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desiree333's avatar

Does riding a horse really hurt the buttocks and cause bruising there in the beginning of learning?

Asked by desiree333 (3195 points ) June 3rd, 2010

I am reading the novel Burned by Ellen Hopkins and the main character Pattyn learns to ride her Aunt’s horses. In the beginning her butt gets all bruised up ,and shes in some degree of pain. Does this really happen to people or is this girl really bad at riding?

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11 Answers

MissAusten's avatar

How much time is she spending on the horse each day? Is the riding intense, or is she starting out slow and still having this much trouble? If someone with no riding experience started spending time each day, they’d have different levels of soreness just depending on how long they were on the horse and how rough the riding was.

When I was a kid, I took weekly riding lessons for years. There were times when my legs were a little sore, but I don’t remember my butt hurting. I certainly didn’t get any bruises, even once I progressed to things like trotting (very bumpy) or cantering.

A couple of months ago, I went on an hour-long walking trail ride with my daughter. Years ago that wouldn’t have phased me, but by the end of it my knees were starting to ache. Apparently being on a horse for a while at age 35 is quite different from age 13. :(

Merriment's avatar

It really happens that you can get quite sore when learning to ride a horse. And visible bruising can also be par for the course.

I remember coming down off my horse (no, it wasn’t a high horse) “frozen” stiff in the riding position and the agony it was to straighten my legs.

I wasn’t a bad rider thankfully because being a bad rider does make it worse due to the bouncing around in the saddle. The trick is to use your legs in the stirrups to lift and cushion the “drop” back into the saddle.

DrBill's avatar

The only time I ever got sore was when I would ride bareback (without a saddle).

But I was riding 4–5 hours a day, everyday.

casheroo's avatar

I find it to be quite painful after getting off..nothing a little Motrin doesn’t help. You get used to it though.

wildpotato's avatar

Depends on the type of horse, the riding style used, and the length of time spent on the horse. If you’re riding a horse with an ambling gait, you could go all day and your butt would be fine. But if you’re riding English style and doing a lot of bumping around at first, the scenario you describe is absolutely possible. See here for more interesting info on horse gaits.

jfos's avatar

@casheroo That’s what she said

desiree333's avatar

@jfos hahahahahahaaa

deni's avatar

i rode a horse for the first time last week! we went for about a 2 hour ride, and it was mostly just walking. my butt hurt in exactly the same way that one’s butt hurts after riding a bicycle with an uncomfortable seat after you haven’t ridden one in a while. it’s not really your butt, it’s more between the legs. eh, i dunno. it wasn’t excruciating of course, just sore. but if you were doing it every day and for a longer amount of time, i can imagine it would be a bit painful. then i’m sure you’d get used to it quickly though.

desiree333's avatar

@deni Wow, do you think the positives outweigh the negatives?

godwit's avatar

your first few times riding are going to hurt because your muscles are probably not conditioned to sit in that position for a long period of time. It takes a lot of balance and strength to stay in your seat. I’ve been riding for years but I’ve never had bruising, and it’s not the kind of pain where you can’t walk or sit, it feels like your muscles are really tight.

DonaSerbez's avatar

i had my first time yesterday, and i have reallyyy big pain in my muscles which was expected. My butt hurts even more having in mind that i have no experience whatsoever in riding horses and the tour we had was long and on a mountain. I suppose that’s because i have no knowledge of how to ride when the horse is running so i was
hitting my butt on the saddle all the time.

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