Founder of Connected Riding, Peggy Cummings has worked with Sally Swift, Linda Tellington Jones, Robin Hood and other highly praised trainers to develop a techniqe of riding that centers the rider so that the connection can be made. At this clinic I observed the attendees and learned many who follow Peggy come with some fear, from a fall or an injury. Peggy can empthize with these experiences as she has had a few of her own. Getting riders back in the saddle with confidence is key to a connected ride.
Karen: Tell me Your definition of Connection.
Peggy: My definition of connection with the horse means that I want the horse to have a weight bearing posture,which means that he carries as much as possible,even weight on all four legs.
So that he uses a more symmetrically going left or right, and that he can use his back and his spine and have freedom in his limbs.
So connection happens when the horse can ark. I'm using the word arc to say instead of using bend, okay, arc his body and find within himselfthe ability to shift his weight dynamically, to push his body around that arc.
In other words, a circle from the back to the front so that whoever is at his head can feel the energy coming throughand that in a change of direction, he doesn't lose his body parts and suck back or lift his head or drop his back or drop a hind leg and that he can equally move in one direction and the other, calling his loins and using them. So because at this point,the thoracic sling and this horse will efficiently if the horse is on the forehand,he's not connected back the foot.
If he's being being ridden and gadgets, he cannot connect back to front.
And when a horse loses,when he can't move his limbs with freedom and uses release his head and neck,move it left and right with ease,he becomes more sided, in other words, more crooked.And we have to work on getting him balanced equally in both directions rather than fixing this.
The side, the sidedness gets sorted out. If you get the horse softening and asking his body in both directions.
Peggy Cummings is the founder of Connected Riding®.
ConnectedRiding.com
Peggy Cummings
She is a transformer: a conductor of information that changes how people ride, how they feel in their bodies, and how they perceive their horses and life in general. And she is an innovator: a creator of exercises designed to help horse and human dance together.
She has no doubt that promoting freedom of movement and reciprocity through elastic connection between horse and rider creates the magic of being ‘in sync’. It’s the memory so many people have of being on a horse as a child. With her Connected Riding®, Peggy Cummings has found a way of helping anyone recapture that feeling.