I bought my horse partly as a way to help me lose weight. I hate gyms, I like my exercise to be functional - that way it's more likely to happen regularly. I don't agree with spending hours in the gym, even in cold weather.
On saying all of that, I found I wasn't losing enough weight with just mucking out and walking or riding my horse. I took up running in January last year, but incorporated it into my yard visits. I ran from my house to feed my horse and took a wee detour as I got more and more fit. When I started to ride again, I had to take my saddle to the field in better weather and couldn't run there anymore, I just seemed to want to keep doing it, so I was riding, then going for a run and then poo picking during the summer. Four or five times a week.
I managed to lose a stone and can run up to six miles without stopping (actually stopping makes it feel so much worse!) I had to stop over the winter for about a month as I got injured and the hoof of my horse (little sh!t stood on me!) and the snow was just too bad at times.
I've been trying to regularly run at least a couple of miles lately to get my fitness back up but for the last month, life has been well and truly getting in the way and its p!ssing me off big style. I helped a friend with her animals while she was away for a couple of weeks and tried to incorporate running to her house to walk her dog, but when my dad got ill and I had to work for him and all the crap that's going on at my work recently, I've not been sleeping and I'm just a mess.
The upshot is that I know how good running makes me feel. It has replaced what I used to get from smoking. If I'm stressed it totally refreshes me, if I'm angry it relaxes me and it helps me sleep. Sorry that's a bit of a essay answer. But I never can keep up any exercise just for weight loss, so I'm feeling very smug that I've been realising other benefits of it that I enjoy more. I've now been diagnosed with over active thyroid, so hopefully that will help my incredibly slow metabolism!