Riding a horse is hard; it takes a long time to learn. Ponies weigh between 300 and 800 pounds, and even lighter breed horses like thoroughbreds can weigh as much as 1,400 pounds. You need to have certain physical and mental skills to handle an animal that being, even if it’s friendly and well-trained. You also need time to develop a bond with the horse.
If you’re interested in taking horseback riding lessons, here’s a look at seven attributes you need for success.
1. Core Strength and Cardiovascular Fitness
Regardless of your current fitness level, you’re going to be sore after your first ride. You’ll be working muscles that you rarely use its. With that said, you’ll be better prepared if you already have a strong core and fit heart.
The muscles in your stomach are critical to help you keep upright while on the saddle with your shoulders aligned with your pelvis and heels. Without a strong core, you may naturally lean back or forward in what’s known as a chair seat position. While it’s comfortable, this position makes it tough to balance and move with the horse. Your core strength will get better over time the more you ride. However, you can support the process with exercises like planks, sit-ups, crunches, leg raises, and seated rotations.
Because horse riding requires the use of so many of the body’s muscles, it’s common to get tired easily in the beginning, until you build up your cardiovascular fitness. Your pulse elevates quickly when you ride a horse, meaning a strong heart is required to effectively transport oxygen to the muscles over long periods. Jogging and swimming are great activities to improve your endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
2. Balance
You need good balance if you’re going to ride horses. Like riding a bike, you need all your major muscle groups working together to maintain balance. When a horse moves one of its back legs forward, the front leg on the same side shifts to make space. This, in turn, causes the horse’s neck, back, and rump to shift up, down, and to both sides of its spine. You need enough core strength and balance to move your body with the horse and stay in the center of the saddle.
More importantly, balance is required for instances when the horse gets spooked and makes sudden movements in any direction, including upwards. Having good balance can keep you from getting thrown from the horse.
3. Patience
Patience is one of the most important mental attributes required for horse riding, especially if you’re interested in equestrian events like dressage or eventing. It’s difficult enough to learn how to safely ride a horse. Teaching a horse complicated dressage elements or how to jump over intricate obstacles is especially challenging and time-consuming. Horses are also prone to reacting abruptly in high stress situations, although they quickly calm down if you remain patient and composed.
4. Persistence
Even the most experienced riders can fall off their horse or go through difficult circumstances during training or competition. The ability to get back up and keep persevering is what sets world-class equestrians apart from amateurs.
“Riders at all levels persist in the face of difficulty,” said equestrian Kerry Mack in an article for Equestrian Life. “We have all had the disappointment of horses that go lame at crucial moments, defeat being snatched from the hands of victory by trivial things we can’t control, like a paper cup blowing across in front of us, or a sudden downpour of rain and wind, or the rubbish truck emptying a bin at that crucial moment, or cramp in a test.”
Training young and inexperienced horses as well as steeds that have developed poor habits and vices through fear requires dedication and persistence.
5. Empathy
If you’re interested in building a strong relationship with a horse, it’s important to be empathetic and understand how and why they act the way they do. As prey animals, horses perceive their surroundings differently than humans. They may react in ways that seem erratic to you, or they may respond with fear in situations that are safe. You need to adjust to the horse and make it comfortable. This is impossible without empathy.
6. Discipline
To improve your riding abilities, you need to practice frequently and consistently. This, along with the other activities required to groom and care for the horse, requires significant discipline. You can’t just expect to hop on the horse, train, and go on with your day. You need to groom the horse before and after riding, perform warm-up and cool-down routines, and put away your tack. The tack and saddle pads should also be cleaned at least once every two weeks, among a plethora of other tasks.