Long time readers of my blog might recall my post Back on the horse from 12 years ago. I recommend reading that post for some necessary background information on my history with horseback riding and owning my own horses back in the day. Well, by now it’s been a very long 24 years since I had my own horse, Daisy, and it’s been 12 years since I last rode a horse during the lessons I mentioned in my previous post on this topic.

I didn’t actually continue to go riding at the place that I went to 12 years ago for several reasons: I didn’t really like it there very much because the people made me feel unwelcome, like just another (annoying) paying customer they need to handle. I also hated that every time I went there I got a new horse, so I could never really bond with a horse, which was something I obviously had with Daisy in the past and which I missed. And finally, the place was too freaking difficult to reach with public transport or bicycle.

Back then, i also looked into leasing a horse for riding once or twice a week, but I couldn’t really find anything suitable that would have been good for me to reach with public transport or bicycle. Horses are generally difficult to find in convenient to reach locations if you don’t have a car, unfortunately.

Well, it’s 2023 and I felt like I wanted to give horseback riding another try. There are several reasons that brought this hobby / sport back to my attention:

  • I’m looking for new, more active hobbies. Pretty much all of my hobbies involve sitting, and my back is not so happy about that.
  • I’m looking for an exercise that strengthens my core and back muscles, and horseback riding definitely does that in a really fun way.
  • I’ve been playing a hell of a lot of Red Dead Redemption 2, and the horses in this game are really great, as is galloping across this beautiful and serene virtual world.
  • I’ve met the horses that now live in the place I grew up in and follow them on Instagram, which is quite fun to observe.

So what’s the best way to try to get back on the horse again? I asked myself this question a few months ago, when I knew that my long and annoying job search was finally over. With a new job starting soon, I wanted to use the opportunity to go for a short vacation beforehand, and brainstormed some ideas. Getting fit and doing some kind of active holiday was an I idea I had a couple of weeks earlier, inspired by a former colleague. This thought wandered on to horseback riding, and I started researching opportunities for one-week “bootcamps” for horseback riding somewhere in Europe. There was an interesting looking place in Portugal that I considered, but ultimately I decided that I wanted to find a nice place in Italy and combine it with a little bit of travelling there.

Turns out there’s actually a huge industry for horse-riding vacations, and places allover the world offer things similar to what I was looking for. After asking for some recommendations, I decided on a place in Tuscany, not very far from Florence. I stayed there for one week, with 6 days of riding, for 2-5 hours a day.

Initially I was a bit worried that perhaps I lost confidence in the handling of horses. If you think about it, they’re quite big creatures that technically could kill you. However, most horses are pretty much just like very, very big dogs. They evolved to be companions for humans, and most horses want to work with and for humans. Things I worried about1 were whether I would be able to clean a horse without issues, lead a horse, and quite obviously, ride a horse. I was particularly worried about light trotting and galloping, mainly due to my back issues.

My first time back on a horse (a very delightful red Quarter-mix mare), went pretty alright as long as we were just walking – but here at my first attempts at trotting and light trotting, I had serious back issues. This continue for the next day as well, were I had quite a lot of trouble galloping due to trying to find the rhythm and trying my back not to hurt, and I could barely do it without holding onto the saddle. On the third day, I was assigned a different horse in the afternoon ride (the one pictured above, a bay Maremma gelding who can be a bit of a demon, but was pretty alright to ride). To my surprise, galloping felt easier and more natural with him, so I stuck with him for the rest of the week – even though it might also be that by the third day my back muscles were just better developed to support it, and that’s why it felt easier.

Regarding my muscles, it was quite a painful week. For the first half of the week, I could barely walk, but by the end of the week, my body had already adjusted to horseback riding quite well. I’m happy to report that by the end of the week, I was actually able to gallop long stretches without any significant back pain, hands-free, and thoroughly enjoying the sensation of riding through those beautiful landscapes full of rolling hills! Galloping is still the best and most fun part of horseback riding.

I have a few qualms about my vacation though – in hindsight, the place that I booked was not really the best possible fit for me. It is a place that is very much focused on the vacation aspect of horse-riding vacations, and I felt that my needs regarding lessons and training were only addressed superficially. I would have really liked to have one-on-one lessons, but that wasn’t really an option. The place gave me a feeling of caring very much about getting my money and keeping me at arms length, but not so much about what I actually wanted to achieve with this holiday. I was just another customer in their ever-changing flood of customers. It’s probably similar with most places, I was just a bit sad about this because I specifically asked for recommendations for places that would really help me regain my confidence and actually support me in that journey, and I also e-mailed the manager of this place this before I came there, but I didn’t get that feeling there. Oh well.

Regardless, I do feel that after the week, I found confidence when handling horses again. Doing it so intensely for one week really helped me in that realization, much, MUCH more than weekly lessons would have, which becomes obvious when you compare this experience to my experience with lessons 12 years ago. I would be happy to pick up horse-riding as a new hobby / exercise again – IF I can find a horse to lease that I can also reach by bicycle. That’s gonna be the real challenge. I certainly hope this won’t become a thing I do every 12 years 🤣