Horses are able to mirror and respond to human behaviour and emotion (as they can sense others feelings) and so teach you to be calm and collected, being naturally chilled out animals themselves. This helps to relieve stress, depression and anxiety as well as taking your mind off of any negativity.
Horseback riding allows you to take a break from life's stressors and experience the fresh air. Spending time with animals and exercising releases a hormone called serotonin, which can improve your mood and reduce your stress levels.
Horse riding can be more than just great exercise. It can help to boost your mental health too. Not only can working with horses increase confidence and reduce stress, but it also gives you the perfect opportunity to socialise with other people in the great outdoors, so why not give it a go?
Riding a horse releases endorphins and other feel-good chemicals that make you feel good. If you're having fun (and we bet you will!), these euphoric chemicals will be released by the brain, reduce your stress, and make you feel better.
Horses can read human emotions, too, often in uncannily accurate ways; alerting us to our sadness or nervousness, sometimes before we've even consciously registered it.
While it has long been understood that spending time with animals and pets can positively affect our mood, new research suggests that horses may have a sixth sense that can identify anxiety, stress, and fear in humans, thus helping individuals identify these emotions in themselves.
Researchers confirmed that horses can smell specific odors in human sweat that reflect emotions like fear and happiness, which could open doors to a whole new way of understanding emotion transfer from human to horse, they say.
It can be tiring
A lot of physical and emotional strength is required to ride a horse and it will wear you out, especially if you are dedicating a lot of your time to the sport. If you lead a busy lifestyle, then you will need to take this into consideration before taking up horse riding properly.
“Equestrian exercise activates the muscles around the thighs and hips and, at the same time, it can be said that the trunk extensor muscles are significantly improved due to the posture that requires straightening and due to the activated muscles around the thighs and hips,” Jee said.
According to results of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, horses do seem to read some signals to indicate whether a nearby person is stressed or afraid, at least in certain circumstances.
Most horses seem to enjoy companionship and attention from their riders, but some may find being ridden uncomfortable and even scary. It is up to the individual horse to decide whether they like it. There are things you can do as a rider to help your horse feel more comfortable while being ridden.
Horses have been used for therapeutic purposes since the time of the ancient Greeks. The Greek physician Hippocrates, known as the "Father of Medicine," wrote about the therapeutic potential of horseback riding. Riding became more popular as a therapy tool during the 1950s and 1960s.
Improved self-esteem comes from having and caring for a horse. Riding a horse brings a sense of happiness because of the release of endorphins brought about by physical activity thereby lifting the mood and contributing to a sense of well-being.
While your friends will work their butt off in the gym, as a horse rider you'll undoubtedly already have beautifully toned legs and glutes; great for those fitted jeans and no need to dread 'leg day'. Toning and muscle building while having fun. Result!
Low back pain is common among horseback riders. These are mostly the aches and pains of strained muscles from excessive riding or improper posture while on the horse. Controlling and riding a large animal like a horse requires the same strength and effort as is required for many other sports.
There is no set age for retiring your horse. Some horses have physical conditions or diseases that require an early retirement. Other horses can be ridden late into their life without issues. As a general rule, most horses should stop being ridden between 20 to 25 years old.
The researchers conclude that, assuming a similar riding ability between riders, there is no fundamental difference in a horse's stress responses elicited by male and female riders.
Develop thighs of steel
It's because riding uses different muscles to what you'd use during a normal day. Riding works your glutes, quads and hamstrings, with your glutes tightening and loosening as you move up and down with the horse. In fact, you're squeezing your leg muscles just to stay in the saddle.
What do you call a female horse rider? The most common terms are equestrian and cowgirl, which are not discipline specific.
Musculoskeletal Injuries
As well as injuries from falls, horse riders can suffer from numerous musculoskeletal problems due to sustained postures and repetitive movements linked with riding. Musculoskeletal problems include problems related to joint or muscle injuries.
Horse riding helps with:
Cardiovascular health - Horseback riding has been shown to be good aerobic exercise. Core strength - Maintaining good posture in the saddle ignites your core muscles. Muscle strength - Riding requires strength – so does saddling a horse, and carrying buckets of hay and water.
Horseback riding works important core muscles: abs, back, pelvis, and thighs. These stabilize the torso while fortifying coordination, stability, balance, and flexibility. This activity is isometric, which means the muscles contract against something that does not move.
In one study, the heart rhythms of horses and humans were analyzed over the course of various interactions with one another. The findings indicated that horses care capable of detecting when a human is expressing and projecting positive feelings towards them and is likely to reciprocate those positive feelings.
“Compared to the corn oil, horses sniffed anise more frequently before consuming oats. The horses ate the oats from the anise pan before the oats from the corn oil pan, and finished the anise ones first, too, showing a clear preference for anise aroma,” Whitehouse explained.
Horses do bond with humans and their relationship with soldiers was likely stronger than those developed prior, considering the highly emotional environment. Currently, most horses are companion and therapy animals, meaning humans greatly value their relationships.