Life is not always a bed of roses. There can be several unexpected situations that life throws at you, including being stranded in the wild somewhere while on an adventure or any natural calamity. Preparedness is the key to leading a peaceful life. Knowing that you cannot control or predict the upcoming life events or upheavals is quite a significant stressor; however, having a survival kit ready and some basic survival skills at hand, you can rest your mind. Meanwhile, click the link if you need help from an experienced private investigator.
What is a Survival Kit?
A survival kit is similar to having a first-aid kit prepared. You have to keep things that help you survive on your own for a few days. These kits are also often called bug-out bags. It would be best to prepare bug-out bags with a few essential food items that tend to your hunger yet are not easily perishable. You can keep some biscuits or canned foods along with water bottles.
Additionally, you must have batteries, flashlights, at least two hand-crank power generators, and a weather radio. Also, a first-aid kit is an extremely component of preparing a bug-out bag. Some other must-have items for a survival kit include:
- Plastic bags
- Plastic sheet wrap
- Hand towels or wipes
- Plastic ties
- Essential tools such as can opener, wrench, or pliers, etc.
- A copy of the maps
- Power bank for cell phone charging
Survival Skills
You cannot easily cope with survival situations with only a survival kit at hand. You must learn a few survival skills. Learning these skills helps you use your supplies wisely and spend time trying to get out of the given situation instead of just counting your life moments till someone helps.
Surviving in critical situations requires a set of basic survival skills, including starting a fire and building a shelter in the outdoors with only the essential survival items at hand. Learning to start a fire comes in very handy as fire provides for warmth, cooking food, shooing the predators away, and light in the dark. You should also learn to use clever ways to survive, such as making fishing hooks by wires.
Moreover, learning various ways to signal for help is also an essential prerequisite for surviving difficult situations. It would be best if you knew how you could use fire, bright-colored flags, reflective surfaces, or flashlights for signaling for help. Three lit fires in a triangle shape are taken as a distress signal. Learning to purify and clean the water available to you for drinking while stranded somewhere is also an imperative skill.
Horse Riding as a Survival Skill
Horseback riding is one of the most beneficial skills you can learn throughout any unprecedented event in your life. Though horseback riding is mainly taken as a sport, it is a significant survival skill. You can use this skill to survive many challenging situations, including when the terrain is terrible for walking.
Following are some benefits of learning horse riding for survival situations.
1. You Can Train Horses to Drag Items
One of the enormous struggles during survival times is to drag your things around. It is no less than a blessing if you have someone by your side who can help pull heavy items around. Whether it is a pile of dry firewood you need to drag across the uneven terrain or a heavy sleeping bag, if your trained horse knows you and trusts you, it can be the best companion you need.
2. Your Go-To Means of Transport
The most obvious benefit of knowing horseback riding as a survival skill is to have a go-to means of transport. During survival mode, there are several troubling moments where you want to take your bug out bag, haul it across your back, and run away.
Having a horse hobbled at a nearby tree is the best sight you would want to see in such situations. Horses are one of the best human companions. They wait for their master and can easily detect when there is some impending danger.
3. Keeps You Active
Life has taught us enough about being prepared for all sorts of unexpected events after the pandemic of 2020. One of the essential most things in such a list include being physically fit. Horseback riding is amongst the oldest sport and hobbies to gradually increase body stamina. Of course, when you know how to ride a horse, you practice daily and take out your horse for a ride.
It is the best form of exercise to keep you fit and active throughout the day. If you are stuck in survival situations, you will need a lot of physical strength to survive. Horseback riding can prepare you for that as you learn to ride horses in various terrains, including mountains.
4. Core Strength
The more you ride a horse daily, the more you will learn to balance yourself and the horse while riding on difficult paths. Learning to balance yourself requires immense use of your core muscles. You have to maintain the correct posture.
5. You Learn to Face Challenges
A person trained in horseback riding can survive a difficult situation better than someone who has no clue about it. It is because learning horseback riding posits new challenges every day. You have to overcome a new challenge, learn a new skill, or try a new tip to ride correctly. Facing challenges daily hones your problem-solving skills.
This quality is a major prerequisite of surviving in an apocalyptic world or in the case of natural calamities.
6. Instills Mental Resilience
One of the core survival skills is mental strength. If you know your weakness is panicking in unexpected situations or losing your senses during stressful situations, you should take horseback riding lessons. Gracefully riding a horse through several trails or terrains while managing never to lose your balance is a great confidence booster.
Horse riding teaches you one of the prime principles of surviving in a difficult situation: remaining calm while searching for some options. Learning this skill is a significant anxiety reducer. You are in command of an animal who loves and trusts you. This is very good for instilling a sense of responsibility in an individual.
Mental strength is the key to cope survival situations. Panicking only feeds the anxiety, which in turn does not let your mind work at the optimum level. You can think of signaling for help or fixing something to eat in the wilderness only when you are not in a constant state of worrying.
Conclusion
Horseback riding is a skill that can help you in numerous ways throughout your life. It makes you more active and fit to survive a few nights out in the wild when cold and afraid of the dark. Your horse can also be a great companion to go hiking, and even if you are stranded somewhere along the way for any reason, your horse riding skills can get you out of there without taking much time.