I’ve never rode a horse, but it seems like the horse is doing the work while the human just sits there. I googled if calories are burn during horseback riding and I found that riding a horse for 45 min burns 200 calories. How is this possible if the humans not really doing anything except sit on the horse?
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It depends on the way you ride. If you ride at a walk then you do indeed not use much calories as the rider. As you say you just sit there and balance. But if you go at a trot, a bit faster, then the horses back goes up and down so the rider need to go up and down to match the rhythm. So you are using the stirrups and legs a lot. If you go even faster, at a gallop or canter the horse move even more up and down but also pitches back and forwards. So the rider needs even more movement to stay balanced and even on the back of the horse. You might even have to stand up in the stirrups with bent knees and move the legs up and down with the horse. This is very tiring and you can burn quite a lot of calories.
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