Riding Horses

royal_sevens

does anybody else ride horses for your exercise? just wondering! kinda bored...lol

TTops76

Up until the last year that is what I did for a living. Great exercise

peps0

Yes. Have a weekend trail ride coming up in June. Haven't ridden yet due to all the rain but have walked; bathed and worked some with my horse.

fitcrew

I trained horses for 15 years....best exercise ever.Love to take the horses on a 3 mile trail ride and post the entire thing.lol work them legs!! I have barrel raced my whole life so being strong is important....my physical therapist loves how strong I am

Yes riding horses for exercise rocks

ProudMomoftwo

Yes! We love to trailride and work those muscles.
Grooming & ground work is also good exercise.
I also walk with my kids while they ride so I can check the field for holes and brambles as well as coach them in their riding skills.
It is an awesome workout.

royal_sevens

i agree...awesome workout. it gets under my skin when people tell me that riding horses isn't exercise, but that's just because they have never done it! aha makes fro strong legs that's for sure!

littlemissanguissette

I am an endurance rider...and to those that like to say riding isn't a sport/exercising...I want them to get on my mare and do 50 miles in less than 12 hours and tell me when they get off [if they can even stand] it isn't exercising.

When I'm actively conditioning, I am toned and in amazing shape. My mare is laid up right now, so I haven't been conditioning for a few months and I can tell the difference.

I also work with horses as my means of living [going to nursing school, though]. Feeding, watering and cleaning up after 18+ horses isn't all that easy, especially pushing loaded wheel barrows up the hills!

I'd love more horsey pals on MFP

corsayre8

Honestly I haven't been riding near as much as I should be. Just not enough time on the day, and I have been concentrating on higher calorie burning activities. Also burnt myself out a bit last year preparing for and then participating in the World Equestian Games.

hail87666

I ride, but not nearly as often as I should to say I have my own horse. I'm too busy, work really long hours and have other activites to squeeze in too. I'd love to work with horses. The girls that work on the livery yard have fantastic bodies for all their effort mucking out and what not

hail87666

I ride, but not nearly as often as I should to say I have my own horse. I'm too busy, work really long hours and have other activites to squeeze in too. I'd love to work with horses. The girls that work on the livery yard have fantastic bodies for all their effort mucking out and what not

sehughes22

Riding horses really works your body all over. I used to have a horse and gave up for around 3 years, and when I took it back up again I was really stiff for the first few times until I got back into it properly again. Must be a good sign that I'm working hard! I now ride a really strong horse which works out my arms and shoulders so no need for weights in the gym anymore :-)

g_warne

Definitely! I own 3 horses, only one of which is ride-able at the moment but I also do all the feeding/mucking/water etc too. I ride the one horse 5-6x a week and train a friends horse 5x a week plus riding other horses when I get the chance. It's great exercise and I get my heart rate really up when doing a good schooling session. I love it! I do other fitness activities as well but horses are my passion and best loved form of exercise. Expensive and time consuming but totally worth it. Glad to hear there are other riders on mfp.

missbp

My son had low tone in his trunk and it was suggested when he was younger to get him riding to strengthen his core. He loves to ride and even though he is super skinny, he is really strong. That was such good advice. If I could afford it, I would be riding too

Michelle

dustflyin

It has been my main form of exercise for my whole life! I've started long trotting my barrel horse to condition both of us and after 3 miles of posting to his quick little steps I'm wore out! Lol! I'm trying a lot harder to lose my baby weight this time around because my gelding is right at 14.3 and I am 5'6 so every pound lost means less weight for him to carry which will hopefully make for better times in our barrel runs

LBeez

I ride and love it! Definitely an exercise along with all the grooming and mucking that goes along with riding. Personally it is my favorite way to exercise since it doesn't feel like work (it's fun), everyday is different. I am trying to build up more core to improve my riding. Wish I had the time to ride more.