope with variants, including different competition environments and distractions.
    Building foundation of personal excellence in competition, independent problem solving and customized mental training.
    Developing solid general physical fitness for horse and rider with focus on stamina, speed, strength, suppleness and skills.

Train the Competitor

    Acquiring more advanced equestrian skills.
    Developing analysis and evaluation of performance and adjusting competition plan accordingly.
    Introduction of talent identification.

Learn to Win

    Developing success rate of skills executed and practical tactical knowledge implemented in competition.
    Optimizing performance with goal of consistent top competition results.

Live to Win

    Full commitment to international excellence.
    Refinement and maintenance of skills and tactical strategies tailored to the strengths of the athlete and horse.
    Optimization and integration of all performance factors, taking into consideration international competition venues and calendar, with the goal of reaching the podium.

Active for Life and Competitive for Life

    Ongoing multi-sport and diverse life experience.
    Encouragement to commit to participating in equestrian activities,
    as an athlete or by contributing as a coach, official, sport administrator or volunteer.