Why 'Riding horses isn't exercise' is Rubbish!

Woolly Hat n Wellies

Woolly Hat n Wellies

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I've heard this SO many times! I wish every person who has said it to me could feel what it's like to be me right now.

I came home from uni on Thursday, having not ridden for about 6 weeks. On Friday my share horses' owners were out but left a key so my mum and I could go for a ride together. It was something I'd always wanted to do. We hacked for 2 hours, on a new route across the moors, and it was amazing. On Saturday my friend and I did the same route, to show her where it was. Unfortunately my horse had a jump at a hedge monster, and as he jumped, his back legs slid out from under him and he fell over. I somehow found myself standing beside him, holding the reins, with no idea how I got there! He was fine, a little bit upset to start with, but I gave him a big pat and told him it wasn't his fault, and he settled when he realised I wasn't cross. He had kicked my ankle as he scrabbled to get back up though, so that hurt a bit! Then Sunday was the local show for a bit of clear round jumping. He is KEEN! My round in the main ring was followed by the announcer saying "Clear round! And she might be able to pat him when she can take her hands off the reins!" as we jogged sideways out of the ring, still eyeing up which might be the next jump. He's a lot better than I am, but I was better than last time, and we were clear my first ever time in the main ring, so I'm thrilled!

The upshot of all this is that although I'm on top of the world, I'm also in absolute AGONY this morning! No riding for 6 weeks and then all that! My ankle is frozen solid, I can't lift my arms above my head, my legs feel like they belong to someone else!
 
I agree, try doing a 12 mile ride on a fit strong pulling horse and trot being the slowest. Only to get back to the trailer to be asked why I'm so red faces and knackered as iv only just sat there the horse has done the work.
 
I second the Radox and an electric blanket!

Sounds like you had an amazing weekend though!

I do get peeved at those people but I also find they are not even gym bunnies themselves so just have them carry a net to the field or a bucket across the yard or stick them on the horse then force their bodies into the correct position. will shut them up every time :P
 
I completely agree that riding is a work out - but then when I am riding fit, a day out hunting will only leave me a little bit still the next day. I'm not a "gym bunny" but I am a bit metafit and kettles fan, and do a fair bit of running. Hands down would rather do three days hard hunting on the trot than three lots of metafit. IMO there are a lot of things that are a lot more physical exercise than riding horses - I think that is where the comments come from.
 
There's riding and riding though. For an ambling hack of a couple of miles or twenty minutes circumnavigating the arena with the horse on cruise control, then the fitness required is not that great. Hence the number of well endowed bottoms that are seen in the saddle.
 
Woolly Hat n Wellies said:
I've heard this SO many times! I wish every person who has said it to me could feel what it's like to be me right now.

I came home from uni on Thursday, having not ridden for about 6 weeks. On Friday my share horses' owners were out but left a key so my mum and I could go for a ride together. It was something I'd always wanted to do. We hacked for 2 hours, on a new route across the moors, and it was amazing. On Saturday my friend and I did the same route, to show her where it was. Unfortunately my horse had a jump at a hedge monster, and as he jumped, his back legs slid out from under him and he fell over. I somehow found myself standing beside him, holding the reins, with no idea how I got there! He was fine, a little bit upset to start with, but I gave him a big pat and told him it wasn't his fault, and he settled when he realised I wasn't cross. He had kicked my ankle as he scrabbled to get back up though, so that hurt a bit! Then Sunday was the local show for a bit of clear round jumping. He is KEEN! My round in the main ring was followed by the announcer saying "Clear round! And she might be able to pat him when she can take her hands off the reins!" as we jogged sideways out of the ring, still eyeing up which might be the next jump. He's a lot better than I am, but I was better than last time, and we were clear my first ever time in the main ring, so I'm thrilled!

The upshot of all this is that although I'm on top of the world, I'm also in absolute AGONY this morning! No riding for 6 weeks and then all that! My ankle is frozen solid, I can't lift my arms above my head, my legs feel like they belong to someone else!
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6 weeks is that all??? god knows what I will feel like after getting back on horse, due to injury I have not been on a horse since the 16th November 5 months, and am not likely to get on much before July. which will be 7 months without riding.
 
I ride pretty 5 days a week, either an hours schooling or 2+ hour hacks. Rode bareback yesterday and then took him up the gallops this morning, my legs are killing me!!
 
My trainer had 5 days out of the saddle after injury. Got back on one of her advanced horses and wondered why everything had gone to pot. She realised that the rest and recovery had affected her core strength to a noticeable degree even after that short a break.
Me, I can have a weeks holiday and not notice.::o
 
My friends dad said this last year. Much to everyone's amusement I let him have a good squeeze of my bum and tensed the gluts. Made him happy and proved me right. Win-win! :D
 
I had 3 weeks of no riding but did lots of walking..mostly bring dragged by dogs lol. Had a lesson on Tuesday when I got back home and it felt easy..all that walking had paid off and I did lots of rising trot without puffing once. I Was really pleased with myself until half way through the following day when every muscle from waist to knee let me know just what they thought of time off. On a plus note my shoulders and arms were fine. This either meant that I'm no longer tensing my upper body or that all the dog wrestling had paid off :D
Well done OP and hope the stiffness eases soon. :)
 
MerrySherryRider said:
There's riding and riding though. For an ambling hack of a couple of miles or twenty minutes circumnavigating the arena with the horse on cruise control, then the fitness required is not that great. Hence the number of well endowed bottoms that are seen in the saddle.
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Not only bottoms! Lol! I agree, there are different levels of riding. Hacking about the countryside, mainly at walk with the occasional trot and canter is not going to use up too many calories or take much of a toll on muscles. I would say that "some riding" is good exercise, some is not; depends on what you do and how you ride.
 
MerrySherryRider said:
There's riding and riding though. For an ambling hack of a couple of miles or twenty minutes circumnavigating the arena with the horse on cruise control, then the fitness required is not that great. Hence the number of well endowed bottoms that are seen in the saddle.
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I would completely agree with this. "Horse riding" is a very broad sport and covers a lot of disciplines at all kinds of levels which will demand different fitness levels - a bit like "bike riding".

I think the common misconception that horse riding isn't exercise is that those who are completely unhorsey see a lot of larger people participating who don't look particularly athletic.
 
Out on a hack my girl does most of the work - she's forward and well behaved so it's not so difficult. If I school I work a lot harder as she's still v green. If you look after your own though, the poo picking (my paddocks slope), mucking out and general care and running around keeps you fit. I think I'm fitter now looking after 3 at home than I was when I was a regular gym goer and I have better muscle tone.
 
MerrySherryRider said:
There's riding and riding though. For an ambling hack of a couple of miles or twenty minutes circumnavigating the arena with the horse on cruise control, then the fitness required is not that great. Hence the number of well endowed bottoms that are seen in the saddle.
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That isn't strictly true - why else do you think we have RDA? Riding involves active and passive exercise of the muscles. A good rider uses way more active exercise, a person being a passenger is having their muscles exercised for them. Hence disabled people who couldn't even lift their heads up have been seen to sit up straight after a period of riding lessons with the RDA. Now that sort of riding may not be "fitness training", but it certainly IS exercise.
 
Certainly agree with the different levels of riding fitness, but then I guess if comes down to the muscles used in different ways. I was riding for 5+ hours a day while I doing my training, could cope with a ODE on a strong horse. Went to have a go on the mechanical race horse, couldn't only manage 7 out of 9 furlongs and could put my knees together for about 3 days!!!

And it must be exercise even if you are just a passenger, otherwise they wouldn't have invented and sold the riding fitness machine thing!
 
Much depends on the horse too. Compare two of my 14hh ponies. One, a NF, glides evenly across the ground in a floaty, 'why bother rising' trot, and is very little effort to ride in any way. The other, a Welsh x Hackney feels like riding a cat. Each leg seems to operate independently, and he is constantly shifting velocity and balance. It's taken 3 years to get him to go in a straight line! I once rode him bareback for 2 hours (hacking in trot and canter), and felt like I'd been beaten up.
 
fatpiggy said:
That isn't strictly true - why else do you think we have RDA? Riding involves active and passive exercise of the muscles. A good rider uses way more active exercise, a person being a passenger is having their muscles exercised for them. Hence disabled people who couldn't even lift their heads up have been seen to sit up straight after a period of riding lessons with the RDA. Now that sort of riding may not be "fitness training", but it certainly IS exercise.
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Yes, but every movement is exercise. Anything that uses muscles is beneficial. Following an operation I couldn't ride for a few months. I suffered from back spasms. Once again in the saddle and only able to hack in walk, the fluidity keeping in rhythm with the horses movement stopped my back pain and increased muscle tone.
I wasn't fit though and wouldn't have burned many calories by my exertions.
 
Agree with all the points about the type of riding and type of horse. However, I certainly think that having horses aids general fitness.
I did take the mick out of my s-i-l at Christmas when she was raving to me about her nine-minute morning workout and we then compared it to mine - ie, walk 500 yards to the field and back twice, two of those journeys keeping hold of a half ton of enthusiastic horse and carrying a full hay bag; carry and lift 25l container of water to top up field water; carry and tie up three haynets (one massive) in the boxes; drag water out of two stables and re-fill; drag back in; muck out two boxes, one particularly mucky; push two loaded barrows up steep ramp to muck trailer; fork up muck; collect feeds and put in boxes; take barrow and empty haynets to barn - that's my 40-minute morning workout done then!
Mind you, now that they are out, it is getting shorter - top field water up and do a quick poo pick - so I may have got it down to nine minutes ;)
 
I've watched men looking at little me at 5'4" hauling weights in the gym and the very best one was on the machine that does your inner thighs. I sat down, set it to 95kilos and did 3 sets of 10 quite happily. I moved onto the machine next to it and a big lad sat down, and tried to bring his knees together with no success whatsoever, so he turned around, saw where the peg was set then looked at me in amazement. I just smiled sweetly and said "horserider". I used to haul 25 kilo sacks of feed around quite happily on my own - at work H&S would have insisted that two people had to lift that weight. Ironically, I have terrible low back problems, so used to stick the feed sacks across my shoulders because that was less strain. Last year I was diagnosed with arthritis in my neck -whoops! Everything to do with horses is heavy apart from your wallet :)
 
I had a stirrupless lesson a few weeks back- was so crippled at work the next day lol- eberyone asking if I'd been kicked by my horse and I was like 'nope, just had a lesson!' We have a body builder at our work, and she even said that her legs ached more after a hack in Wales than after a legs session at the gym!

Ax
 
Its not that riding isn't exercise - we all know it is, but it isn't going to help you lose weight/tone up etc if it is what your body is used to doing. I went to Boot Camp and I was not allowed to count riding as one of my exercises as my body is used to it - you're not pushing yourself by doing it, unless you go do something that you wouldn't normally, like having a 6 week break and then doing 2 hour hacks ;p

If you have been riding an hour a day for the past 5 years and you have not lost any weight then logically it isn't going to help you lose weight unless you change it.
 
I went on a long hack after a year of not riding!

Had plenty of pace and the next day I was wanting to walk like a man who'd lost his donkey!

My legs were killing.
 
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