So you think horseback riding is not a sport? Do you believe there are no challenges to face because it is easy? Or do you think the horse does all the work? Horseback riding does not take skill? Well, you would be wrong. Horseback riding is one of the hardest, most challenging sports in the world today. Horseback riding involves blind communication, hours of dedication, and self-motivation. You depend on yourself, and a thousand pound animal who speaks a language you do not speak. As equestrians, we put our lives onto the back of  thousand pound animals, with  minds of their own, with the instinct to run when afraid, with whom we never speak the same language. As a team, horse and rider must learn to communicate through body language. We spend long hours working on trust, we spend years perfecting our abilities, and we must not only teach ourselves but our horses too.

In every sport, there is a team. The team may have several people, two people, or even a team with yourself. In this sport, the team consists of two people. The only difference between this team and every other team is my teammate is an animal who weighs a thousand pounds. We speak a language of silence. When we mess up, my teammate cannot simply tell me what went wrong; I must figure it out myself. Being a prey animal, my teammate has the instinct to flee when afraid. When he becomes confused, he becomes afraid. When our silent communication is “mumbled”, he does not ask me to repeat what I said. Instead, he runs forward, he jumps to the side, he kicks out, or he freezes in place. Most of the time, though, I do not know my communication is mumbled until it is too late. When he runs forward, I fall back. When he jumps to side, I fall the other way. When he kicks out or freezes in place, I fly over his head. My teammate is an animal ten times my size, who does not speak my language, has the instinct to run, can kill me with one step, and has a mind of his own, yet people claim that horseback riding is easy.

If you want to be good at anything in life, you must practice. You must train yourself right from wrong, good from bad. You must teach yourself how to do things, and it is not always easy. Being ridden does not come naturally to horses. They are trained to respond to cues. For example, to ask a horse to go forward, you usually tap them with your heels. But, if you get on an untrained horse, they will not automatically know that a tap means go. Instead, they will most likely run around like a wild animal out of fear. Just like in any other sport, in the equestrian world, we must train. Not only do we receive training, but we must then train our teammate. Once the horse is taught the basics, they must be taught whatever you have planned for their life. Whether that be jumping, barrels, or a being trail horse. But each discipline involves teaching a horse something different. Also, like in every other sport there are bad days. But the difference between bad days in this sport and your is even if we failed, we thank our horses because they did not kill us that day.

Why is horseback riding not considered a sport? A sport is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill and one that is often competitive,” as dictionary reference says. Contrary to popular belief, horseback riding does take skill. The horse does not do all of the work, and the rider does not just sit there. If you believe horseback riding does not take skill, you most likely have only ridden at a farm that provides a well trained horse, taught to walk along a trail. To me, that is not actual riding. And although it may seem easy to you, you were not the person to teach that horse that a saddle is not scary. You were not the person to fall off that same horse at the beginning of his training. To be ridden by a human is not a natural thing for horses. When they are first taught to be ridden, all they do is run, kick out, and rear, which is the act of standing on their back legs only. They must be taught, by the people, that they will not be hurt.  Also,  I believe most people understand this sport to be competitive. It is in the Olympics. For the ones who do not believe it to be competitive, just understand that is. As riders, we compete all the time. Not only in competitions and with each other on a daily basis, but also with ourselves. We compete with ourselves to get a better run time, to excel in a course, and even to perfect our bond as a team.

So, please, before you tell me horseback riding is “easy” or “it is not a sport”, take a ride on a horse that is not trained to do exactly what he is told. Ride a horse that needs your guidance, and does not guide you. Then try and tell me horseback riding is not a sport. In the sport of horseback riding, we spend hours upon hours every week, perfecting our connection with our horse, learning more ourselves, and then turning around and teaching it right back to our teammate.