You probably spend the majority of your time caring for your horse and ensuring that they’re happy and healthy. From buying them the best horse food on the market to regular grooming and shoeing, your horse’s wellbeing is at the top of your priority list. However, did you know that your horse could actually be repaying you for all the hard work you’re putting in? Studies have shown that owning and caring for a horse could actually improve your mental health. If you’re intrigued as to how your equine friends can help with your wellbeing, keep reading!
A Sense Of Dependency
When caring for a horse, you may start to feel that they depend on you to look after them. Feeling needed can really help boost your mental health as it allows you to feel wanted if you’ve previously felt alone. Horses are also a lot more in tune with their surroundings than people realise, and some believe that they can pick up on a rider’s mood and behavioural changes. This can help you recognise emotional changes within yourself and enable you to try and regulate them. One study showed that after 6 weeks of equine-based therapy, participants saw a significant decrease in their symptoms of anxiety and depression. Horses are also incredibly calming animals, so if you find yourself feeling anxious, being around them for a few hours could help you to unwind and banish your previous worries.
Enhanced Fitness Levels
Mental health and fitness have long been associated with each other and can have a knock-on effect when one of them isn’t great. Physical exercise is said to do wonders for your mental health as it boosts your endorphins and serotonin production. Riding and caring for a horse helps fitness levels and for many people is a much more comfortable environment than the gym.
Plenty Of Fresh Air
Spending time outdoors is known to be brilliant for your mental health, and what better way to get outdoors than with a horse. Hacking out means you can explore the countryside and cover more miles than you can usually do on foot. Managing your horse’s paddocks also requires you to be outside and as it is often in the early morning and evening, can result in some encounters with wildlife others don’t get to see very often.
Daylight is essential as a source of vitamin D which is why it is often called the sunshine vitamin. Without enough of it, you can start to feel blue and tired all the time. This is why being out in the fresh air and sunshine with horses can also help improve your mental wellness. Experiencing nature is said to help aid lots of mental health issues, so being able to breathe in plenty of fresh air and spend time with horses could work wonders.
Boost Your Social Confidence
When you work with horses, you’ll most likely be around other people doing the same thing and so have some common interests. People love to talk about their horses and it can often be easier to get to know someone by talking to them about their horses rather than having to talk about them or yourself .. You may be surprised at the friendships you can make just by getting involved with horses!
Looking after your mental health and being around horses can actually go hand in hand. You may think that it’s just about riding and mucking out, but it can be so much more than that. Working with horses can really help restore or build your self-esteem and also encourage new friendships. So, if you’re struggling with your mental health, why not see if being around horses can help. You maky just see an improvement.