Peggy Cummings Connected Riding Workshop

Rancho Doblado, San Diego CA By Beth Anne Doblado

June 2001

This path to Connected Riding began last year when Jodi Denning and Mark Rashid came to visit. I had just fallen from my colt after she reared up, and we were discussing over the breakfast table how to ride our horses and not fall off, typical breakfast conversation, Jodi suggested that if I made some changes in the way that I sat on the horse, I might be more stable in the saddle and able to ride my mare through her worry. She then showed me on my horse how to fill my lower back, open my knees and ride more centered on my colt.

David Genadek, my saddle maker and friend, traveled out from Minnesota to give a saddle-fitting clinic here at the Rancho. Each day began with a talk in which he explained the anatomical differences between men and women, not the obvious ones but the ones that matter in the saddle. He demonstrated how to level your pelvis by lifting your legs to the pommel and scooting your seat bones forward, therefore making you more stable in the saddle. David highly recommended to the crowd that if we ever had the chance to ride with Peggy Cummings, do it!

Soon after David left, Mark Rashid returned with Trisha Wren accompanying him to teach us about our posture and riding. Seems Mark had been thinking about this very subject while he was on the road. He knew that he had to help folks not only with their horses, but with the way they sat and used their bodies in the saddle. So he asked Trisha to join him and teach side by side with him. Trisha had learned equitation and what she described as balanced riding from a number of sources, one was a student of Peggy Cummings.

I am a strong believer that things happen for a reason. I listen to the inner voice that leads me and when something happens by coincidence, I take notice. J contacted Peggy Cummings and she was soon on a plane to San Diego to teach us Connected Riding.

The first morning of the clinic, as the sun rose over the mountains, we sat among hay bales in the barn and Peggy explained to us how she had come to develop Connected Riding and why she felt it is important to riders and their our horses. Every horse must be able to use his four legs independently. Every horse must be able, under saddle, to lift their backs and allow their legs to swing freely under him, driving from the hind end and sending the energy up through his body forward. However, as the rider tries to access this hindquarter power and execute these maneuvers under saddle, horses and humans often become stuck.

When we get stuck, we create stiffness or brace in our spine. We are out of alignment. If the horse's back is in alignment there is no compression in the spine. We want ourselves to be aligned because we are balanced and strong in this posture. The strength we are looking for when we ride does not come from our muscles, it comes from our core and it comes from alignment. We want our horses to be aligned so that they can move freely and drive with energy from behind, up through their spine to their poll.

Compression will block this energy flow and the innate ability of horse and rider to move their joints.

'Mlich horse doesn't get heavy on the forehand? Naturally they carry roughly 60% of their weight on their front end and 40% of their weight on the hind. Then we add a rider to the picture and this imbalance can escalate.

We know this to be true: every pasture potato horse, no matter the conformation, has the ability to soften his poll, lift at the withers, rock back on to his haunches and run like the wind when he needs to. The challenge for us as riders is to preserve this ability to rock back and lift when we mount up. So, how do we encourage them to carry themselves and a rider in balance?

The horse must feel free and balanced. The law of comparable parts: If the horse is stuck somewhere, than the rider is stuck somewhere. If there is compression in the rider's body there will be compression in the horse.

Compression and misalignment will cause a horse and rider to move out of balance. Peggy asserts you can name any evasion you have seen in a horse and it can be traced back to a balance issue. If we want our horses to stay sound and we want to be riding when we are 95 years young, than we must become aware of our alignment and learn to connect when we ride our horses so that we can both move with freedom and balance.

Connected Riding is touch, preparation, accessing energy, encouraging balance, awareness, alignment in posture and learning to float with the horse. It is supporting the horse. Balance is equal and opposing force moving together. Once a rider and a horse are balanced they feel good, they feel safe, they feel connected. As Peggy told us, once you learn how your posture can connect you to the horse, once you begin riding balanced and connected, the horse will reply "Where have you been all my life?"

So, how to we begin to learn to connect? First of all we must acknowledge that we will be changing habits and this takes time. We must go easy on ourselves and on our horses as we begin to change. If we have always ridden with heels pressed down and toes pointed forward, it may feel awkward to round our legs up and roll our knees out. For myself, I have chosen to start small and build. I know myself we" enough to understand that if I pick one or two things to become aware of each ride, I will master these over time.

Peggy gave us many revealing demonstrations on balance, energy, alignment and strength. To demonstrate the difference between core strength and muscle strength, Peggy stood straight, with her elbow at her side and her arm at a 90-degree angle, as if you were holding reins. She then concentrated on her core energy and asked me to push down on her arm. I could not budge it. Next she changed her arm by moving it out in front of her with elbows extended forward, like I commonly hold my reins. She also changed where her strength came from and I am guessing she tried to access it in her limbs, not her center. I could push her arm down easily with one hand. The message I got from this was that if I want to have stable arms that support my horse with clear signals down my reins, I best learn to keep my elbows at my sides and access my energy from the center of myself.

Another term Peggy used over and over was stretchy elbows. She coached the riders to have an elastic feel on the reins, from our hands back through our arms. This complimented what Mark Rashid was teaching us in April about the reins and being prepared to give back every time the horse softened, but not drop the horse forward. For a gal like me who has ridden for years on a loose rein, dumping my horse on the forehand, this is gold. Leslie Desmond taught us last year to look for the lift in the front end when our horses back up or depart. As I ride Duster and I own my elbows with an elastic feel in my reins, she begins to bend at the poll and lift at her withers.

We lined up against a wall and practiced filling our lower back and zipping up our fronts to align our spines. This should not be a forced posture, but instead a soft, rounding of the spines. We bounced our bent legs like basketballs and felt the reciprocal energy that we could create when our joints were unlocked and springy. Getting in time with this energy is one of the ways you can ask your horse to lift and swing in the trot. Later, a rider, Peggy Martin, demonstrated this on her long legged handsome horse named Tiger. The horse's stride grew before our eyes.

A bit more about cueing our horses with our legs. We know that if we ride with tightness in our spines, we restrict our horses. If ride with tightness in our legs, we do the same. If we squeeze with both legs and pick up on the reins, we pull on our horses. We become a drag. We can't help it.

Peggy teaches us to cue our horses forward with rhythm and alternating legs. Our legs should be alive and elastic, ready to give and receive energy. We want reciprocal connections with our horse. We want to be able to absorb their energy and give it back to them. The minute we tense up, pull or push on our horses, we stop the flow of energy.

When we are not centered in our posture, we are not balanced and this will stop the energy flow from horse to rider. We were asked all weekend to observe our posture both standing stHI, walking and riding. VVhen the human is behind the energy of the horse, we are pulling on them. This happens in a number of different ways. We can sit too far back, lean back, or hang on the horse. Basically you become a drag to your horse. The answer is to float your posture so that you can find your center.

Almost all our horses had molasses in their britches in the walk. We learned to encourage our horses to move taking their whole body with them. We asked our horses to bring their hind ends with them when we lead them on the ground. All of Peggy's groundwork is done up close with the horses at first. We lead them from in front of the shoulder so we can stay connected to the head, neck and shoulders, feeling how they are moving. We walk with them, directing them to turn right and left. We walk in serpentines and circles, asking the horse to release at the poll and arc their bodies.

We ask the horses to stand square and take ownership of their legs. Is he connected to you or checked out? Observe your posture. Are you ready to move? Is your back hollow or full? Are you centered? Do you own your elbows? Time and time again we were reminded that our posture was primary in influencing the horses energy. If our backs were hollow or our elbows were straight the horse would slow down. The moment we found our alignment and brought our elbows back to our centers, our horses felt it and moved with better energy. The influence of Linda Tellington Jones (TTeam) is apparent is Peggy's groundwork and preparation. Peggy taught us to communicate with our horses through touch. Being able to touch the horse's body where you need movement or release creates awareness and facilitates communication. An added benefit in working close up with horses on the ground is that you can feel where you horse is stiff and go there to loosen them up. Peggy showed us how to release the poll and the shoulders, and lower the head and neck with simple preparatory bodywork.

Peggy gave us some guidelines to assess our horses movement and clues as to why they might be out of balance. Most horses are locked up on the left because they are lead and mounted primarily from the left. Their jowl may jut slightly to the left, nose tip to the right and shoulder col1apse in left, right hind sinking. Can you see the posture? And they are prepared to resist left and go straight. So instead we ask them to not resist and step right. Moving right can begin to break the habit of bracing left. If the horse doesn't respond the way you would like, the horse is not balanced or ready. Change something instead of adding pressure.

Other simple things to look for are in assessing balance in the horse are:

1) Can the horse tilt his head side to side with ease telling us the poll released?

2) Is the head dropped, indicating poll and shoulders are released? 3) Placement of the feet. Doe the horse put his foot down like he is mad at the ground? Or does he step softly? This is an indicator of balance. 4) Swing of the hind legs. In stride do they legs look like they are more behind the hip or up under the hip? This indicates if the horse is using his hind legs well.

5) The movement of the neck. Does the neck and head go up and down with each stride or side to side? A horse that is moving freely swings his head side to side in time with his back legs. "VVhere the head goes, the tail follows." A horse that is stuck or on the forehand swings his head and neck more up and down because he is pulling with his front end.

Peggy gave many demonstrations on touch and directing energy. My personal favorite was when I got down on all fours as the horse and Peggy was my rider. I was amazed how I could feel from her legs if she wanted me to go forward, or backward and then rotation from side to side would guide me right or left. She showed us over and over how little is takes to get your message across. So if you horse doesn't foUow your request, don't push or pull! This sets up a brace. Instead change something to break up the habit or expectation of horse and human.

As we know, everything we do with our horses is training. From the moment we walk out to pasture with the lead rope to the time we ride back to the barn to unsaddle, we are instilling habits and teaching our horses. From first approach we must check our posture and observe our horse. Peggy strongly urges everyone to mount with a soft back onto your horse from the fence or a mounting block. This breaks up patterns of the horse having to brace while you pull yourself up in the saddle. Think about how many times in a year you mount or lead your horse.

As we ride we must seek to develop strength and balance in ourselves and in our horses. The reward is soundness of body and mind. As she watched some of us struggle to grasp her lessons she asked us to go easy on ourselves and remember. "Frustration is a part of learning. Not knowing leads you to knowing." I have found that all of my exceptional riding instructors have taught me that change first comes inside myself and only then I can project it out through my horse. Peggy was no different.

Xenophon wrote-

"The eye of the master maketh the horse"

Peggy Cummings mused-

"The feel of the master maketh the rider"