In a sport involving controlled movements and precise manoeuvres, Langley para-equestrian dressage rider Stephanie Ross is making leaps and bounds.

Ross, 18, who has cerebral palsy, recently won three first-place finishes at her first international dressage competition (in California) in March and is on her way toward qualifying for the Canadian Paralympic para-equestrian team heading to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"As long as my riding stays up to par, I hope to be at the 2016 [Paralympics]," she said.

"Her chances are good. It's great she's started to get out in the international ring," national team coach Andrea Taylor said. "She did her job [in California] and her scores were consistent. That's great."

Dressage, from the French word "training" involves balance, suppleness and flexibility - things Ross has had to work on throughout her life. Dressage has been likened to pairs' figure skating with the horse and rider acting in concert. They need to be in tune with each other in order to hit exact marks at precise times throughout a routine.

But cerebral palsy hasn't always allowed Ross the necessary control.

CP affects motor skills and muscle coordination and produces stiff involuntary body movements.

Slight, jerky movements for horse and rider in dressage can have big consequences as judges in competition look for fluid motion.

"It's hard for riders like Stephanie with stiffness to be super accurate. It's something she has to do. Her disability is challenging," her trainer Sandra Verda said.

"When I first started riding, the main difficulty was balance, as I had none," Ross said. "I had three helpers. One who led and controlled the horse and two who walked beside me and supported my balance when I would start to fall."

Ross's parents first set her atop a horse when she was two as a form of physiotherapy.

Over an eight-year period, she said, her helpers went away one at a time, until she was able to ride on her own.

When she was 10, her parents noticed her progress in riding and bought her first horse. She'd moved beyond therapeutic games and into more competitive riding by then.

The trainer at the time told her father, "You're either going to lose her to a horse or to a boy. Pick your poison."

Her father chose the horse, Sam.

That was two horses and eight years ago.

Ross said she now wants to be the best she can be.

She practises with able-bodied athletes and continues to push herself.

"It's not feeling sorry for yourself because of your disability. You're out there doing it," she said.

Her competitive spirit comes partly from her family.

Her dad tried out for the Canadian Football League and her mom was a golfer.

"She's focused on every day's task and every day's goal," Verda said of the young Paralympic hopeful.

Ross and her 15-year-old mare, Weisse (Weissenblute), have been training together with Verda since August 2009.

Verda said Weisse is the perfect match for Ross.

"We really needed a sensitive horse for Stephanie because of how her body works," Verda said. "She's limited in the range and movement in her body and also in her strength."

Because of Weisse's sensitivity, the mare anticipates Ross' every move, which Verda said can also be a bit of a challenge.

"What comes along with that is [Weisse] is always waiting for those movements and Stephanie has some involuntary movements," she said. "As Stephanie develops as a rider... she will communicate more clearly and more effectively with Weisse."

Both rider and horse have made great strides.

"We really bonded the last few months," Ross said.

The pair train four to five times a week with Verda, who said Ross is a much different rider than when she first started training.

"Stephanie has come leaps and bounds in the last year" she said. "It's astronomical."

Ross and Weisse will continue onward to Paralympic Games qualification with another dressage event in Kelowna on April 23 to 24.

Points from this event will be added to Ross' total.

Riders' qualifications go up or down depending on how well they do in each dressage show.

The three riders with the highest scores will qualify for the Paralympic team.

Ross is currently ranked tenth in Canada.

Taylor said Ross will have to earn the right to be on the team - a challenge the Paralympic hopeful is up for.

ENDS