Anyone who has taken riding lessons or attended a competition can easily agree that a large part of the riders are women. With approximately 80% of female members, horseback riding is indeed an extremely popular sport among women. Indeed, a study conducted a few years ago has highlighted the typical profile of the rider in France: unsurprisingly, a young girl under 16 years. Forbidden to women until 1930, how did the practice of horseback riding become more feminine over the last century? How can we explain this craze among this target group?
The practice of horse riding by women has always been regulated in history
The horse has always been a symbol of power in history. Attila even said that the horse, by allowing Man “to go faster and see further, makes him a Superman”. Intimately attached to the military tradition, representation of a certain form of domination, it has often remained the preserve of men, keeping women away from the animal and from the practice of horseback riding. The first trace of women on horseback in the imagination comes from Ancient Greece, with the myth of the Amazons. More than female practitioners of horse riding, their use of the horse puts forward their emancipation from patriarchy, in a society where men are reduced to slavery. This image is far from having left positive traces in the societies of yesteryear which, whatever their geographical situation, were often characterized by a male domination.
A feminine equitation framed in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages, although often wrongly described as a period of little progress and obscurity, allowed women to use a horse under certain circumstances, but only in certain specific cases. For example, if a woman had to continue her deceased husband’s business activity and this required riding a horse, the widow was allowed to ride. The practice was also available to high-ranking women who wished to accompany their husbands on certain events. At that time, it was possible in these rare exceptions to ride astride (i.e., in the classical position, with one leg on each side of the animal), something that was later prohibited. Through riding in amazon, women remained dependent on men since it was impossible for them to get on or off the horse without help.
Marginal breakthroughs of women on horseback until the last century
Between the 19th and 20th centuries, some women were able to impose themselves on horseback, especially in the circus world where women riders became more numerous and were recognized by society. In 1840, there were even more female riders than male riders. Caroline Loyo was the first woman to present a high school horse in a circus. Before her, only men presented high school dressage. Thanks to these circus women and their acrobatic and dance acts, horseback riding took on a feminine and graceful dimension. In the United States, the end of the 19th century was also marked by the famous Calamity James, known for her long rides astride her horse.
These circus artists or mythical women riders of the Far-West were still exceptions in Western societies, confirming that horseback riding was still a practice reserved for men. Straddle riding was even forbidden in France until 1930, when pressure from feminist movements allowed women to ride. This authorization was nevertheless framed by the obligation to wear pants for this pose to be tolerated.
The changeover in the 70’s
Then still reserved for aristocrats and officers, horseback riding gradually found a female audience from the middle class. Indeed, horseback riding was democratized and became accessible to a target whose income was more modest. Young women from the city are more interested in this sport, which gradually ceases to find its model in military riding from 1970. A phenomenon called the “Poly Syndrome” would explain why girls suddenly started to invest in stables. Indeed, the appearance of a pedagogy based on the pony, less impressive than its horse counterpart, would have attracted the female gender: the little girls all dreamed of having a pony to pamper. Riding was no longer a military sport, but an educational sport and a way to get closer to nature. Traditionally gallant and macho, riders welcomed the feminization of their sport, so much so that by the end of the century, 75% of horseback riding was already practiced by women. The French Federation became the most feminized major Olympic sports federation. This is even more true in the United Kingdom, where horseback riding has become an admission of femininity for the men of our society.
The paradox of horse riding
French horse riding counts today 700 000 licensed riders of which 80% are women. However, we notice on the high level competitions that the competitors are in vast majority men. This sport faces a paradox: how can women be so under-represented in high level competitions of a sport so feminized? Is horse riding a man’s sport and a woman’s leisure activity? Equestrianism is the only discipline that allows men and women to compete in the same events, on equal terms, up to the world level.
Penelope Leprevost, who has become a recognized show jumping rider among men, thinks that “It has nothing to do with competence, women are really on equal terms with men, because the 700 kg athlete who jumps over bars is not the rider, but the horse. What makes the difference is that the life of a competition rider implies leaving home every week from Wednesday to Sunday evening. A rhythm hardly compatible with a woman’s life. ”
This can also be explained by the fact that while horseback riding is a very feminine sport, it is more likely to be practiced by girls and young women than by women. Many of these young girls stop riding when they grow up and do not pursue a competitive career.
Some of the women riders who have made it to the top level
Penelope Leprevost
Rider since the age of 3, Penelope Leprevost is today the idol of many girls who practice horse riding. She took part in her first French Pony Championships at the age of 6, competed at the amateur level and, once she had obtained her baccalaureate, she decided to become a professional rider. 5 years later, in 2005, she took the 3rd place of the French Championship for Women Riders with Jaliska Solier, a championship she won one year later riding Karatina. Penelope joined the French team in 2008 and entered the world Top 10 the following year after the arrival of Mylord Carthago HN* and Topinambour in her stables. In 2010, she won the title of World Vice-Champion in Lexington. Since then, she has been competing in CSI 5* and has won many Grand Prix. She participated in her first Olympic Games in London in 2012 and came back from Rio four years later with the title of Olympic Team Champion. In the meantime, she became vice World Champion by Team in front of her public in Caen in 2014 and finished 2nd of the World Cup Final in Las Vegas. She shares her passion for horses with her daughter Eden, already a multi-medalist at the French Pony Championships and a Grand Prix horse winner.
Alexandra Ledermann
Daughter of Jacqueline and Jean-Pierre Ledermann, riders and breeders, Alexandra had the chance to grow up in a horse club. She was already riding a Shetland at the age of one and switched to horses when she was 4. Eager to follow in her father’s footsteps, Alexandra started competing in show jumping at the age of 7 and won 3 French Pony Champion titles in 1981 (in two categories) and 1982. Although she immediately wanted to become a professional rider, her parents forced her to take her baccalaureate first, which she obtained by reconciling schooling, training, and competitions. Alexandra reached the highest level quickly and, thanks to Punition, her father’s lead mare, she won the title of European Young Riders Team Champion at the age of 20. Three years later, she won the mythical Grand Prix Coupe du Monde de Paris Bercy and marked her passage into the big league. Her journey led her to meet Rochet M, an excellent but difficult horse, which led her to win a bronze medal in the individual event at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, then a silver medal at the World Equestrian Games in Rome in 1999 and finally, the title she considers the most beautiful, she became European Champion in individual at Hickstead (GB). Alexandra Ledermann is the first woman to become European Champion and the last French woman to have won an individual Olympic medal in show jumping. She has been away from the top level due to the lack of replacement horses but has developed many personal projects, such as her involvement in the Alexandra Ledermann video games, which have sold more than 1.2 million copies, and the launch of her clothing brand dedicated to female riders in 2008.
Charlotte Dujardin
Born in Enfield, UK, Charlotte was already riding at the age of two and took part in her first pony competition at the age of 3. Talented, she left school at 16 to devote herself to horseback riding. She won the Horse of the Year competition four times and the Hickstead Prize in show jumping three times. It was her coach at the time, Debbie Thomas, who encouraged her to turn to dressage, advice that paid off. Charlotte bought Fernandez, her first dressage horse and was spotted in 2007 by Carl Hester, a British dressage rider, who hired her as a groom and gave her the coaching and advice she needed to progress. She started her first Grand Prix dressage competitions in 2011. It is with Carl that Charlotte Dujardin spotted Valegro, the horse that will take her to the highest level. Their first outing in competition was already a revelation. With Valegro, Charlotte was crowned double Olympic medalist at the 2012 London Games: she won gold in the individual and team events. The following year, she won the title of European Champion in Individual and the bronze medal in Team. In 2014, at the World Equestrian Games in Caen, the couple became World Champions in Impose and in Freestyle and won the title of World Vice-Champion in the Team event. Charlotte retains her title of Olympic Champion in Individual at the Rio Games in 2016 and wins a silver medal in the team event. With Valegro, she holds the World Record for the highest score in Free Riding with 94.3% which she achieved at the FEI World Cup in London in 2014, after breaking her own 2013 record of 93.975. Charlotte has published her autobiography “The girl on the dancing horse” where she looks back on her story and the difficult moments, she went through to reach the top level but also those she experienced during her career.
Gwendolen Fer
Originally from the Toulouse region, Gwendolen Fer started riding at the age of 5 to occupy her Wednesday afternoons. She participated in her first competitions at the age of 8, in show jumping and CCE. She progressed rapidly which allowed her to participate in her first French Championships at the age of 10 and to win her first Grand-Prix pony two years later. She was lucky enough to be coached by Pascal Leroy and won her first French Pony Cup at the age of 15 and became French Pony and Junior Champion the following year. She participated in the World Championships for young horses of 7 years old as the youngest of the competition where she finished with a beautiful 13th place with Leria du Ter. It is with the same mare that she won the title of French Champion for Young Riders one year later. At just 22 years of age, Gwendolen competed in her first 3 star competitions. With her very good Romantic Love, she won in 2017 the edition of the Etoiles de Pau, one of the most prestigious competitions in the world, and thus entered the elite of French riders who have won a 4-star level CIC. If she could not participate in the last two Olympic Games, she can now claim a selection for 2020. In parallel to competition, she now runs an owner’s stable in the south-east of Toulouse, where she offers a sport-study section with the FFE label. She also continued her studies after the baccalaureate and holds a degree in management and an instructorship.
