Five Things: Benefits from Horse Riding

By Sneha,
Throughout the world horses play a big role, and not only for efficiency of transport or work. But they provide very beneficial education for children from the young age of three. Even grown-ups are only too welcome to experience a carefree hour or two on horseback, whether it is learning new things taught by instructors in a ring or trekking adventurously along the many trails and blazing across fresh fields of lushness as an exciting sightseeing journey. Whichever way you may see horse riding, it improves and develops many essential qualities for a person.

STRENGTH. Horses tend to be awfully stubborn and misbehave frequently, and to control such a strong animal you gradually develop body improvements as you ride; strength. Strength is something everyone has, whether it is shown by your muscular body, or by your very own heart and ingenious mind. And as you ride, strength builds up in both areas. All your horse’s tricks are learned and your brain discovers how to conquer whatever your horse will throw at you, seeming as you most probably know it already. And as you put your mind strength into use you’ve employed your strength physically as well, to actually give your horse the right instructions. The right commands are the first step to excelling in horse riding. But as you rule over your misbehaving horse and turn it in the right direction, another of your body elements is used…

CONFIDENCE. Since you started riding you would’ve known nothing about the sport, and so your commands are often mistaken by your horse and it reacts differently to what you wanted it to do. As that occurs your confidence drops to a scale where you think you can’t ride properly and that you are seemingly hopeless at the sport. But the trick is to continue, and the more you learn, the better you ride. Soon the horse will start listening to you properly and your commands are obeyed. Horse riding teaches you to never give up, and once you had conquered something, as simple as it seems, but hard when you want to succeed, you will move confidently to other things in the wide world of opportunities that can be reached by your confidence. And then when you have confidence and know you can conquer anything, you move on to…

FUN. What is horse riding without fun? So that means not to let high competition rule over you. Horse riding is a fun recreational activity of never-ending joy for people. It is a great escape from troubles in life and refreshes you most comfortably at the end of the week when all piles of work are left behind and school isn’t due until tomorrow or the day after. But then again, you won’t be able to stay on the horse if you didn’t have…

BALANCE. Yep, you guessed it. Balance is essential in horse riding, mostly because you can never ride well without good balance and even more important, you can stay on! Stirrups are there to support you, but with them gone, what will happen? Will you plummet onto the ground in a confused heap or stay perfectly still as if you were born in the saddle? Those two answers depend on balance. To have good balance, all you have to do is practise and rely on your stirrups more. Some exercises can be very helpful like the around-the-world where you turn 360 degrees in the saddle. And in the sport of vaulting, balance is the main secret. So that concludes it. But wait, I forgot something, and that is…

TRUST. Last but not least, trust. Horse riding is a risky activity and many major accidents can occur. In some people’s opinions, they prefer bicycles to horses. But in my opinion, it is just the total opposite. Bicycles aren’t alive, so if you just happened to have a broken brake, it would just keep going until maybe it rolls off a cliffside. But when you are talking about horses, they know directions. So they have a bigger chance of throwing you and running off, but at least you know that they are unlikely to run blindly to a cliff’s edge. So even though your horse can get spooked and run wild, you still trust your horse to not get you into deep trouble.

There we have it explained — five good benefits from the very exciting sport of horse riding.