He has lots of YouTube videos of horses going around with their noses in the dirt. They never seem to progress much past that permanently stretched phase, but apparently it’s proper dressage??
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I think Nuno Olivier a is believed to be the last living link to an older classical tradition. He’s also no longer alive and there isnt that much documentation of his riding so there’s a vague area where people can fantasize.
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Yes. It is cultish. And youre right. Its well meaning usually adult beginners smart enough to know whats bad but too inexperienced to know that art2ride my God is not the answer.
Poor Legolas. Poor followers.
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I watched parts of the videos. So sad. Poor horses - the spurs hitting their sides just makes me sad.
When I was trying to find a trainer a few years ago I watched a lesson by someone who was using the word classical. Same issue with the student banging the horse’s side with spurs - the sweet gray horse had little blood specs. The person giving the lesson obviously thought that was good. Nothing classical about that, it’s just poor riding in any discipline.
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I couldn’t even make it all the way through one video. Ugh.
Thanks.
I watched part of one video and stopped when I realized that the horse was going to be ridden like a western pleasure horse in training throughout.
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The videos are so bad, I almost think he’s trolling the Dressage community. Ugh
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Oh, those hands!! Are all the tests so LOONG? I couldn’t watch past the first 5 minutes.
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You made it to five minutes? 
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There are lots of videos on the Art2Ride site that are just troubling. The flinging bonking hands, the weird lean back thing, looks like their having a seizure. No wonder the horses drop their noses; its the only way they can stop the endless mouth bonking.
And for someone who says the work keeps horses sound, where are the horses that are on the website?
Its funny, how when you look at Wills musical career, when exactly did he the time to ‘study extensively with Nuno’? And apparantly no one in who attended Nunos funeral in 1989 remembers Wills loving heartfelt songs that he says he played there.
What is the difference between the stretching seen here and a good stretch? Am I ruining my horse if he likes to stretch really low during long and low?
A good stretch is into contact with a bascule, lifting at the withers and curving the neck head forward and out.
I would not encourage a horse to stretch to the ground but if that’s what he wants in a walk break after you’ve done a lot of collected work, it must be what he needs. For a walk break like this a loose rein is fine.
Don’t let him start pulling the reins out of your hands. He needs to wait until you give him permission.
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You also at some point need to come back out of the stretch.
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If you care about your horse I doubt you are ruining her (or him).
It is what Scribller said.
That said how do you know? Keep a feeling for the gait. Is it still springy with a soft back (good)? When you shorten the reins does the horse feel refreshed (that’s the point)? Did the horse start stumbling when it was stretching (not good). Did you lose contact or do you feel pulling (not good)? Do you still have nice contact when you bring the horse out of the stretch (good)?
Here’s another thought - does your horse feel like it’s almost going over trotting poles? Kind of looking at the poles but still engaged and swinging. It’s a bit like that. If you lunge a balanced horse over trotting polls you will see a shape similar to what the stretch is supposed to be.
Takes practice. You should be able to stretch part way and bring her back up. It’s almost like the stretching down and coming back up is the important part. If you are stretching on a 20 circle, only a few strides are fully stretched. The rest is going down and coming back up.
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I feel sorry for Legolas and glad he found a soft landing. He seemed like a nice horse.
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Well, the new owner of Legolas took her story to a dressage bulletin board, and boy! Will is SAD. He posted on his fan page begging for dosh to sue said new-owner for defamation (after he said he quit riding with Nuno because Nuno had nothing else to teach him)
So he sicced his supporters over to the dressage board to defend his honour! Houseguests! Houseguests EVERYWHERE!
Bored waiting for the SJ to start? Here is some free entertainment.
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I’m still not over the “tampon sucking vampire” analogy from the original Facebook post. 
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That photo still gives me nightmares!!
Its so ridiculous. He accuses me of ;spreading filth" while sending his poor fangirls in to the big world of google only to see all the other threads of people who dislike him >;->
He made those movies, he made those claims, he owns them!
I will try to get all the Lego photos on to DDBB but you are also welcome to friend me on fb, they are on my wall, if you are on fb.
thank you for the laugh >;-> Seriously, except for the sad fate of the horses, this is all enormously entertaining!
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