Is Horseback Riding a Sport?

 Hi everybody, Amelia here. You should be able to tell I’m obsessed with horses by now, so here’s another post about horses. 

A lot of people think that horseback riding is not a sport. A lot of people think that horseback riding is not real exercise. I’m here to look at this opinion and compare horseback riding to other classic sports, such as football or soccer. 

First let’s look at the definition of ‘sport’ in terms of ‘playing sports’:

So the definition of sport is: an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment

‘An activity involving physical exertion’ horseback riding (when done correctly, often, and at the appropriate challenge level for the rider) does have physical exertion involved. When you ride English (and sometimes even Western) you are holding yourself on the horse mainly by gripping with your knees and upper legs. Your core has to be tight to keep perfect posture, but if you tighten yourself to much, then you go bouncing all over the place. You need to hold your hands and arms at a unusual angle for hours at a time. Horseback riders need to be able to control the 2000 pound horse with seemingly small movements of the hand or foot. Even if we were to discount the actual riding, horseback riders carry heavy 40-60 pound Western saddles, large 4-8 gallon buckets, and huge 50-70 pound bales of hay. 

The next line says ‘and skill’. Horseback riders stay on bucking, rearing, biting, kicking, 2000 pound horses and they barely break a sweat. We travel 40 mph on a huge bouncing horse over rocky terrain. Some horseback riders jump over eight foot tall jumps at high speeds. Even horseback riders who don’t do these amazing things have to control this huge dangerous animal with a light tap of the hand or leg. If that isn’t skill, what is?

If this isn’t enough evidence for you, horseback riding is also in the Olympic Games (though American Football is not). If you still think that the horse does all the work, then you should hop on a horse and ride for an hour or two and then see what your thigh muscles say.