What are the physical and mental benefits of riding a horse?
- Improve our posture. Our back must maintain a straight position thus achieving a better body position.
- Regulates muscle tone.
- Promotes blood circulation. Being on an animal, such as the horse, that has a body temperature higher than ours has repercussions on the body, promoting its blood circulation.
- Decreases spasticity. Riding a horse makes our muscles relax, reducing their stiffness and muscle tension.
- Promotes coordination and reflexes. Let us remember that we are not alone, that is, we are part of a team, our horse and we are living beings in a natural environment. The exercise does not develop in the same way as in the four walls of a gym, in which nothing changes from one day to the next. When we ride on horseback we develop our reflexes more since we must be attentive to any change in rhythm of our partner or any new variation that occurs in the natural environment in which we find ourselves.
- Motor planning. Because it is an activity in which another living being participates and develops in a changing environment, it forces us to be attentive to changes and prepared to anticipate the actions that we must carry out. Therefore, our motor planning increases because it is about knowing how to plan and execute unusual special activities.
- Improves body perception. Another benefit of riding a horse is that it makes us aware of our body and its position and place in relation to the environment in which it is found. We obtain more information about our spatial place and how we can establish relationships with that environment.
- It favors the acquisition of laterality. Body laterality is essential to orient the body in space and the objects that are in it, with respect to the body itself. By developing laterality we adapt our body movements to the environment in which we find ourselves.
- Confidence, self-control and self-esteem. Being in contact with the horse and playing sports with it entails a series of psychological benefits such as confidence (we must trust our four-legged companion and, at the same time, our abilities as riders), self-control and self-esteem.
- Improves concentration and attention span.
- Respect. Working alongside another living being and in nature teaches us to love and respect what surrounds us.