Connected Riding® The Method
- Do you ever experience discomfort when you ride?
- Do you ever feel like your horse doesn’t hear you?
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Would you like to have more ease, less stress,
and be more in synch with your horse?
Welcome to Connected Riding!
Connected Riding® is the synchronization of movement between rider and horse. It provides a 3-way approach to improving horse and rider performance.
"Connected Riding® teaches the basics of dressage
in all disciplines."
Peggy Cummings
Connected Movement – Connected Groundwork – Connected Riding
If we want to learn how to “dance” with our horses, we have to know how to move and use our bodies as riders.
Connected Movement shows riders how to become aware of their posture as it affects their horses’ movement. Riders learn how to release their bracing and tension patterns which allows movement to flow through their bodies. This ensures that riders are better able to receive and influence the motion of their horses without blocking it.
Horses are not naturally born with a “weight bearing posture”, that is, a posture to carry weight on their backs. Therefore, they must be conditioned and supported to be able to strengthen the muscles and posture to carry themselves while carrying the weight of the rider.
Once riders can work in “neutral posture” that is, a posture that is fluid and functional, vs. tense and bracing, the same type of postural education is used in working with the horses through Connected Groundwork®.
Connected Groundwork is a series of principles and exercises that teaches a horse how to engage and find his own “neutral posture” and be able to maintain more freedom of all 4 legs and a functional back while being ridden.
The core of Connected Riding is based on minimizing bracing patterns by establishing neutral posture and movement patterns in horse and rider that create a sensation of freedom and ease of movement that all riders are seeking.
- Connected Riding changes how we see our horses and how we perceive and feel our bodies.
- Connected Riding improves a horse’s way of going by increasing elasticity, balance, and responsiveness.
- Connected Riding establishes reciprocal and dynamic communication between horse and rider without force and bracing which is far more than the result of obedience and learned behavior.
- Connected Riding applies to all horses in all riding disciplines by improving functional movement regardless of the job or level they encompass.