The benefits of horseback riding are numerous, beyond just being a really fun way of spending time outside. Usually we talk about the physical benefits, and even the mental health benefits are huge. You can read other articles that specifically cover those wonderful benefits here and here. Related to the mental health benefits, but sometimes overlooked, are the many social and emotional benefits of horseback riding. In this article, I’ll go over some of the best social-emotional benefits of horseback riding, and then list some of my favorite physical benefits too.
What are social-emotional skills?
Social-emotional skills help us relate to others and ourselves. These skills are essential to develop confidence, friendships, and manage our emotions. Social-emotional skills are necessary to understand and follow social norms. Along with character, these skills are what make us productive citizens that lift up our cultures. They make us assets to our community with lots to give to those around us.
Kids are in the full swing of developing emotional and social skills, which is why horseback riding is often particularly beneficial for young children and youth. But adults can certainly reap these benefits too!
Horses as Therapy
Often, horses are used as partners in therapeutic settings. Therapy horses help those with emotional challenges, post-traumatic stress disorder, developmental delays, and other challenges to develop the skills and confidence they need. Reputable therapy barns are usually run by professionals certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship. This association includes professionals in mental health and physical rehabilitation fields.
Social Emotional Benefits of Horseback Riding
Here are some amazing social-emotional benefits of horseback riding. In fact, many of these benefits apply to any type of equestrian sport or equine therapy.
Humility
In my opinion, the importance of a character of humility is a little under-emphasized in our culture. That’s why I’m giving it the place of honor at the top of my list.
There’s nothing like an unscheduled dismount into the dirt to literally and figuratively take you off your high horse. And horses find many other ways to show us where we have room for improvement, no matter who we are or how much skill we have. It’s just a matter of time if you regularly work with horses (and let them work on you) until you simply give up on pridefulness about what you know or have achieved.
self-efficacy and self-esteem
A 2003 study in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal studied 5 individuals with psychiatric disabilities on the schizophrenia spectrum. The participants rode horses at a therapeutic riding center and participated in grooming the horses. Participants found increased self-efficacy and self-esteem by the end of the ten-week program. They reported being more motivated and confident to tackle aspects of their daily lives on their own.
Sensory Integration
Sensory integration is an important brain function that has implications for social-emotional development. Interaction with horses in the settings of therapeutic riding (where horsemanship skills are taught to participants) and hippotherapy (where the horse’s movement is used as a physical and occupational therapy tool) have shown benefits for sensory integration in individuals who struggle with this, such as those with autism spectrum disorders.
Emotional Awareness
Horses have a keen sense of the emotional atmosphere of the space they are in. Because of this, they can sometimes help us identify our own emotions by their behavior. When you handle a horse and they are acting differently than expected, it can be a cue to examine yourself for an unusual emotional state.
Emotional Regulation
Developing emotional regulation means cultivating the ability to manage your emotions. To approach what you’re feeling with patient thoughtfulness, even if the feelings are uncomfortable. Horses are wonderfully kind teachers for this. They will often mirror or react to their handlers’ emotions. This gives the handler the opportunity to see the effect of their emotional state and begin to process and learn ways to make changes, all without judgment or bias.
Introspection
Similarly, working with horses can encourage and teach the skill of introspection. When a horse exhibits an unexpected or unwanted behavior, it’s wise to first examine yourself for the cause. This requires an open-minded approach to self-examination and can yield a valuable skill transferable to many areas of life.
Sense of Responsibility
Taking on the responsibility of directing and protecting a huge flight animal, even just during a 30-minute riding session, can be a really big step. This practice of responsibility for another and experience of success there can give us the confidence to shoulder more responsibilities in other areas of life.
Speech Therapy
In young children, speech skills are closely tied to advances in motor skills. The movement of a horse is often used as therapy to develop motor skills. The combined effect of this movement and other aspects of the horse-human interaction can have a positive impact on speech.
Responsible Risk-Taking
Horse sports are rewarding, but dangerous. Any time you engage with a horse you are practicing taking a risk while choosing ways to stay as safe as is reasonable. You have the responsibility over your horse while you are riding or handling it to keep it safe, which means keeping yourself safe too.
Using Judgment Appropriately.
horses have so much to teach us about our judgmental attitudes. They have no concept of good and bad (actions, hairstyles, body shapes, grammar…!). From them we can learn to see and describe the world in terms of facts. What happened or didn’t happen, without attaching a value like “naughty”.
Horses don’t mentally beat themselves up about a pole they knocked down at a jump or a lead change they missed. From them we can learn to live in the moment and move on from mistakes toward learning.
Empathy
Related to the development of proper judgment skills, is empathy. Empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes to connect with their experience and point of view. By doing this we open the door to connecting with them. Horses give us a low-stakes and judgment-free opportunity to practice trying to see things from a different perspective. In order to understand our horse, we must learn something about what it is like to be a horse, and observe how they show us what they are feeling and thinking.
Perseverance
Horseback riding offers a fun way to practice and cultivate perseverance. It’s really fun to ride a horse, but also very challenging to master the skills. It can take a long time to achieve independence in the saddle or conquer the skill you’ve been aiming for. There are often many failures on the way to success. Part of the magic of horses is that they are an animal with their own will apart from ours, and we can’t really MAKE them do anything. Yet they are so generous and usually try hard to please their handlers. This means that there are usually lots of tiny victories mixed in with the failures on the way to the big achievement of your riding goal. This makes perseverance in horseback riding rewarding.
Confidence
Humans are small, and horses are really big. They have really big muscles and can do way bigger things physically than a human ever could. And when you get on their back, you get the gift of being able to do those things too! You can direct this really big animal, and you get their huge physical abilities. That is a great way to gain confidence!
Self-control
Horses can sense when a person is unpredictable and out of control, or even out of balance. They react in different ways depending on the individual horse. Often the horse will be reluctant to trust such a person. Sometimes the horse will behave unpredictably around the person who lacks self-control. When we are able to recognize and gain control of our behavior, we’ll gain a better relationship and better results with the horse too.
Leadership
Horses are wired to live in a group, and to look to the group leader for direction. As a horseback rider, you get to practice being the leader in your group of 2. You get to work on all the skills a leader needs. You get a chance to earn the confidence and trust of your horse, which in turn will lead to them looking to you for direction and trusting the decisions you make.
Teamwork
On the flip side, it also takes teamwork to work with a horse. Not counting the other humans you have to work with (your coach, the people you ride with), you have to work as a team with your equine partner. It’s important to see them as a teammate and allow them to take their share of responsibility for the success of the ride.
Do these social-emotional benefits of horseback riding seem compelling? Here are some of the most powerful physical benefits of horseback riding that can affect your physical health too:
Improved balance
Staying on top of a moving horse takes a level of ability to balance yourself that a rider’s body quickly cultivates. This becomes more challenging as the speed intensifies or ridden maneuvers become more complicated. Experienced riders have an independent seat. This means that they have the ability to balance on the horse’s back without using their legs or hands for support.
Core strength and posture
The muscles of the core include the obliques and abdominals, the muscles of the lower back, and hip flexors. Riding targets all of these muscle groups, especially the lower abdominals. In addition, the upper back muscles are often engaged while sitting up straight on the horse. This in combination with the core work builds the foundation for better posture off the horse too.
Muscle Strength and Muscle Control
Horseback riding is mostly an isometric exercise, which means that muscles contract without changing length. This helps build strength (but not as much bulk in your muscles as weight lifting might do) and the ability to precisely control small movements.
Read the rest of the powerful physical benefits of horseback riding
Photo cred: Tatjana Jones
