Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Which Burns More Calories--Riding or Aerobics


Below are estimates of number of calories burned per hour performing common activities with horses:
  • 238 calories--grooming, saddling, and riding 
  • 175 calories—riding at a walk
  • 450 calories—riding a trot
  • 550 calories—riding a gallop
As a comparison, aerobics and moderate bicycling burn around 500 calories.  And sorry to say, riding a gait such as tolt burns less calories than riding a trot.

From: Mullen, G.  (2008).  Amazing Horse Facts and Trivia.  Chartwell Books, Inc., New York. (p.41)

2 comments:

MegF said...

Folks who have a hard to catch horse should be glad! They are getting to count burning more calories. Harder to catch and larger the pasture, then more calories burned. :-)

Blessiowner said...

That is an excellent point! Today Blessi gave a 5-year old girl her second horse ride. It is also good exercise to lead a horse around in deep sand for 20 minutes.