Trisha wren ~ Connect With Your Horse
Peggy Cummings Clinics ~ Connected Riding
2011 Clinic Feedback
3-6 December and 9-12 December
Cassie's Farm, Cambridge
Since Peggy’s course last year (2010) I have been pain-free in my lower back and hips. Prior to Peggy’s instruction I was contemplating giving up riding altogether, due to the pain in my hips. My horse tended to feel lazy and stiff, or flat and rushing, offering limited moments of real harmony and soft movement. Spurs and whip intended to create more impulsion instead created jarring and flattening of his paces. In short, we were both on a path to physical stress and eventual breaking down. Within the first few days of her 2010 course Peggy had managed to get me to radically alter my position, fist by offering experience in a new ‘feel’ with rider floor exercises, and then in the saddle by re-aligning my pelvis to ‘neutral’, showing me how to expand and soften my back and ribcage, and free up my limbs from my torso to move independently. This has been a huge change in how I use my body to motivate my horse to really lift his back and move in self-carriage, while encouraging him to move in an expansive yet soft new way I could never have imagined we would achieve. No more whip or spurs required! Just being able to grasp some of Peggy’s foundational concepts over the 4 days was enough to turn my riding around. I have ridden pain free since then, and I can also say my horse has radically changed in his muscle development, body shape and his ability to carry a rider without stiffening or hollowing his back. I am positive his back and hips also feel a lot better! At Peggys Dec 2011 course this year we achieved more quantum leaps of understanding and refined riding techniques, as well as more wonderful ground work for the horse and rider. I will be back for 2012 for more! Thanks Peggy and Trisha!
I thoroughly enjoyed the clinic and feel I benefitted greatly. I have to say (my horse) is looking the happiest he has ever looked. I think all the ground exercises, getting him to release his neck have done him a world of good. He is better able to use his hind quarters and is better balanced again so more 'in' his own body! The EFT has done me good too, I actually look forward to riding now! So you get a huge thank you from me!!
The effect that altering my body position had on (my horse) was fantastic; after 8 weeks of trying to get her to relax and drop her head, we achieved it in a day and continued it for the rest of the course and since at home. I realise it won't be an overnight fix for either of us, as there is years of habit that needs to be retrained and new muscles to strengthen, and that is our challenge. Can't wait until next year.
My new pony has spent most of her life as a family pony – being hacked out on the farm and helping to teach children to ride. I took her to one of Peggy’s 4 day clinics - she had never been exposed to anything like this. The difference in my little mare over the course of the clinic was amazing. Through groundwork exercises, changing my posture, and helping my pony to use her body more correctly, she was able to move more freely and softly. We were both so much more balanced. The difference in having a neutral posture was huge. The methods Peggy uses to teach this really allow the rider to experience the difference it can make, not only to working with and riding horses, but to every day life. Being able to observe the very positive changes in both horses and riders over the 4 days was eye opening. Horses became less stressed and calmer, they were able to soften and stretch their heads and necks, lift their backs and really engage their hind quarters. Peggy has a wonderful gift, not only for seeing things in the way horses and humans carry themselves and move, but also for teaching the Connected Riding way. Thank you Peggy and Trisha for the gift of Connected Riding and for providing such a positive and supportive environment in which to learn.
Bullet points from the clinics:
• The horse loses suspension, which leads to a flat tyre feeling, crookedness, compression. Because WE do.
• Compression is a result of force – not because we’ve been forceful, but because our body compression creates force.
• Coming through – the energy of the horse’s legs can come through his spine, through you, and back to the horse.
• How my horse uses his spine should be the most important thing to me. You want to get on and ride – what do you want to ride??! I do this so it feels better underneath me.
• It takes dedication when the wrong sets of muscles have been used for a long time.
• Bending the head from the front doesn’t teach them to push from behind.
• Our pulling and pushing destroys the horse’s suspension system and causes heaviness and imbalance.
• You wouldn’t drive your car if it had a flat tyre – why would you ride a horse that has no suspension?
• Horse ‘noon’ is nose to tail. When the human gets stuck behind the vertical (their noon), horse can’t shift weight from one side to the other.
• Once a horse has been on the forehand for a while, the loins back forgets what to do. Bunny feet.
• Comb more when the hind legs aren’t working, to generate push (oscillation to the poll).
• If you turn ON (ie tighten) your Longissimus Dorsi muscles you shut off your core muscles ability. Same for horses.
• Keep moving your bones – invisible.
• Rotation – like a corkscrew – says ‘find your legs’.
• Riding in Connection – meet the force of motion and be able to release the bracing.
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