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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You use a lot of core muscles to keep you balanced on the horse, as well as inner thighs to grip the saddle. And it also depends on what style of riding you’re doing – for example if you ride English you use your quads to bob up and down in time with the horse and it makes the ride less jarring.
I’m sure the amount of calories burned varies a lot depending on what kind of horse you’re riding and what kind of riding you’re doing. If you’re just going out on a lazy trail ride on a slow horse that just follows the horse in front of you at a walk then you’re going to burn a lot less calories than if you’re riding an excitable, energetic horse that you constantly have to keep in check while going over fences. Also, if you’ve ever seen jockeys with their shirts off you’ll see how ripped they are. They have to be in order to keep race horses from burning their speed too soon and save some kick till the end of the race. That’s a lot of strain on the arms, core and legs to keep a ~1,500 lb animal with it’s own mind in check. That’s at the more extreme end, but no matter what kind of riding you’re doing you’re going to have to burn some energy to actually stay upright because you’re constantly doing balance checks.
Horses bounce and sway. You have to stay in position, and that includes using your core to stay upright, your knees to grip and steer to some degree, your legs to “post” which means carrying some of your weight and smoothing out the bumpiness, and your arms to control the reins and so on.
If the horse is trained to English saddle, you have to “keep your leg on” it the whole time, or it won’t go anywhere at all.
Keeping your leg on = squeezing the horse between your knees. So it’s like squeezing an extra-large exercise ball for 45 minutes straight. It’s work.
English riding uses a lot of core and quad muscles to post trot and posting without stirrups. I definitely felt really tired after a lesson.
Maybe engaging core muscles to keep balance as well as doing that hip lifting thing so you aren’t bouncing around on the animals back.
Occam’s razor applies here perfectly: “How is this possible if the humans not really doing anything except sit on the horse?”
The answer is that humans *aren’t* doing nothing. It takes a lot of effort and training to ride horses effectively and handle the shock and strain on your body.
Laying or sitting on a couch isn’t the same thing as trying to stay perfectly balanced on a couch going 30mph over uneven terrain while you are anticipating what could be up next and around the corner that could spook the couch and kill you.
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.
I suggest you go and ride a horse for 45 minutes… if you are able to stay upright and do it you will surely have a lot of muscle pain the next day to show for the effort it took…:)
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