# Is riding good exercise?



## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Exercise Calorie Calculator

I discovered through that, with the amount that I ride every week and the amount of work that I do involving the horses, I burn more calories than any of the other high school athletes at my school.

I bring that up whenever they try and tell me that my equestrian team isn't a real sport. I definitely think it is. My legs have more muscle than the baseball team captain....I do no physical activity except that. I know for a fact if I didn't do it, I would be gaining weight like the devil.....


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Hmmmm....an injury from riding prevented me from jogging for the last 3 years. My weight increased 10 lbs, my blood pressure is up 20 points, and getting back into running shape at 54 is hard. Riding is not aerobic exercise.

It is good for balance, and it strengthens some leg muscles. It stretches some muscles.


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## tlkng1 (Dec 14, 2011)

Different forms of exercise use different sets of muscles. For example, riders use short muscles and so those will develop which is a disadvantage in say swimming. Swimmers use the lkong muscles. Take a swimmer in great shape and toss them up on a horse for a 1-hour baisc riding lesson, only up to trotting and no cantering, and see how they feel the next morning.

As for not being aerobic, I disagree. Due to being in the military I moved barns a lot and at each transfer I may have gone a year or more before finding a barn. It always took a good month to get back my stamina for riding. I would be out of breath within 20 minutes in a standard 1-hour lesson.

Riding IS exercise..not the moseying about trail riding or meandering at a walk but normal work type riding is aerobic and helps you build muscles and stay in shape.


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

If I stop riding for even a week or two and go back to everything like normal, I get bad cramps. This year was bad for that. We got a dressage horse in for training and I rode him the first time, tried to do a sitting trot, I thought my legs were going to fall off. I was off him for a small amount of time while I rode my own horses to find my rythym again, and when I got back on his back I did nothing but sitting trots with no cramps or soreness. Most of the peope at the barn who first start riding will be stiff as all get out the next day....Especially if they do lessons, which take a LOT out of you.


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## soenjer55 (Dec 4, 2011)

It depends on how long/ hard you ride, just like every other work out. Personally, I believe that to be in optimal shape, riding should be paired with running, swimming, or at least one other activity which works different muscles.
*bsms, *how long/ hard did you run before? If you were an avid runner, that's probably why riding isn't aerobic for you. For me, it's aerobic because I don't do other aerobics.
Whether riding is a work out for you depends on what shape you're in. Although I do think it's an exercise, it's not the best out there if you really want to be in shape. from 1-10, I would give riding around a 5 as a work out, and by this I mean riding for at least an hour for 4 or 5 days a week.
Although my legs are pretty muscular, my brother can run way longer than me because he's a rugby player. My dad is much stronger than me because he does a lot of strength training. If I put them on a horse, they'd die from the exertion because they don't really use the muscles that I do, just like if you asked me to do my dad's work out, or to play a rugby game, I couldn't do it either.


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

It keeps me toned, though everything ELSE related to horses is exercise. Especially moving hay bales, feeding, watering, hoof picking, grooming (I am such an anti-dirt person and since my horse is white.. he's ALWAYS groomed thoroughly--and loves it.)

But yeah riding is a good workout for me, since I'm still learning and you use different muscles for each gait of riding and as you progress you are more and more involved in delivering those subtle cues.


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## soenjer55 (Dec 4, 2011)

Ah, you reminded me- caring for horses/ working with horses is definitely a work out, lol.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

soenjer55 said:


> ...*bsms, *how long/ hard did you run before? If you were an avid runner, that's probably why riding isn't aerobic for you...


I was typically running 4-5 miles/day, 5 days/week at about a 7:30/mile pace. Right now, I can do about 1 mile at an 8:30 pace, and it has taken a couple of months to get to that!

The good news is that riding is like cross-training with jogging. It seems to loosen the parts that tighten from jogging, and vice-versa. If I ever get to where I could combine running & riding, I'll have legs of steel AND a strong heart.

I will also add that my overall balance is much better from riding, and that it uses muscles in my back and stomach that I didn't know existed...


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## Adam (Feb 6, 2012)

Depends on how often you fall, and how tall your horse is.....


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I have to agree with bsms about the aerobic part of it. Riding is not an aerobic workout, it is more like strength and balance training. I wouild likely compare it to something like yoga.

I can attest to that completely. I can ride from dawn until dusk at all 3 gaits, riding different horses that travel differently, getting on and off and sometimes fighting with them a bit. Even after all that, I'm not tired at all.

However, I've spent the last few days putting up new fencing around my property, digging post holes with manual post hole diggers, tamping down the dirt around them with a ~30 pound sucker rod, driving t-posts with a 40 pound manual driver, etc. I am so sore and so completely worn out right now because it's more aerobic exercise than I am used to. Of course, it is strength training too, but I had to stop more often because I was out of breath and my heart was pounding than I did because my muscles were tired.

According to the calculator thing, I've been burning around 2500 calories every day I've been doing that. It's no wonder my pants are feeling too big:lol:...especially considering I usually only eat once a day and that totals up to maybe 1000 calories.


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## mistrider (Sep 27, 2011)

horseback riding can be a great source of excersize using your whole body, but i shouldnt be the only thing the rider does i reccomend yoga and cardio. when i started with yoga my riding improved tremendously.


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## Horse Riding Fan (May 10, 2012)

Riding is definitely a great work out. After I started riding, the leg muscles have strengthened a lot and I've improved on my swimming speed and endurance since.


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## Cinder (Feb 20, 2011)

I think that riding is pretty good exercise. It is more muscle strength, balance, and maybe muscle endurance, though. I agree with others that it should be paired with some other form of exercise to be really effective in getting someone fit. I currently jog/run every day along with riding twice a week and together it seems to be working for me.


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