Trying to lose a few lbs but I need to work some horses too. I have a normal exercise routine in the mornings (arms, legs, cardio) What is a good routine to burn some calories in the saddle?
I don’t know how much other stuff you really need to add because if you’re actually “riding” (and not just being a “passenger”) you’re engaged in a lot of small, continuous moves that burn calories. Doing the standard balance exercises would help both burn calories and improve balance so there is that.
You could take up a particularly “busy” discipline like Working Equitation that requires constant motion of a larger kind.
Or you could take up “tent pegging” and work with lance. Or you could take up mounted saber practice, set up a few “heads” (targets), and do that. A number of Marchador folks have taken up mounted archery.
Exercising for the sake of exercise is pretty boring. Taking up a more athletic discipline or just riding in a more athletic manner might be the best way to go.
Good luck as you proceed.
G.
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I agree, take up a more athletic discipline that requires more use of your core muscles. I wore a Fitbit for 8 months last year and managed to slowly lose 12lbs without starving myself. I do low level eventing so my riding varies between dressage, jumping and cross country/conditioning trot and gallop sets. Wearing the Fitbit just reinforced that goal oriented riding, that is riding that is more engaged than just sauntering along on say a sedate trail ride, is great exercise. Couple that with the process of getting, grooming, tacking up, tacking down your horse, in addition to other stable related activities such as cleaning stalls, moving bags of feed and bales of hay, spreading manure by hand, are all great forms of exercise. In fact, I’ve rationalized keeping horses at home as basically in lieu of a fancy private gym membership. :yes:
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And remember, 80% of losing weight is in what you eat. Eat clean and healthy and keep up with your riding and other activities and you WILL lose weight.
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Well - I’m slim built, but since I have not ridden since November I have put on weight around the middle and I swear my backside is bigger. I know it is because I have not been using my core.
One of my best older friends rode until her mid seventies - whipping in, etc., so real riding - and she was tight and firm like a young person.
So, if it is not weight per se, it is shape!
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This^^, and muscle weighs more than fat, so be aware of your fitness level rather than just the scale.
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cantering in two-point for 15 minutes a day should do it. 
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Riding has never helped me to lose weight… hence why there are a lot of heavy riders, even those who ride consistently and do lesson programs. Watching what you eat and working out out of the saddle are much more conducive to weight loss. This can include your barn chores, running around the barn, etc and also doing stuff not at the barn like weight workouts (if you aren’t using any weights during your current workouts and some small weights and work your way up AND try kettleball exercises).
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I think the most active part of riding happens in trot sets, two points and work without stirrups if you are just hacking. If you want to focus on exercising, those are good points to start with. Do the sets like you would sets in a gym. Two minutes on, one minute off, etc. Make sure the horse you are riding is as up to the task as you are though. Exhausting a horse for a little more exercise on your part isn’t fair to them.
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This in spades!!! Exercise is great and important, but eating LESS, even clean and healthy, is key. At 50, it’s shocking to me how much less my metabolism requires to maintain my weight. Wearing a Fitbit and plugging into one of the weight loss apps really does help you to track calories, especially when eating out. Some of the salads out there, in addition to being ridiculous as to portion size, are also loaded in calories. It’s pretty much small servings of lean meats and lots of raw or steamed vegetables. Watch the dressings and stay away from carbs for the most part.
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Take up endurance- I promise that posting trot for hours will make you burn calories and then there’s the getting off to run with your horse occasionally. And then having to run for the vet checks at each hold. Or just go full out ride and tie
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I lost some weight while riding regularly in the evenings on summer nights. Riding really took the edge off my evening appetite, and on many of those days, supper would be more of a snack than a full meal.
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Active riding does burn calories. And riding needs to be more than 45 minutes on the horse. Galloping for longer than twice around the arena, riding in two-point for long times as suggested, posting on extended trots of a mile or more, riding and posting without stirrups, all can help lose weight. Start slower, build youself and horse up over time. Probably you will lose without much in diet change! But skipping fast food, snacks that are not fresh fruit or veggies, will certainly help get body improvements faster.
But you need to end up rubbery muscled when finished, truly exerted during the ride time to see benefits. I work “sets” with my horse because I am usually conditioning him as I work this hard. Walk a mile, trot a mile, gallop a mile, repeat, type of sets for me. You have to have a planned program of warmup, increasing distances and speed slowly or do harder work for shorter time spans, then a cool down so he is ready to put up or out after unsaddling. Takes a long time to get horse bone, wind, tendons and ligaments prepared to do long, hard work without injury.
I figure at least an hour and a half of RIDING time, 3 to 5 times a week to show real results. Grooming or fussing over horse is additional time added to riding time spent at the barn. So this is a big time commitment, but so are gym workouts to get similar results. You do gain better seat and legs, better wind yourself, exercising on the horse! Real galloping is work, for you and horse. Think of riding harder as a two-fer win in fitness, lots of benefits!
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As others have said, start tracking your calories. For most of us, it’s quite the surprise.
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This! A handful of shell-on pistachios had 14 grams of fat. Also, lifting weights will do better for you in the long run - you hit the law of diminishing returns with cardio pretty quickly. But the bottom line is that you need to burn more calories than you take in. Good luck and have fun riding!!!
Trot sets in jumping position, canters in jumping position, posting trot without stirrups. Teach your horses to long-line so you are doing just as much work as they are.
Negative.
You can get fat eating 4000 calories a day of salad.
80% of losing weight is in not eating more than your energy expenditure. If you want to lose 1lb a week, you need to eat 500 calories per day less than you need to be at -3500 for a week. If you don’t want to eat like that they you have to create the defecit with exercise.
“clean eating” not required.
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This!!! Watch your caloric intake and make sure the calories you take in are beneficial to your body (vitamins, minerals, high quality protein, healthy carbs, healthy fats) and keep riding and you will begin to see change. I WAS eating clean for about a year, I lost about 25 lbs. I started riding more (6-10 hours per week compared to the 1-2 hours per week I was riding before that), BUT I also fell off the clean eating wagon. Guess who gained almost ALL of the weight back? And no, it is not all muscle that I gained back unfortunately. I KNOW I need to get back on track with healthy eating, but no one in my family has any interest in eating healthy with me and I am not very strong when it comes to saying no to the sweets right now!
You have to get fit to ride , not the other way around. I’ve never lost weight from riding. So I do Pilates and gym work and track my food It’s a lot of work with no easy answer
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Cantering (correctly without gripping legs or leaning forward) and sitting trot (correctly without bouncing) – both without stirrups. You’ll feel the core work pretty quick.
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