Ride To Your Health

Ride To Your Health

Ride To Your Health

Whether it’s a new year’s resolution, doctor’s advice, or just a general desire to get fit and healthy, many people are always trying to get started on an exercise program that’s fun, enjoyable and effective.

Horse riding is overlooked as being a great way to improve your health and fitness, but physicians and medical specialists have been touting the great benefits of horse riding for years. Thomas Sydenham, a famous 17th Century physician stated that horse riding was better than most other forms of exercise, and the French physician Cassaign also supported horse riding as a powerful form of therapy. Today, it is well known that there are plenty of reasons horse riding is great for your health. Here are just a few:

• Exercise
Horse riding requires you to use your muscles to stay upright and on the horse as you’re trotting or galloping around. Inner thigh muscles are needed to grip the horse, as well as your arms to steer the horse in different directions, and your core muscles to keep you sitting upright and balanced. It’s a great way to get toned while enjoying the outdoors too!

• Coordination
Riding a horse also takes a great deal of coordination, as you must adjust your own movements with those of the horse. Especially if you’re riding at higher speeds or even jumping over things, you need to be able to shift your body in such a way that you don’t get thrown off the horse.

• Psychological benefits
Horse riding also has benefits to the emotional and mental wellbeing of the rider. Developing a relationship with a horse, looking after it, as well as cooperation with others with improve the rider’s mood and psychological strength. Horse riding may seem like an individual sport, but learning and training with others is important and beneficial to the wellbeing of the rider. If you’re in the market for a horse for leisure riding, especially for your child, you should be looking for warmbloods for sale, as their mild temperament makes them perfect for learners.

• Therapeutic riding
Horse riding also has proven benefits for those with various mental and physical disabilities. It has been shown to improve the health and wellbeing of those with things like downs syndrome, cerebral palsy and even hearing problems by improving their physical health, muscle tone, and ability to interact with an animal and with other riders.