insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 13 - March 2016 | Page 55

HEALTH+WELLNESS

Saddle up: how to get honed
and toned on horseback
It’s March now, which probably means one of two things. Either, in January you decided
that 2016 was the year for you to get fit and joined a gym, which you’re possibly now losing
interest in. Or, you’re already a bona fide fitness fan, but the days are getting longer and,
as being outside becomes more appealing, your enthusiasm to be inside a gym is waning.
For most of us, it’s pretty tough to keep momentum up where getting trim and toned is
concerned, which is why I’m on a mission to try and test all sorts of exercise alternatives.
This month, Three Greys Riding School in Pyecombe, put me through my paces with a
30-minute riding lesson. B Y P O L L Y H U M P H R I S

Now, I’m by no means an athlete, but I do work out. I do interval training
a couple of times a week; I squat in all manner of unsightly poses to try
and get my behind to defy gravity; and I slog it out, running along the
seafront to keep my cardio up. So, before I had a chat with Sue, owner
at Pyecombe’s Three Greys Riding School, about whether or not riding
horses is an effective means of exercise, I’ll admit my first thought was:
“30 minutes; how hard can it be?”

As for the lower body, both Holly and Sue had smiled kindly, but
knowingly when I asked if I would feel the lesson in my legs the next day.
I’m still feeling it now. Five days later. Just by simply sitting on the horse
and riding slowly, the inner thigh muscles, or adductors to get technical,
are engaged, so you’re getting all of the benefit of leg raises, but without
the boredom factor. And the rising trot – where you mirror the flow of the
horse’s step by sitting up and down in your saddle – uses the adductors,
along with hamstrings and quads, so you’re effectively doing a squat with
each ‘up, down’ movement.

“People are often amazed at how much a 30-minute lesson can really get
the heart pumping and work muscles all over your body,” Sue told me. “You
have to work your thigh and buttock muscles to get the horse to move,
as well as to stabilise yourself, and your core is engaged constantly while
you’re riding because you need to push your heels down, but sit up straight,
so it’s great for stomach muscles. I’ve known many people come to us for
regular riding lessons that have given up their gym memberships entirely
because they feel that they’re getting great fitness results from riding alone.”

Physical benefits aside, there’s something really mentally soothing about
exercising in the fresh air, and learning to horse ride gives you a real
sense of achievement too. By the end of the lesson, I was out of breath
and really happy – a massive tick for both cardio and endorphins there.
If you’re getting a bit bored of the gym, or are paying out for a personal
trainer and fancy mixing it up fitness wise, I’d give Three Greys a call.
With 30-minute private lessons, hour-long group sessions, and hacks
across the Downs available, they teach kids from three-years-old too, so
you can take your little ones along for the ride. Beats paying for a gym
crèche and queuing for the cross-trainer any day.

Having had my lesson in the hands of the fabulous Holly, who had me
trotting in no time, I’m happy to hold my head high and admit that my
first thought was entirely wrong. Horse riding isn’t hard in the way that it’s
a chore – far from it; in fact, it’s liberating in a really exhilarating way. But,
wow, is it hard on your muscles. Riding Jacob, a nine-year-old cob with