It’s easy to look at horse riding and wonder how it’s classified as a sport. Most of you look at it and assume you just sit on an animal and let it move you around. Realistically, horse riding has a lot of benefits for your physical and mental health. You don’t believe it? Well, here are a few of the most incredible health benefits you’ll see while astride a horse:
Wonderful leg workouts
Horse riding gives you an incredible leg workout. This is something you don’t realise until you ride a horse for the first time. How do you think people stay on their horses? How do you think people get their horses to turn and speed up? Most of it is done by squeezing your legs, which activates the muscles of your inner thigh. The simple act of staying upright on a horse will work your legs incredibly hard! If you don’t believe me, try it out and see how sore you are the next day.
Fantastic for your core
Similarly, horse riding requires a lot of core work. For those that don’t know, your core muscles are basically your abs, lower back, hips and glutes. All of these are worked hard while riding a horse. Again, most of the work is dedicated to staying on your horse and remaining upright. If you have a weak core, you will fall over or slide off either side! So, you’re basically tensing these muscles during the entire ride. This is beneficial as a strong core will protect you from a lot of common issues. It stops you from getting back pain, it improves your posture, and it generally makes you stronger!
An excellent self-esteem booster
What do you think happens when you have great legs and a strong core? That’s right, you see physical changes in your body, which makes you feel a lot more confident. In turn, this is coupled with the fabulous fashion element of horse riding. If you click here, you’ll see all the cute boots you can wear while riding. Alongside this, you can get special trousers and a really delightful outfit that makes you look super stylish. It sounds a bit crazy, but this adds to your confidence as you feel like a bit of a boss! It’s empowering to get dressed in your outfit and head out on your horse, which gives you a huge self-esteem boost. Therefore, horse riding is excellent for your mental wellbeing.
See, horse riding is much more than a casual hobby that requires no effort. It seems like the horse is the only one doing any work, but the rider still has a huge role to play. You could also argue that horse riding provides a good cardio workout, which is good for burning calories and staying fit. However, that depends on the intensity of the workout. Riding around a field will still work your muscles, but it might not provide the cardio benefits. When you up the intensity, that’s when you do see some cardiovascular improvements through horse riding.
