The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 2 plus 4 plus 6 letter word TAKE IN ONES STRIDE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
A
K
E
I
N
O
N
E
S
S
T
R
I
D
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Readily/adopt shorter steps" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case readily/adopt shorter steps = take in ones stride.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.