Amanda Rosen 10 is an Equestrian Rider for Hunter Run Farms.  She has been riding for almost 5 years. After several injuries and difficult shows, she is still riding to this day. With Covid-19 spreading, she still attends the barn on a weekly basis.  Amanda has had multiple injuries over her riding career but she always gets back on the horse. 

“My first big injury was breaking my collar bone by face planting into the ground. I fell and I didn’t even realize something had happened until my trainer said something, then I looked down and it was like sticking out of my skin. I guess I was just too shocked to realize because I didn’t cry at all.  My trainer then proceeded to put a horse blanket around me but it hurt too bad to have anything touch it,” Rosen said. “Another injury I had was when a horse stomped on my foot and my toenail ripped off. There was blood everywhere. I’ve fallen off so many times, broke my ribs and got dragged across the ground. All and all horseback riding is dangerous no matter what people say.” 

Not only is it dangerous but it requires specific skills and muscle as well. 

“It takes a lot of leg muscle but mostly inner thighs and calves. It feels like you’re doing squats over and over again.  Not that my horse, Eclipso, does but if your horse likes to yank around and misbehave you have to have really good arm muscle because it takes so much in order to control a horse like that,” Rosen exclaimed. “Your core gets really strong too, it’s a full body workout. I don’t know why but my ankles get to be really flexible as well.”

Rosen says that horse back riding is just as much as a sport as any.  You travel, have competitions and there are different levels.

“IEA is one of the most difficult things to compete in.  IEA stands for International Equestrian Association,” Rosen said. “We draw a horse’s name out of a helmet and then we have to ride it.  We never ride the same horse and it gets challenging because some of the horses are stubborn and are hard to control.  It’s also in the winter so it’ll be raining or snowing which makes it ten times worse.”

After each show the riders get awarded a variety of different colored ribbons.  The blue stands for first place, red stands for second place, green stands for third place and so on. 

Amanda Rosen said, “It’s one of the best feelings to win or get a ribbon.  It lets me know I have done a good job because the judges judge very harshly.  They’re also pretty to hang up around my room!”