Have you ever been told that horseback riding isn’t a sport? Nonsense. Here are seven great reasons why horseback riding IS a sport.
1. We Have Teammates
In riding, our teammates are thousand-pound animals with minds of their own. They may feel uncooperative, and they might not understand what we’re asking because we don’t even speak the same language, but still, we trust our teammates with our lives.
2. We Train Harder Than Anyone
Think about the hours of training and schooling that you’ve put in with your horse. In fact, when you think about it, it takes riders longer to learn the art of their sport and to be ready for competition than it does most other athletes. You can learn to play soccer, football, and lacrosse fairly quickly, and can be ready for a lower-level game in a matter of months. That’s not the case when it comes to riding – we train for years before we’re ready to compete.
3. We Become Physically Strong
Serious riders become incredibly strong. Riding requires core strength, upper body strength, and leg strength that most people don’t readily have. Riders develop that strength out of necessity.
4. We Get Hurt
If you’ve been riding long enough, you’ve gotten hurt. From bruises and scrapes to broken bones, injuries are a part of riding. Hopefully your injuries are minimal, but you’re almost guaranteed to have them if you ride regularly. If you have fallen off a horse and are nervous about gettin back in the saddle, check out these 5 ways to regain confidence after falling off a horse.
5. We Take Risks
Every time that we head into the arena on our horses, we’re taking a risk. Football players risk concussions, skiers risk broken bones. So do we. Horseback riding is a risky sport, and injuries to riders are so common and serious that you could even argue that horseback riding, or at least some riding disciplines, could be considered an extreme sport.
6. We Don’t Just Sit There
So many people argue that horseback riders “just sit there.” Not true. If a rider just sat on a horse, the horse wouldn’t go anywhere. Instead, we’re creating impulsion and regulating stride and helping the horse to balance, in addition to the countless other ways that we affect the horse. If we just sat there, the ride would fail.
Horseback riding. Girl sitting on a black horse
Horse Courses by Elaine Heney
- Listening to the Horse - The Documentary by Elaine Heney & Grey Pony Films
- Shoulder In & Out Training for better balance, bend & topline development with your horse
- Over 110+ Polework Exercises & Challenges to Download
- Dancing at Liberty & Creating Connection with Your Horse (11 lessons) - Grey Pony Films
7. We Get Tough
Horseback riders are some of the toughest athletes out there. We get dirty and muddy, sweaty and sore. We get scraped up, broken, and tossed on the ground. But we keep coming back to do it again. If we weren’t tough, we couldn’t participate in this thrilling and exciting sport.
your mother
The most valid reason I've seen on this page is that you get physically strong the others just sound like a made-up reason like 'we have teammates' is not a very good way to say training a horse to jump over obstacles and run fast through a race course is a sport, the only sport anyone is getting is the horse so clearly is not a sport but a sport for the horse, not the rider, 'we get hurt' where's your reasoning for all of your points your just explaining how it works like if you actually cared I think you would have put more effort into this, 'we don't just sit there' well that's just a lie your literally sitting a top of a horse your not doing anything but guiding the horse where to go, 'we take risks' maybe you do but if its a trained horse and doesn't get scared your pretty much safe its not comparable to football as the player are not trained not to back down or not tackle they are told to do so, 'we train harder than anyone' you mean you train the horse, the horse is the only one reciving training and can you lift the avarge football players dead lift of over 300lb bench for 20+ reps i dont think so, horse riding is a sport for the horse not for the rider.