The Benefits of Horseback Riding for Kids

Kids take us on remarkable, and enlightening journeys. We want the best for them, and we want them to grow up to be happy, successful, responsible, caring, and contributing members of society. And through our kids, we learn more about our own value system, as we try to teach them life's little lessons.

Our girls decided they wanted to try horseback riding. Both my wife and I have ridden horses on many previous occasions, but this was an entirely different experience as we started to view the activity as parents, and through the eyes of our children. We quickly realized the actual riding is only a small part of the overall activity. It is all things equestrian. Its the horses, the environment, the gear, the learning process, the friendships, the events, etc. So we decided it might be fun to document and share what we learn with our kids over the course of time.

We are still a bit mystified why our kids took to it so immediately, but the benefits were evident very quickly. Horse kids gain an incredible amount of confidence, as they learn to handle, control, and get repeatable responses out of an animal many times their size. Even just the process of getting the saddle on, getting the reigns over the horse's head, and the bit in the mouth can be challenging, particularly for kids, but accomplishing it even just once is a huge confidence booster. Confidence continues to grow as they learn the subtleties of walking, jogging, loping, turning, and stopping the horse. We have found that by finding one thing to help your child gain confidence with, the spillover into other areas of their life is very evident.

Just as importantly, horse kids learn responsibility - grooming, feeding, and exercising what is essentially a large pet for them, along with maintaining the stall, looking after them when they are sick or injured, etc., is an immense responsibility, and they just seem to step up and do it, because for them, its not learning life's lessons, its just plain fun. While on one hand I'm not anxious for my kids to grow up any faster than necessary, given growing up is inevitable, we may as well make the learning and growing process as fun as possible, and being responsible is obviously a core attribute to develop.

There are many other less obvious, but equally valuable benefits. Obviously riding is not like playing a sport like tennis, or soccer, or basketball. But it is physical activity, and the riding time on the horse helps improve coordination, balance, and core strength. Even when they are not riding, we've found the kids are constantly active around the barn area, making new friends, visiting other horses, helping out with chores, etc. It sure beats having them sitting in front of a TV, or off with friends getting into trouble.

The only downside we've identified thus far is that there is a learning curve you have to go through as parents, right along with your kids. Terminology, horse anatomy, riding gear, barn talk, competitions and events,....you name it. Not quite as challenging as a foreign language, but you get the idea. Horse kids just seem to absorb it all so quickly, while we adults end up learning from them, at what certainly feels like a much slower rate. Bottom line is that as a result of the benefits of horseback riding for our children, we have become advocates of horse kids.

If you find a better way than horseback riding for kids to develop confidence and responsibility, and have this much fun doing it, you should definitely jump on it - it will pay dividends.