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The Benefit Pillars:
Four Areas Improved by Taking Lessons
Many feel an innate fascination with horses. Maybe you have a horse-crazy child begging you to buy them their first pony or are ready to jump on your own interest in horses. Horseback riding is often a hobby of passion, practiced for simple enjoyment, but it can also provide an array of assets to riders. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of spending time on these beautiful creatures.
You may want to embark on a riding journey simply because you love horses however there are numerous benefits to riding horses. Even if your primary pursuit isn’t horseback riding, you can still reap the benefits and improve other areas of your life, health, and fitness.
Benefits of Horseback Riding: The Four Pillars
For many, horseback riding becomes a lifelong passion and way of life. Riding differs from other sports in one main way: the horses. Many who ride do so simply because they love these majestic animals. However, horseback riding can also provide a sense of accomplishment, friendly competition, and exercise. Once caught in the cycle, you’ll keep coming back for more.
The main benefits everyone can receive from horseback riding fall into four main categories: Social, Emotional, Mental, and Physical[1]. We call these the four benefit pillars.
[1] The Equine Professional Manual: The Art of Teaching Riding (Certified Horsemanship Association, 2016) 21
Physical Benefits
Like with any other sport, you are going to get a workout horseback riding. Most lessons are in between 30 minutes and an hour. As you advance, you’ll spend more time trotting, cantering, and jumping your horse. This can turn into quite a cardiovascular workout, making riding great exercise for the heart and lungs.
However, even when you first start riding, just sitting and working to gain balance on a horse might tire you out. It's said by many that horseback riding will work muscles you didn’t even know you had. Riding forces you to use your core and leg muscles in new ways, promoting muscular strength and endurance.
Riding a horse requires you to synchronize muscle movements at the same time in specific ways to cue your horse. Proper cueing can take years to get right and will be something you will work to perfect throughout your riding career. This precise work allows you to develop better large muscle coordination.
Riding improves flexibility and balance. Sitting astride passively stretches the abductor muscles in the legs. The abductors are often very stiff in people who spend a lot of their day in a chair. Sitting correctly on a horse forces you to lift your head and open your chest, both of which are extremely beneficial for people who spend much of their day sitting at a computer.
For most, the driving force behind your riding endeavors will not be the physical benefits, but the enjoyment of spending time with horses. Therefore, people who struggle to stick to a traditional gym routine may discover that horseback riding is an easier way to add exercise to their routine. You will be getting stronger, more flexible, and more balanced just by having fun with horses!
Mental Benefits
Horseback riding lessons provide numerous mental benefits, especially for kids still in school. In lessons, students often learn skills through a variety of games, exercises, and schooling figures. This works students’ concentration, memorization, and cooperation. Lessons are designed to be fun and engaging and can therefore serve as a break from the routine of traditional school.
As students advance, they will be asked to make goals for themselves. Whether they want to compete, ride a 15 sec. barrel round, or learn a dressage test, students will have to work at creating measurable goals for themselves. With guidance from their instructor, students will learn how to set and create a pathway to achieving their aspirations. Riding gives students the chance to take control of their learning and build a passion for advancing at something they love.
Horseback riding asks students to control an animal with a mind of its own. Even though all lesson horses are safe and well-trained, they are still animals and may not always do exactly what is asked of them. Students will learn how to positively problem solve to get the desired response from their horses.
For everyone, riding can improve concentration and reduce stress. When riding, one must live in the moment as they attempt to become one with the movement of their horse. Thus, the stress of the day is said to melt away and the only thing that matters at that moment is the horse.
Social Benefits
For students, horseback riding is a great social outlet. Most riding schools offer group lessons for those that mastered the basics. In group lessons, participants ride with peers in a similar age group and skill level as themselves. This allows students to interact and bond with their peers. Many riding schools also have volunteer hours, show weekends and summer camps, which allow students to see and interact with their horse-loving friends more often.
For older riders, taking lessons allows them to meet new people with the same interests as themselves. Many adults struggle to make friends outside of their workplace, and often simply don’t have time to meet new people. Taking riding lessons is a commitment that forces you to spend time with like-minded people. Thus, reducing loneliness and facilitating making friends.
Riding lessons foster teamwork and communication both between their fellow peers and the riding instructor. A student’s riding instructor can serve as a mentor and role model to the student as they work together.
Of course, everyone who rides does so to be with the horses. Taking riding lessons allows students to bond with the horses they ride. Any riding school will have an array of personable horses for the enjoyment of their riders. Spending time with these honest creatures will teach younger riders how to interact with animals compassionately and will provide a sense of companionship for all.
Emotional Benefits
All who participate in horseback riding have felt the emotional benefits they reap from being around horses. Students working to achieve their riding goals, both recreationally and competitively, feel a sense of achievement and self-affirmation.
Horseback riding at times can be scary. Jumping for the first time or galloping into a sliding stop is not always easy. Therefore, as students advance, they will meet and overcome obstacles, growing confidence, and belief in themselves as they go. Riding builds passion and confidence while creating feelings of accomplishment.
As you see, horseback riding has numerous physical, mental, social, and emotional benefits for participants to partake in. If you are thinking about signing your child up for lessons, you can rest assured that you are making a choice that will benefit their mental and physical health for years to come as well as teaching them lifelong skills.
Even if you are no longer in school and are thinking about starting your riding journey, horseback riding will make you feel better than you have in years and expose you to a friendly, supportive network of like-minded individuals. Horseback riding can bring about meaning and enjoyment and should be tried at least once by all who are interested.