subject: Benefits Of Horseback Riding [print this page] Are you feeling a little down today? Then, it is high time you get off your couch, go outside and take a nice and relaxing horseback ride. But, why a horseback ride? Well, so many benefits can be gained by taking up horseback riding. You would find it surprising that there is so much more to riding than simply getting on a horse. So, the top 5 benefits of horseback riding are as follows:
1. It Helps You Lose Weight:
Every single person wants to be in the best shape and look good these days. In order to stay in health, we tend to buy every new exercise equipment that comes up in the market or follow every new diet plan that appears on the Internet. There are a few, who even build up their own expensive gyms at home, just to stay in shape. One of the major benefits of horseback riding is that you will lose weight with it. This could sound impossible to you but this is what the facts indicate. To get on the horse is the first thing. Further, you must also take care to maintain the correct pose, steadiness and also keep yourself from falling off the horse. All this engages a lot of muscles in your body, namely your shoulder and back muscles and abdominal, thigh and calf muscles. The arm and hand muscles will help you to manage the horses reign. The hip muscles are contracted when you shift your hips to steer your horse towards a direction. The statistics say that a galloping horse helps you lose up to 8 calories per minute while a trotting horse helps to shed about 6 calories from your body every minute. Even if you are only walking the horse, you are going to lose 2 calories each minute. Thus, riding is an excellent exercise that helps you lose more times more calories than walking. That definitely looks like one of the best benefits of horseback riding.
2. Horseback Riding is Also a Therapy.
Did you know that horseback riding is therapeutic? For people who dont really prefer going out, you need to try horseback riding. You can greatly increase the metabolic activity in your body through horseback riding. This in turn, helps to surge up the breakdown of glucose in the body, which further leads to improved blood circulation and better functioning of the respiratory and digestive systems. In fact, an uninterrupted physical engagement such as riding will also lead to discharge of endorphins known as the happy hormones.
3. Riding Helps You Develop as a Person Too
Horses can also teach you about life. You will get to learn a lot about self-discipline, tolerance, focus and emotional control through your horseback riding sessions. You will need a lot of self-discipline and persistence to advance in your horseback riding skills. Also, it takes a lot of patience and emotional control for dealing with a horse that is not very well trained.
4. Horseback Riding is an Amazing Sport
Horseback riding will help you develop you physically, mentally and emotionally. It will train you to become a better sportsperson. The level of your competitiveness increases with horseback riding and this is one of the major benefits of this lovely sport.
5. Horseback Riding is Good for Socializing Too
With horseback riding, you can get outdoors and make some friends who enjoy the same interests as you do. It is not just Facebook that will help you get some nice social connectivity. Another major benefit of horseback riding is that along with improving your interpersonal skills and the number of friends, it is also a good place for marketing your business.
Horseback riding is a lot more than just fun. With the listed benefits, you can make sure that engaging in this sport is going to give you some good rewards. However, like all other sports, make sure that you are well prepared before you take that ride!
