Is it cardio or strengthening exercise?
Horse riding is a great exercise that checks all the boxes, fun, outdoor, and strenuous. It strengthens your coremuscles, improves your balance, and provides a cardio workout when performed at higher intensity levels. Still, even light riding provides exercise, and it’s fun!
Unlike many sports, horse riding requires the athlete to remain as stable as possible, so the idea is to move as little as possible. That does not mean the muscles are not working! When we ride, there is tension in a muscle, but where there is limited movement at the joint, a certain type of muscle work occurs. This type of muscle work is known as isometric muscle activity. This type of muscle activity increases blood pressure and thus also heart rate, but not overall energy requirements such as demand for oxygen. This will explain why your heart rate elevates, perhaps as high as when you go out jogging, but doesn’t ‘feel the same’.
Are you familiar with METs?
A MET is the metabolic equivalent of a task and measures how much energy is used during that movement, compared with being still. Sitting quietly is a 1 MET activity.
Horse riding is classified as 5.5 METs.
For comparison, other activities at or close to 5.5 METs include recreational badminton and playing golf if you walk the course, pulling your bag of clubs.
The METs change with your mount’s gait. Riding a horse at full gallop is a 7.3-MET activity, according to the compilation, similar in intensity to recreational roller blading or squash. The required exertion is a bit less than that if the horse is trotting, to 5.8 METs, and it falls drastically when riding a walking horse. That requires only 3.8 METs, the same as bowling.
Can I ride if my back hurts or if I have a disc bulge?
If you suffer from an acute injury or your pain is moderate to severe, it is recommended to avoid riding and seek medical advice on how to properly treat your back problem and safely return to riding.
Always wear your helmet and proper riding clothes/boots. Warm up and cool down as you would do with any other sport!
Happy riding!