There’s nothing that irritates me more than when someone tells me that riding horses is not a sport. I can’t express how heated I get when someone tells me that the horse does all the work, or that humans only influence horses to do things. Horses have minds of their own. You can’t just tell a horse to jump and expect it to do so, you have to sit in the saddle and lead it to complete the task. A sport is defined as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical strength, often of a competitive nature. Horseback riding requires and is these three things. If riders don’t do anything, you would see more horse riding accidents because the horses would more or less be “in control” and do whatever they want. If you let a horse do what it wanted, you would get nothing done, and you could get seriously injured. …show more content…
Riding horses requires not only skill, but patience. They will buck, kick, bob their heads, duck out on jumps, and more just to frustrate you. Riders have to do many things when on a horse, and those things may depend on the style you’re riding. I ride english, and mainly jump. There are two types of jumping, hunters and jumpers. Hunters is mainly about making sure your position looks good, and making sure your striding is on point. Jumpers on the other hand is all based on time, and how fast you can jump a course without having any fall outs, or jumps knocked over. Controlling a horse over a jump is not easy, and takes skill depending on how high the jump is. A horse’s instinct is not to only jump when they see something in front of them, that is something that is learned. When jumping, a rider needs to make sure their horse is in check, and the rider needs to make sure to always look out in front of
fun with and enjoy your horse. To start you should have your horse groomed and in the cross ties.
The western horse is known to be slow, with some speed, to round up cattle without spooking them. An english horse is known for long legs with big strides. English horses have to be able to run long distances switching speeds, and jumping over anything in the way. If you are riding a Western or English horse at a walk or trot, there's not much of a difference. Except on an english horse you must post with your thighs to help your horse stride out, but sometimes a judge will require you to sit a trot.
Attention Getter: To me life with out horses is a life not worth living. To most people there are only two types of styles of riding, English and western, but there are many more types than that. And all are different.
What exactly determines whether or not an activity is a sport? The term sport is defined by The Free Dictionary as: A physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively, an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively, or an active pastime; recreation.
A thing you always have to train your horse with is to be patient, get a halter on them and tie them on a post, make sure the horse can get free if they pull, or have a quick release latch. I say this because if your horse is totally tied up to a wooden post that’s only stuck in the ground, no matter how far in, or how sturdy it is, if your horse gets spooked, it will, pull the post out of the ground because if he pulls, and it won’t release, they will pull and pull as hard as they can until they feel no pressure, then they will stop, and calm themselves down. When you tie a horse, don’t just leave them there, but do hands on things, brush them, talk to them, pet them, pick their front and back hooves, and get them used to people going behind them and touching their rump and playing with their tail, patting their rump, back, side, etc., you never know when someone will do that and they’re not used to it. Then...
Hippotherapy, a specialized form of equine therapy, “is a physical, occupational or speech and language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement. Hippotherapy literally means ‘treatment with the help of the horse’ from the Greek word, "hippos" meaning horse” (“Hippotherapy.”). Equine therapy is an all-encompassing type of therapy that includes riding horses, learning about the horse as a creature, the physical activity involved in horseback riding, and much more. Hippotherapy also requires a licensed, specially-trained therapist to teach and oversee lessons because of the hands-on nature of this method while therapeutic riding only requires a professional horseback-riding instructor, typically with some background in physical or occupational therapy Hippotherapy riders usually have more severe deficits and, therefore, hippotherapy is a little bit more intense than physical therapy. Both hippotherapy and therapeutic riding can utilize the unique movement of a horse to “assist in meeting therapy goals.” The horse’s gait mimics that of a human, and for that reason, horses can aid in the treatment of patients with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy and the rehabilitation of injured people such as
The sport of mountain biking is one of the best active sports you can do for a number of fitness reasons and depending on what style of mountain biking you partake in, it can be also a great deal of fun as well as keeping you fit at the same time. People are usually unaware of how may muscles you use when riding a mountain bike, and how quickly you can burn calories off riding a bike as it can be an extremely good work out for the body. If you plan on riding cross-country along different styles of trails, riding a bike can be quite a task. So if you riding over a vast distance up and down hills, along slippery single trail it can be very exhausting on the legs and the lower back.
A lot of people these days say that horse riding is not a sport. I beg to differ, often, the only exposure they've had to equestrianism are professionals is on television, whose riding is so skilled they make it look effortless but for a typical rider its very hard. The reason why horse riding is a sport because you don’t just sit there, and you can compete in shows.
Imagine riding a horse on white sandy beach with crystal blue waters, or a cowboy in the dusty deserts of the Wild West. Although riding a horse along a tropical island and cowboys do exist, horseback riding is recognized as a sport. Most do not realize but horsemanship can be added as a part of an exercise routine and have similar benefits of going to the gym. In addition, there are psychological gains of horse riding.
Have you ever been to a horse race? Seeing the riders give their horses a pat and an apple after the race, people cheering for their horse as it runs rapidly to the finish line? Seems like a great time. But what happens to those horses after they are done their race. What happens to the people who gambled their family’s lives savings. All horse racing should be shut down due to the well being of the horses, the effects of gambling, and the lack of interest.
Training a horse to ride is hard work, it involves ground work, riding, and in both patience is very important. In the next few paragraphs I will be explaining the steps needed to train a horse.
... have a crop (small whip) or peg spurs. Both of these do not hurt the horse, but are uncomfortable, so they know they are doing something wrong.
A lot of people do not understand the hard work and time it takes to train a horse, as well as compete in competitions or shows. I personally know a lot about horseback riding because I grew up riding horses. It really makes me mad when someone comments “that is not a sport”. Well, yes they can state their opinion but I don’t have to agree with them and vice versa.
To understand horseback riding, it is essential to look at the history of equines, the sport of horseback riding, and how to take care of a horse. Horseback riding can be traced back more than 15,000 years. The Romans used horses for chariot racing during Medieval Times. Jousting was another sport used during the Medieval Times. Thus consisted of horses running face to face and the
Horseback riding is not an activity most people think of, but it is a great escape for some people. Horseback riding is not just saddling up and riding, people have to have a passion for horses and riding. Some things to keep in mind when riding is balance and knowledge on how to keep the horse under control. People can be told how to ride, but each person will have to find a style that works for them. When riding a horse the concept of time, destination and worries do not exist.