Help please.....

[wellywoo]

Hi all - quick question for a project I'm working on.

Do you think of horse riding as exercise?

So in other words if someone was to ask you how many times a week you do exercise, would you think of riding as you would say going to the gym or is riding a fun hobby?

Thank you!

Definitely exercise! It's the only exercise I do, and I've dropped two dress sizes and toned up loads since we've had horses (it's not just the riding, it's all the yard work as well)

Yes, grooming properly is a good workout, never mind all the shovelling of poo and mucking out, lugging of bales etc. A really good ride, particularly if you are schooling can be hard work too. Plus all that lovely fresh air!

I think of it as low to medium sort of exercise, with, say, running as Ugh, Hard Exercise somewhere near top of scale. Ambling round at walk is obviously not all that demanding but a lesson with a sadistic instructor is.

Definitely all the stuff that comes with - grooming, running impossibly full wheelbarrows up impossibly steep ramps and Carrying Heavy Stuff must count too?

Yes it's exercise, but it's fun as well (mostly) which is the best combination.

definitely

I'm a stone lighter since buying my unbroken first pony - walking miles with him long-reining over winter shed the weight a treat.
PLus all the grooming, hoiking bales around, muck-picking, wheelbarrowing - I have shoulders a builder'd be proud of.

This week someone commented on me "pert" bum (all that rising trot is paying off)

So in reply - yes. definitely

Everything connected with horses is exercise. I used to be a complete gym bunny, spin classes, weights etc and since owning our two horses, am fitter than ever. My arms have never been so toned from mucking out/riding etc.

Brilliant - thanks for your help.
Just read that an hours riding burns similar calories to 30 mins of jogging - I know which one I'd rather do!!

Defo exercise! After an hour of schooling/ Jumping this morning i was nearly dead! Much more demanding than my hour at the gym!

I'm not even riding but have lost 7lbs since Sunday after the dds got their new pony.Yesterday I walked 5.5 miles with it and today 3.5,including running up hills.Then there was the poo picking and chasing the lazy thing around the menage with a whip-I shall have to up my cake intake before I fade away.

If I'm just pottering about and basically just sitting on my horse as he exercises on a hack around the woods etc, then I don't really think of it as a workout - but if I'm using my body more on an energetic hack, schooling or competing anything that gets me out of breath for a sustained period then I damn well do count it as exercise - and the comments of people who say 'why are you knackered, it's the horse doing all the work' annoy the pants off of me!