Horse owner seminar to feature flowing, natural riding movement

Better movement can benefit both horse and rider.

“When you waltz with a tense, unyielding partner, what is supposed to be a floating dance becomes an awkward, jerky battle,” notes Peggy Cummings, a riding instructor and clinician from Idaho who travels the nation to share her riding and training approach called “Connected Riding.”

On Saturday, April 2, riders from all disciplines will have a chance to learn Cummings’ technique that allows both horse and rider to move freely. She is the featured speaker for the School of Veterinary Medicine‘s 16th Annual Seminar for the Serious Horse Owner.

Cummings shares what she’s learned over a lifetime through a riding and training approach called “Connected Riding.” She has made it her mission to teach people to free up their bodies so that their horses can do the same. It’s a technique she developed when back problems caused by riding forced her to find another way to spend time on a horse.

She will cover how movement can be synchronized with minimal pressure and compression, and the biomechanical and mental techniques that allow riders to move in harmony with the horse. She will also demonstrate how her system works with different riding disciplines.

She hopes that eventually the rigid, traditional ways of teaching riding will give way to the flowing, natural movement taught through Connected Riding.

The seminar will be held from 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. at the Stock Pavilion, 1675 Linden Drive, on the UW–Madison campus. Registration is $45 per person (or $40 per person for groups of five or more) on or before March 18. After that date, admission is $50 per person.

For more information or to register, call Karen Meinholz or Kathy Nelson, (608) 265-5206 or (608) 263-6266. A brochure, including registration information, is available under the continuing education link on the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Web site.