Riding for Health and for Pleasure: A Brief Historical Overview with Reference to Latvia in the Baltic Region

Abstract

Throughout premodern history, horses were used primarily for labour and transportation, as well as in the military sphere. With the advent of motorized vehicles and other means of transport, the emphasis shifted to using horses in sport as well as for leisure. This article begins by examining briefly the few pre-modern European sources that mention riding as health-promoting and pleasurable activity, continues with a discussion of the more numerous and detailed references to the benefits of riding in the eighteenth and nineteenth-century sources and concludes with an overview of the rise of riding therapy and recreational riding in Germany and the Baltics in the twentieth century.