Being in the yard grooming, feeding, and otherwise caring for our horses reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, and improves overall health. 

As we acknowledge Mental Health Awareness Week, most of us who own horses talk about their therapeutic value along with the health benefits of being active in and around equestrian pursuits.  A study by Sport NZ was the first of its kind to investigate the association between recreational activity and mental wellbeing.  Up until March 2018, over 25,000 adults in New Zealand had completed the Active NZ survey.  What did Sport NZ find out?

Recreational physical activity is positively associated with mental wellbeing in New Zealand adults:

  • People meeting the physical activity recommendations through the recreational domain had 51% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing.

Participating in more recreational physical activity each week strengthens the positive association with mental wellbeing:

  • The positive association between recreational physical activity duration and healthy mental wellbeing was only significant when participating for at least 2.5 hours per week.
  • People doing at least 4.5 hours per week of recreational physical activity had 65% higher odds of having good mental well-being, which appeared to be the optimal duration where the association plateaus.

Spreading recreational physical activity across multiple days in the week strengthens the positive association with mental wellbeing:

  • The positive association between recreational physical activity frequency and healthy mental wellbeing was only significant when participating at least two days per week.
  • The odds of having better mental wellbeing then increased for each additional day of recreational physical activity to three days (24%), four days (18%) and five days (13%) per week.

Vigorous-intensity physical activity has a stronger association with mental wellbeing than moderate-intensity and light-intensity physical activity:

  • People meeting the physical activity recommendations by participating in vigorous-intensity recreational activity had 59% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing;
  • People meeting the physical activity recommendations by participating in moderate-intensity recreational activity had 24% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing.
  • People participating in an equivalent duration of light-intensity recreational activity had 25% higher odds of having a healthy mental well-being.

The association between recreational physical activity and mental wellbeing goes beyond organised sport:

  • People meeting the physical activity recommendations by participating in recreational walking had 11% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing;
  • People meeting the physical activity recommendations by participating in recreational gardening had 25% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing.

The association between recreational physical activity and mental wellbeing is stronger for women:

  • Women meeting the physical activity recommendations through the recreational domain had 59% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing;
  • Men meeting the physical activity recommendations through the recreational domain had 38% higher odds of having a healthy mental wellbeing
  • The patterns described above for intensity, duration, frequency and type of recreational physical activity were consistent across genders, but the relative strength of the associations was stronger for women in all cases except recreational gardening

(Source:  https://sportnz.org.nz/media/1644/active-nz-recreational-physical-activity-and-mental-wellbeing-formatted-article.pdf and for more info on the therapeutic value of horses https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/ending-addiction-good/201708/the-therapeutic-value-horses)