Draft:Women in equestrianism

The place of women in equestrianism has undergone a clear societal evolution. Up until the 20th century, in most Eurasian and North African countries, and later in North and South America, the horse was a military and virile symbol, associated with men both for the purposes of war and daily work. In Asia, the Scythians, Sarmatians and Achaemenids probably practiced mixed horsemanship in ancient times, in contrast to the Greco-Roman civilizations. Access to horseback riding was then restricted in the Near East and Central Asia, particularly under the Sefevids.

The rare references to women riders and fighters are often based on myths, such as that of the Amazons, or on exceptions limiting the approach to horses to their care, such as that of the "Servants of the Horse" in the Bamoun kingdom in the 19th century. In Western Europe, access to horses is restricted by women's social status, as riding is reserved for the elite. In Central Asia, on the other hand, horses were generally available to all social classes for seasonal migrations. From the end of the Middle Ages, horseback riding with both legs on the same side, known as " en amazone ", became the norm in Western Europe, limiting the autonomy of women riders. The conquest of the American frontier brought women from all walks of life to ride horses and drive carriages, one of the most famous being Calamity Jane; this helped to lift the imposition of Amazon riding in the West.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the horse was used solely as a cash crop in Western countries. Over the century, the horse spread to urban and female circles, leading to an evolution in its status towards that of a pet, and a strong feminization of horse riding. This diffusion has not translated into a proportional representation of women at the highest levels of equestrian competition, particularly in show jumping, due to a division of labor based on gender stereotypes, and a dominant culture focused on the animal's performance rather than on the affective relationship. Horse-riding people maintain equestrian practices with low female participation, particularly among South American Gauchos.

Equestrian culture has given women an increasingly important role, in parallel with the feminization of equestrian practices, from the Anglo-Saxon pony books of the 1920s onwards to recent television and film productions. Works such as National Velvet (1944), Sarraounia (1986), Mulan (1998), and Sport de filles (2012) feature young girls and warrior riders.

Sources and terrain
The relationship between women and horses has been addressed by sociologists, ethnologists, and anthropologists, but also by psychoanalysts.

Equestrian sports are an ideal field for gender studies, as they constitute the only sporting sector in which men and women compete in the same events, against each other, right up to the international and Olympic levels. Mixed competitions have been held at the highest level since the 1950s, in every country that organizes show jumping, eventing, and dressage competitions. This has led to the publication of numerous studies throughout the world.

In French, the only sociological work of reference devoted to the feminization of equestrianism is an anthropologist Catherine Tourre-Malen's thesis (and the book based on it), which focuses exclusively on Europe and the West. Émilie Maj calls it a "fine analysis [that] will attract the interest of both audiences, researchers in the humanities and professionals and enthusiasts of the horse world". For Martine Segalen, the book contributes significantly to the feminization of society and contains fine observations. Catherine Monnot, on the other hand, deplored an initial bias, adding that "the demonstration suffers from a lack that runs through the whole analysis [...] One is led to believe that the author, a horse professional, has so internalized the dominant masculine discourse and values of this milieu, particularly critical of a systematically devalued 'feminine', that she no longer knows how to see and therefore analyze the meanings of the transformations underway". For geographer Sylvie Brunel, this is "a work of synthesis nourished by a long period of theoretical and practical research", but Brunel does not follow Tourre-Malen's conclusion, believing that "it is precisely women's infatuation with equines that have given a new lease of life to an activity that had lost its economic and military usefulness".

History
Women's relationship with horses appears marginally in historical documents.

There are major differences depending on geographical region, social status, and era. The horse's pre-industrial status implies that women, particularly those from the highest social classes, have always had theoretical access to equitation. Catherine Tourre-Malen identifies three stages in the evolution of women's riding in the Western world: from Antiquity to the 16th century, riding was a passive form of transport, requiring no special training or clothing; the generalization of riding in the Amazon style went hand in hand with the quest for a graceful attitude; and the invention of the third fork of the amazon saddle gave women access to equestrian activities (jumps, etc.) previously considered dangerous.

The feminization of equestrian practices has been observed in every country in the world since the mid-20th century, with varying degrees of intensity. According to Jean-Louis Gouraud, this phenomenon (which mainly concerns developed, urbanized countries such as France, Sweden, and the United States) is now well known and much commented on, but tends to obscure the reality of historic female equestrian practices in other parts of the world.

Antiquity
With the earliest evidence of horse domestication having been found among the Botai culture (in the north of present-day Kazakhstan, 3,000 to 3,500 BC), the domestic horse and horse-riding practices gradually spread across Eurasia via cultural interconnections.

According to the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, both Greeks and Romans attributed the practice of female horsemanship to foreign queens, such as the Phoenician queen Dido and the legendary Babylonian queen Semiramis.

Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire
According to Louis L'Allier, Professor of Classical Hellenistic Studies, as described by Xenophon, Greek women never rode horses. In this patriarchal society, the outer world is described as that of men, and the inner world (home) as that of women: the horse belongs to the outer world and is therefore associated only with men. L'Allier notes that in the Symposium, Socrates compares the "training" of his wife to that of a horse. The equestrian metaphor is also used by Xenophon to compare Greek women to horses: "Woman is to man what a mount is to a rider: a useful companion to be tamed and mastered".

According to Paulette Ghiron-Bistagne (Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier), in Greek mythology, the horse embodies savage violence; a legend recounted by Aeschines, Dio Chrysostom, and Diodorus Siculus tells of a young woman who lost her virginity before marriage and was condemned to be locked up with a horse, which put her to death. Centaurs, half-human half-horse creatures, are portrayed as rapists of women: Eurytos tries to rape Hippodamia (whose name means "horse tamer"); Nessos does the same with Deianira, the wife of Heracles.

Scythians and Sarmatians
Greek sources describe the nomadic, horse-riding peoples of present-day Kazakhstan, and by extension Central Asia, as Scythians and Sarmatians, established as early as the 6th century BC. Around 20% of female Sarmatian tombs from antiquity contain harnesses and weapons, demonstrating that these women rode and fought on horseback: the practice of horseback riding by women, even for military purposes, was a commonplace for them. However, the written sources of the period, heavily influenced by the myth of the Amazons, do not help to interpret the reality of this female equitation.

According to the Hippocratic treatise Des airs, des eaux et des lieux (Of Airs, Waters and Places), Sauromatian (Sarmatian) women were as warlike as men, rode horses, and had their right breast cauterized to transfer the vigor to their right arm. However, again according to this treatise cited by Alain Ballabriga, riding ceases when these women lose their virginity; they only get back on horseback in the event of extreme peril or mass mobilization.

Achaemenid Empire
According to Herodotus, horseback riding was commonplace in the Achaemenid Empire; the horse was the main mode of transport for the Persian nobility, and there is no indication that its use by women was restricted. The Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus testifies that the queen of Persia, the king's mother, and courtesans rode horseback alongside the king. The Greek philosopher Heracleids also mentions courtesans accompanying the king on horseback during his hunting activities. By contrast, after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the pre-Islamic empires (Seleucids, Parthians, and Sassanids) were associated with an upheaval of the social order, and subsequently with external insecurity, which probably led women to privilege activities within the home.

Middle Ages
In China, under the Tang dynasty, a loss of social status for women coincided with the development of equestrianism, as attested by the archaeological discovery of numerous statuettes of riders. Pre-Islamic literature from Persia (11th century) contains references to women riders taking part in equestrian activities on an equal footing with men.

During the Western Middle Ages, many guilds accepted widows as members, so that they could continue the work of their deceased husbands. Some women worked in horse-related trades. On farms, women often worked alongside men (on their farms or as hired help), which meant they were sometimes responsible for pulling horses and oxen, as well as managing their care.

Despite these difficulties, many Western women traveled long distances on horseback in medieval times. High society wives accompanied their husbands to tournaments. Others took on social or family commitments that led them to travel. Nuns and women of faith made pilgrimages. When not on foot, these women generally traveled on horseback (most often on a palfrey, which was more suitable) or, if weak or ill, in a wagon or litter. Women of the nobility sometimes owned horses with which they accompanied men in activities such as hunting and falconry.

Until the 14th century, most of these women rode astride (with one leg on each side of the horse's body). A model of saddle with a footrest was invented around the 11th century to enable noblewomen to ride amazon-style (with both legs on the same side) while wearing elaborate dresses, but this type of saddle was not universally adopted during the Middle Ages. Another technique for riding a horse in dress consists of sitting sideways on a heavily padded saddle, with both legs dangling along one of the horse's flanks: this type of riding is known as "en séant", "à la fermière" or "à la planchette".

Several Western women took part in wars on horseback, including Joan of Arc, Empress Matilda (who led an army against her cousin Stephen of England, armed and caparisoned) and Stephen's wife, Mathilde de Boulogne, in the 12th century. Equestrian jousting, on the other hand, was reserved exclusively for men.

Renaissance and modern times
From the end of the Western Middle Ages, European women were progressively forbidden to ride astride a horse, particularly in France. Only Amazon riding was allowed. This more technical form of riding required the help of a man to get in and out of the saddle with skirts, keeping women in a state of dependence. According to Catherine Tourre-Malen, "ladies' riding, by reducing women to a limited use of the horse, denies them equal access to the horse which, for centuries, has represented freedom and movement, power and domination". Women were marginalized in their access to equitation, all the more so as, in European society, the horse held, until the beginning of the 20th century, a role as a utilitarian and military animal, associated almost exclusively with men.

The equestrian sports of the Renaissance, inherited from jousting, quintaine, and ring racing, relied more on skill than strength but remained essentially masculine. Equestrian academies designed to train the nobility welcomed women, provided they had a certain level of saddle maintenance, particularly from the 16th to the 18th centuries, in western and south-western France. Warlike activities remained closed to them: although women of the European Renaissance sometimes accompanied huntsmen, they rode special horses reserved for them. The equitation treatise by master Gabriel du Breuil Pompée (1669) emphasizes the "grace" and "beautiful posture" that women should have on horseback.

Under the Sefevid dynasty (Persia - Iran) in 1501, there is evidence of very little participation by women in outdoor activities, coupled with a strict dress code that severely restricted their access to riding. During the reign of Shah Tahmasp I (1524 - 1576), women were strictly forbidden to ride anywhere outdoors and were explicitly discouraged from sitting on a horse or holding the reins. This law changed in the late Sefevid period, probably under the influence of Western visitors; courtesans and wealthy women were allowed to drive carriages, and prostitutes rode freely. According to travelers' accounts, Persian horsewomen wore long dresses and veils that covered their entire faces.

XVIII and IXX centuries
In Europe, horses remained the preserve of a social elite. However, major voyages of exploration and the colonization of new territories led some women to make use of horses. In 1890 and 1891, Kate Marsden traveled 18,000 km across Russia, riding horses and driving carriages.According to Jean-Louis Gouraud, some Ottoman Bashi-bazouk troops were led by women.

Amazon horsewomen in European circuses
During the July monarchy, horseback riding was, along with dancing, the only physical activity recommended for the women of Europe's elite. Amazon riding reached its apogee in the 19th century.

Despite the restrictions imposed by systematic Amazon riding, European women built up a solid reputation in the circus field, becoming renowned horsewomen and attracting large audiences. They were the subject of press articles and inspired artists. The circus offered them an opportunity to assert themselves. These women's acts were so renowned that they traveled with their horses all over Europe, as far away as St. Petersburg. Caroline Loyo, the first female horsewoman to present her high-school horse on a circus ring in 1833, performed at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris the following year. The Austrian Elisa Petzold became the private teacher of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. By the 1840s, female equestrians outnumbered male equestrians in the circus field. The form of these shows rapidly evolved towards a search for grace and femininity, notably through acrobatic and dance acts.

Americas
The great diversity of Amerindian tribes precludes generalizations, and studies of their relationship with horses almost always concern men. As sources concerning women are extremely rare, they allow only imprecise reconstructions. The American West is historically described as an ideal space for men and cattle, and "a hell for women and horses". The Native American tribes of the Great Plains initially appear to have been relatively egalitarian in terms of male-female relations. The introduction of the horse to their territory in the 18th century led to cultural and social changes. It wasn't until the 19th century that the Plains Amerindians became a horse-riding people, particularly the Lakota and Cheyenne. Herding horses became a male activity, and the arrival of horses among these peoples probably favored men in the first instance. A decline in women's social status was evident at the same time; the horse favored warrior raids, a male activity. However, early photographs show female crows riding astride horses in the early 20th century. There are also records of Cheyenne and Blackfeet women becoming skilled horsewomen, of Crow women riding in the battle against the Sioux, and of an old Pawnee woman riding to defend her village against a Poncas attack.

The conquest of the American West led many women of European origin and of all social statuses to ride horses or drive carriages to get around. In the United States in the late 19th century, Calamity Jane was renowned for riding long distances on horseback, astride like a man.

African kingdoms
Most of the great pre-colonial African monarchies kept the horse away from women and accepted none among their military cavalry, with one possible exception: in the Bamoun kingdom, the care of horses was entrusted to rigorously selected young girls, called "Servants of the Horse".

In his study of the Abisi ethnic group of Nigeria (1979), anthropologist Jean-Jacques Chalifoux notes that women are not allowed to own any horses, as these are reserved for men to hunt; however, a "horsewoman" is responsible for bringing fodder and water to the horses.

Ethnic groups in China
In his posthumous work La femme en Chine (1876), Louis-Auguste Martin observed that among the " Lo-Lo " ethnic group (better known as the Yi), women rode horses during wedding ceremonies, wearing a long dress topped by a small coat that fell to the waist; they wore the same outfit when they needed to travel on horseback. Diplomat John Barrow, during his service at the English Embassy in Peking (1792-1794), similarly testifies to the fact that Tartar women ride astride horses in the streets wearing long silk dresses, unlike Chinese (Han) women who remain scrupulously at home.

20th century
In both the UK and Sweden, at the beginning of the 20th century, riding was inextricably linked with men and masculinity, with Swedish riders coming from the upper classes, particularly in the transport and military sectors. A massive feminization of equestrian practices was observed in most European countries, particularly in the UK, as well as in the USA, throughout the 20th century. In Latin America, there are no statistics on equestrian practices, but this feminization is known, notably in show jumping in Brazil. In Canada, rodeo, traditionally a male sport, is attracting more and more women. The same phenomenon can be observed in dressage competitions worldwide. In the United States, Spain, and Brazil, only certain equestrian practices considered traditional (western riding, doma vaquera, etc.) remain masculine activities.

Authorization to ride astride and access to international competitions
Authorization for women to ride astride coincided with the wave of feminist protest movements. In 1914, only Amazon riding was deemed suitable for French women. In 1930, a French law authorized women for the first time to wear pants when riding horses or bicycles. This very rapid change in mentality seems to be due to a parallel evolution in education and mores, as well as to the influence of cultures (notably American) that authorized straddle riding for all. In 1952, women were allowed to take part in Olympic dressage competitions for the first time, and in 1956, the same authorization was granted for Olympic show jumping competitions. The Swedish press devoted numerous articles to women in equestrian sports during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, indicating a relatively rare female presence in this sector at the time. Pat Smythe, the first woman (of British nationality) to take part in show jumping competitions at Olympic level, received a great deal of media coverage in this country.

Evolution of gender representations
According to sports sociologist Susanna Hedenborg (Malmö University), gender representations of horse riding probably began to change in Sweden and the UK in the 1950s.

Riding, previously practiced by officers and aristocrats in the Western world, was increasingly attracting women, generally young, urban and middle-class. As women gained access to sports and leisure activities, the equestrian world became increasingly feminized throughout the 20th century. This cannot be explained simply by the decline in military activities and work with horses.

An analysis of recruitment advertisements published in the British equestrian magazine Horse & Hound shows that in 1912, not a single advertisement was written to recruit a woman, whereas by 1964, almost 50% of advertisements explicitly called for the recruitment of a woman, following a steady progression: since 1956, women have made up the majority of riders and grooms recruited via this British magazine. This may be at least partly explained by the loss of many young British men during the Second World War. Other factors, such as the fact that it is preferable for a rider-groom to be light in weight, also has an impact in it. According to Tourre-Malen, the welcome given to female riders by male riders is often favorable and benevolent, thanks to a gallant tradition, and despite a certain machismo. And naturally, the number of women jockeys is set to multiply. Until now, what had always held back their proliferation was a psychological problem. Can you imagine a woman jockey slowing down a hundred metres from the finish to apply a little lipstick so she looks her best in the photo finish?

- André and Mina Guillois, Les femmes marrantes (1975) This shift became obvious in the 1970s, when women stopped aligning themselves with the model of military, masculine riding. It was partly due to the development of pony riding, giving children and young girls access to an animal less impressive than horses. In France, the proportion of licensed women riders rose from just over 50% in 1963 to 53.4% in 1975, then to 63.5% in 1987. By the end of the century, women accounted for 70-80% of all riders in France, making the French Equestrian Federation the most feminized of the major Olympic sports federations.

Myths, heroines and legends
The relationship between women and horses has been evoked in certain great myths and heroic tales since Antiquity. The figure of the warrior and equestrian heroine is common to many civilizations, in the West with Joan of Arc (best known in France), in China (with 花木蘭; Huā Mùlán) and on the African continent.

Divinities
In his study "La femme et l'équidé dans la mythologie française", mythologist George Charrière notes the existence of numerous mythological equestrian figures: the goddess Épona (Gallic and taken over by the Romans), the Irish Rhiannon, the association between the woman and the unicorn, the chauchevieille, the Trottes-vieilles of Haute-Saône, the Franc-comtoise equestrian fairy Tante Arie, and other similar figures evoked at mid-Lent. Epona is depicted as a symbol of abundance, with the horn of plenty, which Charrière interprets as a dairy goddess. According to philosopher Michel Cazenave, Celtic mare-goddesses can embody female sovereignty: in Celtic Irish mythology, the goddess Macha wins a foot race against horses.

Persian mythology also includes goddesses and other female figures associated with the horse, including Anāhitā, goddess of water and military woman, who drives a chariot pulled by four horses. In Greek and Roman mythology, the agricultural and fertility goddess Demeter is sometimes depicted with a horse's head.

Myth of the Amazons
The myth of the Amazons is one of the best-known associations between women and the horse, having nourished "representations of women on horseback and matriarchy". They were the first women to use cavalry, organizing themselves into a society in which men were their slaves, or outcasts. The name Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, means "untied horse" in Greek.

This myth seems to have its roots in the well-documented existence of women riders and warriors in antiquity, seen as extraordinary in ancient Greek patriarchal society, where women had no access to horseback riding. The Amazons became part of the myth that fed the Greek imagination.

Heroic African women riders
Many African peoples have equestrian heroines, notably the Berbers and the Sahel.

Legendary horsewomen of the Maghreb
These legendary queens include the Berber figure Dihya (also known as "La Kahina").

In his Voyages dans les régences de Tunis et d'Alger, Claude-Charles de Peyssonnel describes how Sultan Bou Aziz was attacked and defeated by Hassan Bou Kemia, the bey of Constantine, in 1724; He was in despair when his daughter, called Elgie Bent Boisis Ben Nacer (Euldjia Bent Bou Aziz Ben Nacer), had her most beautiful clothes brought to her and, having dressed herself, mounted her horse, calling the women and girls, her relatives and friends, who also mounted their horses. She harangued the women, telling them: "Since these men don't dare to go against the Turks, who will soon come and rape us in their eyes, let's go and sell our lives and honor dearly ourselves, and not stay with these cowards any longer". Then, uncovering her throat and showing it to the men, she shouted "Children of Nazer (Nacer)! Whoever wants to suck this milk, follow me! The men, stung by the girl's heroism, attacked the Turks with such violence that they defeated the camp, took part of the booty that had been taken from them, took the Khalifa prisoner and stripped all the Turks.

Legendary Sahel horsewomen
The Sahel Sarraounia horsewoman is a figure reinvented romantically in the 1980s, presented as a woman raised like a man in a patriarchal society. Soninke chivalry is said to have been created by Niamey, another Sahelian horsewoman who is evoked in the legendary tales of the griots: when she became a rider at a very young age, a winged horse rising from the sky placed itself at her service.

Yennenga, whom Jean-Louis Gouraud likens to "Africa's Joan of Arc", is a princess of great beauty and a skilled horsewoman who falls in love with the hunter Riale while riding his stallion; her son takes the name Ouedraogo, meaning "the stallion", in homage to his mount: he is the ancestor and founder of the Mossi ethnic group. Yennenga is also featured on the FESPACO awards, known as "stallion".

Economic analysis
In 2007, 84% of the members of the Swedish Equestrian Federation were women, most of them young. The sector is also of great economic importance in this country, as riding is practised by all social classes. The same is true of the UK, where the equestrian sector is the country's leading sports employer.

In the USA, women account for over 80% of equestrians (in 2003). In French-speaking Belgium, riding is the fourth most practiced sport, as well as the leading women's sport (in 2016).

Distribution of activities
In France, women accounted for 74.5% of competitors in the French Equestrian Federation in 2006, but only 25% of competitors at the highest level, the "pro" level. Women are much better represented in teaching beginners (men primarily supervise competition riders and more experienced riders), administration and horse care, which generally do not allow them to work or develop their sporting skills: strategic functions remain the preserve of men. When a couple (husband and wife or brother and sister) work in equestrian sports, the distribution of work and horses is almost systematically in the man's favor, to the detriment of the wife, who "plays a supporting role".

Women involved in high-level competition generally have considerable financial capital, enabling them to access high-performance horses and free themselves from domestic chores, or come from well-known professional riding families.

Equestrian clothing and equipment
According to Tourre-Malen, since the 1930s, Western women riders have adopted the same dress code as men, with little to differentiate them. However, women riders' outfits have become more "feminine" since the 1970s, notably with the arrival of the more comfortable tight-fitting elastic breeches around 1975. Women's riding gear thus represents a market for selling products formatted for female expectations and sensibilities.

Tourre-Malen notes that riding is a pretext for women to "adorn themselves", choosing the elements of their outfit and those of the horse's harness with care. While dress is highly regulated at the highest level of competition, particularly in terms of colors, pony and amateur competitions allow for greater freedom of dress. For Tourre-Malen, "the feminine expression of the outfit can also be seen in the diversification of color ranges for riding breeches and shirts", and equipment manufacturers are targeting this clientele by offering "trendy colors". As noted by Belgian journalist Soraya Ghali, the feminization of equestrian practices in the West is accompanied by a change in the colors of equipment, formerly in dark, classic shades (black, brown, green, navy blue...), now available in pink, mauve, blue, and even very flashy shades such as neon green and fuchsia pink.

These eye-catching colors cover all the modern equestrian equipment used by young riders, especially saddle pads, grooming boxes, breeches, jackets, the front of the bridle (which can be covered with rhinestones), shock-absorbing pads, fetlock guards, bells, and even Equestrian helmet, which can be covered in suede or shiny lines. This evolution is encouraged by equipment manufacturers, who take advantage of the fact that riders' parents spend money on this type of equipment.

Sociological analysis
Various studies show that female riders love the horse itself and seek an emotional relationship with the animal, while male riders are more interested in riding and technique. Catherine Tourre-Malen thus identifies two gendered profiles in Western equestrianism: a utilitarian male profile and a non-utilitarian female profile, which tends to bring the horse closer to the pet. Still according to Tourre-Malen, horse riding has intrinsic characteristics that "predispose it to feminization", notably its elegance and the need to work on body carriage.

In the Western world
Despite the feminization of equestrian practices in the Western world, a significant divide remains between the male-dominated world of high-level competition and the largely female-dominated world of leisure riding. Jean-Pierre Digard explains the arrival of women in the equestrian world by the fact that they have more free time than men, and that it is more difficult for women to enter the job market. A social divide persists, with women from the poorest Western backgrounds lacking the financial means to ride. This feminization of equestrian practices cannot be explained solely by the loss of the horse's military and utilitarian functions. One explanation put forward by Catherine Topurre-Malen is the association between horsemanship and elegant posture, associated with femininity. What's more, in France in particular, the horse is the favorite animal of little girls.

Digard notes that "statistically, women's participation in equestrian sports is greater the higher their standard of living". He adds the possibility of revenge or a challenge in "conquering a field of activity that has long remained exclusively male", which women see as "fundamentally macho, even misogynistic". Last but not least, he believes that women's "animal sensibility" fosters a relationship of "hippolatry" and a tendency to mother horses.

Catherine Tourre-Malen notes that the feminization of horse-riding, which is already clearly visible, will lead to more feminization in the future, as boys abandon the practice to distinguish themselves from girls. She envisions riding becoming "a definitively feminine sport". In the UK, a boy's desire to ride is seen as an admission of femininity, in the same way as ballet. The same is true of Sweden and all Northern European countries. However, the perception of expertise remains associated with men. According to Fanny Le Mancq, this difference can be explained both by a "gendered distribution" of work and by the culture and relationship with the horse, which remain very masculine in top-level competition. Female competitors are frequently the victims of discrimination and denial of their talent, especially if they compete as amateurs. Those who come from riders' families suffer from the status of "wife of" or "daughter of", which reinforces their dependence on men.

Catherine Tourre-Malen believes that "women will perhaps civilize the relationship with the horse to the point of rendering abhorrent the idea of exploiting an animal solely for the pleasure of the rider".

In Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Maghreb
According to sociology professor Ladan Rahbari (University of Amsterdam), horse-riding in Iran is largely male-dominated ("hegemonic"), and the patriarchal, macho context means that the presence of women is strongly discouraged in sports establishments. There has been little support for horse-riding since the Islamic revolution of 1979; nevertheless, a few women practice leisure riding in Tehran, which is expensive and therefore only accessible to the wealthy social classes. In a rare move for a sport in Iran, leisure riding clubs welcome men and women in the same spaces. However, women must cover their heads.

In Saudi Arabia, there is a persistent belief that women who ride can lose their virginity, which has given rise to the belief that women should never ride horses.

According to ethnologist and anthropologist Béatrice Lecestre-Rollier (Université Paris-Descartes), in the High Atlas, women "may follow a mule ridden by a man on foot; they may ride behind a man; if they are old, ill or pregnant, they may ride on the back of a mule, with their son or husband leading it on foot. But it is exceptional to come across a woman alone in the saddle, proud rider". Similarly, the presence of a woman riding alone in the streets of Tizi Ouzou is considered a "very unusual" phenomenon in Algeria in 2020.

Among equestrian peoples
In countries and regions dominated by a pastoral society - such as Yakutia - the feminization of horse riding is either non-existent or much less marked than in Western countries. The powerful images of Argentine gauchos and American cowboys, served up by a large production of Western films, testify to the (almost) exclusively masculine status accorded to the horse in these parts of the world.

African beliefs associating women and horses
Various beliefs are associated with African women who rub shoulders with horses. According to Malian storyteller Amadou Hampâté Bâ, a horse suffering from severe colic can be cured if stepped on by a woman loyal to her husband. The "horse-woman", who feeds these animals among the Abisi of Nigeria (1979), has the reputation of being able to influence the horse by asking it to disobey its male rider; this power is recognized by the Abisi men, who declare that they avoid any dispute with the horse-woman before mounting their horse. In Guinea, the horse is essentially a symbol of power, cited in folk tales where it is often protective of girls. In the North Guinean tale "La fille qui veut soigner son père" ("The girl who wants to heal her father"), her father's horse, named Fanta, is gifted with speech and gives her advice that enables her to retrieve a remedy for her father, disguised as a man. Teli Boumbali's Badiaranké tale Une fille et son mari serpent (A Girl and Her Snake Husband) features Ngololobaabasara, a small horse gifted with speech and metamorphosis, who advises a woman, enabling her to do what usually only men can do.

Nomadic peoples of Central Asia
The nomadic populations of Iran have probably always practised mixed equestrian transport, using horses for their annual migrations, implying that women rode just like men on these occasions. On the other hand, hunting seems to be more common among Qashqai men than women. Nomadic Turkmen and Qashqai women are also responsible for managing horse care.

Among the Turkmen, horse-racing is a predominantly male activity, with female participation limited to an essentially ceremonial role; however, efforts are being made to perpetuate the ceremonial role of women riders.

According to sociologist Veronika Velt (2001), in Kalmyk patriarchal society, horses are mainly ridden by men, with restrictions on women. They are not allowed to saddle their horses or get on and off the saddle on their own, these tasks being assigned to a man. The creation of objects from horsehair and sinew, on the other hand, is reserved for women, whose expertise in making lassos from horsehair is highly esteemed.

Siberian Yakuts
According to sociologist Émilie Maj, in Yakutia, women, who are associated with the household, are only in contact with the horses during the milking period, and may look after orphaned foals. Moreover, the protective spirit of horses, D'öḥögöj, is also that of men, but not of women. During the Yḥyah festival, the shaman asks D'öḥögöj to give birth to new foals. During the džalyn "passion" rite, the spirit gives sexual desire to the women, who throw themselves at the shaman "like raging mares at a stallion", neighing in unison with the shaman.

Gauchos of South America
The Gauchos form a specific equestrian culture in South America, highly masculine, glorifying the values of honor, freedom, righteousness, bravery and masculinity. Latin American historian John Charles Chasteen testifies (in 1995) that there are no women among the Guaraní gauchos.

In Brazilian society, Gauchos are portrayed as virile horsemen and women as frail, stay-at-home creatures. Women have, however, been allowed to take part in Brazilian rodeo competitions since the 2000s, but this authorization is accompanied by measures designed to keep them "within the bounds of normative femininity".

Manadiers de Camargue (France)
Sociologist Sophie Vignon has studied the place of women who arrived in the Camargue manades from the 1980s onwards, in a traditionally masculine environment. These women, who often preferred activities perceived as typically masculine during their childhood, inherited manades or became manadières thanks to their spouse, and a masculine or similar sport. They adopt men's codes in their work and reject "fragile" women while trying to retain their femininity.

Sumbanese from Indonesia
On the Indonesian island of Sumba (in 2018), in general, men and children provide food for the horses, while women supply the water. The horse is culturally associated with men, becoming, according to Indonesian researchers Melkianus D. S. Randu (Department of Animal Husbandry, Agricultural Polytechnic of the Principality of Kupang) and B. Hartono (Faculty of Animal Husbandry, University of Brawijaya, Malang), a symbol of responsible masculinity. Women only manage the breeding of these animals when they take over the family business, or if their husbands die.

Competitions
In both France and the UK, the number of female riders is generally higher than the number of male riders, but men are over-represented at the highest levels of competition.

According to Tourre-Malen and French sociologist Fanny Le Manq, the instrumentalization of the horse is one of the foundations of equestrian sport, and building a career with horses leads to a change in the relationship with the animal, which is unfavorable to women, particularly because of the exacerbation of confrontational situations. In the early days of equestrianism, the emotional relationship played an important role, with the animal systematically referred to by name. The instrumentalization of the horse, seen as a "performance tool", accompanied progress in competitions. This is reflected, among other things, in a modification of the lexical field, leading to reification. This lexical field resembles that of motor sports at the highest level of competition, with expressions such as "programmed buttons", "lack of power", or "passes like a real 4x4". Care and emotional relationships are downplayed in favor of work and the quest for performance. While the evolution in the relationship with the horse is the same for both sexes, Fanny Le Mancq notes that women are losing interest in high-level competitions due to this change in the relationship with the animal, which explains the reduction in the number of women as competition levels rise.

Access to high-performance horses is becoming increasingly difficult at top level, as these riders generally don't own their own mounts, but have them entrusted to them, and ride several of them. Building an affective relationship with the animal becomes difficult, as the rider-horse pair is likely to be separated at any moment. Fanny Le Mancq adds that the distinction between professional and amateur riders is to the detriment of the latter, who are devalued "because they ride for pleasure". Amateur women riders have to overcome a "double handicap" to gain recognition for their skills, as the world of equestrian competition is built by and for men, with a late and incomplete feminization. A number of women testify to the difficulty of asserting themselves in professional competitions, and the feeling that they don't fit in, as these competitions are attended by a majority of men for whom riding and the relationship with horses is a "business".  For sports sociologist Vèrène Chevalier, a "glass ceiling" effect, common with other sports, blocks women's access to the highest level of competition, as their opportunities of access are not equal, either materially or symbolically: she cites as an example the fact that horse dealers and owners of high-performance competition animals are "imbued with gendered stereotypes", which dissuade them from selling or entrusting an excellent horse to a woman.

Tourre Malen and Kirrilly Thompson, vice-president of the South Australian Horse Society, believe that the careers of top-level female riders are hampered by family obligations (caring for children, etc.), which are still divided along gender stereotypical lines, and are hardly compatible with the combined functions of training, merchandising and horse trading.

Equestrian sports
Jumping competitions are still predominantly male at a high level, while dressage competitions are predominantly female, even at a high level. Tourre-Malen's survey shows that women generally prefer dressage, seen as a more feminine sport. She analyzes the scarcity of women in show jumping as a phenomenon stemming from the market logic specific to this competitive milieu, which "distances it from the strict sporting dimension and reinforces its masculine image", adding that the show jumping milieu remains dominated by the figure of the "horseman", and that active sexual discrimination prevailed until the 1990s.

According to Tourre-Malen, spectators have a social expectation of grace and femininity during show jumping competitions, with women considered too ungraceful in the saddle being "carted off". French show jumper Pénélope Leprévost believes that "even at the highest level, women maintain a more tender relationship with their horses".

In China, women are increasingly practicing acrobatics in circles (a discipline combining equitation and gymnastics).

From equestrian sports
The feminization of equestrian sport came later than the feminization of equestrian sport, becoming noticeable at the end of the 20th century in Sweden and the United Kingdom. In Japan, female jockeys are a rarity, with only six women having obtained their jockey's license since 1996. The first Group I gallop race won by a woman in France was in October 2020; Coralie Pacaut, the 2019 Cravache d'Or Feminine, believes that racing in France "remains macho" despite an increasingly visible female presence.

Medical analysis
At the beginning of the 20th century, women's horseback riding and cycling were likened by some doctors to a form of masturbation; more rarely, doctors of the time mentioned the possibility of diverting women from masturbation through horseback riding or cycling. These practices were suspected of harming female sexuality.

Since then, other more serious medical studies have examined the consequences of regular horseback riding on women's health. No statistical association has been found between regular riding and sexual dysfunction in either men or women.

According to a 2017 review of the scientific literature, over the long term, horse riding may predispose women tourinary stress incontinence, probably due to the impact on pelvic floor muscles during gait transitions.

In 1980, a study investigated panniculitis in four female riders, attributable to both cold exposure and their equestrian activities: these lesions were caused, in part, by wearing tight-fitting, poorly insulated cycling pants, slowing blood flow through the skin and thus reducing tissue temperature.

In 2015, three South Korean researchers studied the effects of horseback riding on female obesity, comparing two groups of obese women, one of whom rode a horse three times a week for 8 weeks, and the other who walked for the same length of time. They concluded that horseback riding led to a greater reduction in body mass index than walking.

Symbolism and psychoanalysis
Christian symbolism around the unicorn, a legendary animal likened to an equine, features the tradition of the virgin girl, "charmer and protector of the indomitable beast", whose purity and virginity can only be likened to the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.

According to Digard, the symbolism of the horse is generally that of a powerful, masculine animal. However, early psychoanalysts did not agree on the symbolic dimension of the horse. Sigmund Freud attributes the taming of the stallion to a resolution of the primary castration complex, associating the horse with the reappropriated phallus, enabling the little girl to be more feminine, gentle and loving, filling her phallus gap. He interprets the case of little Hans by assimilating the horse to the castrating father or grandfather.

Conversely, Carl Gustav Jung sees the horse as one of the archetypes of the mother, because it carries its rider just as the mother carries her child, "offers a gentle, rhythmic contact, and values its rider". In The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim explains many little girls' attraction to toy horses, which they style or dress, and later the continuity of this attraction through riding and caring for horses, by the need to compensate for emotional desires: "by controlling an animal as large and powerful as the horse, the young girl has the feeling of controlling the animality or masculine part in her".

In The Naked Ape, British zoologist Desmond Morris explains girls' and women's attraction to horse riding in terms of eroticism, noting that the horse is three times more popular with girls than with boys. He explains this by the horse's symbolic association with a male element, as powerful, muscular and dominant; he notes that the movements performed by the rider astride are rhythmic, with legs spread in close contact with the animal's body, and are therefore, in his view, akin to a sexual act.

In the early 20th century, masculinity was associated with regular riding. This partly explains why Western women were long forbidden to ride astride like men. Some poets, such as F. G. Lorca, use the word "pouliche" to designate a spirited young woman. The feminization of equestrianism has gone hand in hand with a change in the symbolic perception of the horse.

Cultural representations
Since the first works of children's and young people's literature published in the mid-19th century, the emotional relationship between children or teenagers and ponies or horses has been the preferred representation, often driven by urban authors who love horses but don't have the opportunity to rub shoulders with them on a regular basis. This cultural production feeds the imagination and dreams of childhood, while familiarizing little girls with the horse and the female presence in the equestrian world.

Literature
The horse is omnipresent in children's and young people's literature in Western countries, with the model of the male rider breaking down from the 1980s onwards, and an explosion in equestrian literary production aimed at girls since the 2000s. Older works, such as The Black Stallion and My Friend Flicka, originally had a male main character (until around the 1990s), but new works and more recent adaptations of the great equestrian classics tend to replace them with a female main character. Literary works for adults do exist, but they are very much in the minority.

The first English-language novels with a female main character date from the 1910s and 1920s in the United States; like The Ranch Girls, they feature heroic female adventurers battling bandits. A real-life Blackfeet woman rider inspired J. W. Schultz's novel Running Eagle, The Warrior Girl (1919). These works are often written by English-speaking women who use pen names and place a certain emphasis on the emotional relationships between the characters. Ellen Singleton notes an evolution in the characters' characters, in line with gender stereotypes: she cites as an example the novels of Franck G. Patchin, whose adventurous female lead character asks a man for permission to ride out into the desert on a spirited horse. A recurring image in these novels is that of a weak girl paired with a strong, powerful horse, from whom she can get what she wants.

Anglo-Saxon pony books are designed as collectors' books for young girls.

In fiction for teenage girls, the main characters are always portrayed as white, often from upper-middle-class backgrounds, which ensures that they have sufficient financial income to ride horses. A notable feature of equestrian novels for girls published in the USA or Canada is that they are set in the "Wild West". Participation in equestrian competitions provides the majority of the action scenes.

From the 1990s onwards, these novels - particularly those in the Grand Galop series, a 95-volume series (as of 2010) featuring three 12-year-old girls - were translated into French, as few French-speaking authors wrote in this field. Grand Galop became the favorite series of young French women readers in the late 2000s, selling over 600,000 copies in 18 years.

These novels generally feature empathetic, nurturing girls and women, with a focus on emotional scenes and the discovery of sexuality, revealing themselves to be closer to the real personalities of a majority of female readers of their time than the adventurous characters of the early twentieth century. Male dominance" is, according to Ellen Singleton, more marked: female riders regularly turn to male advice, so much so that she concludes that "in contemporary children's equestrian literature, it seems impossible to construct an active femininity without recourse to male representatives who act as critics, or experts [...]".

Press
At the end of the 2000s, among the fifteen or so equestrian magazines published in France, all the magazines for children aged between 3 and 13 (Poney Fan, Cheval girl, Cheval Star, Cheval junior...) were explicitly aimed at girls, offering comic strips with female characters, games, shopping ideas, and presentations of equestrian professions; animal magazines for children in the same age bracket, on the other hand, were mixed overall. According to education science professor Christine Fontanini, this cultural representation is probably behind the feminization of the veterinary profession, which became predominantly female in France from 1990 onwards.

Editions Atlas reaches over 500,000 French speakers with its horse fact sheets, explicitly targeting girls aged 8 to 18.

Television series
Since the 2000s, several TV series have featured teenage girls in equestrian centers. In France, this is known as the "Poly syndrome", named after a famous French TV series from the 1960s. Adapted from the book series, Grand Galop (The Saddle club in its original version), which ran from 2001 to 2009, features Steph, Carole and Lisa at their riding school "Le Pin Creux". It was followed by Horseland: Welcome to the Ranch and its spin-off series The Ranch.

Heartland, also adapted from a literary series, has been broadcast in 119 countries since 2007. Its main character is Amy Fleming (a teenager in the first seasons), who grows up on a family ranch in Alberta and makes a career out of her ability to feel horses' emotions. In 2016, its plot spans a decade, making Heartland the longest-running TV series in Canadian history.

Cinema
A seminal film for the representation of women riders in the Western world is the adaptation of Enid Bagnold 's best-selling 1935 novel, National Velvet (1944), starring Mickey Rooney (Mi Taylor) and Elizabeth Taylor (Velvet Brown), a 12-year-old girl who trains her horse, The Pie, to compete in and win the world's most prestigious horse race. National Velvet is the first blockbuster to feature a female athlete in a man's world. It was a source of inspiration for other films taking up the theme of a sporting woman fighting patriarchy. Released in 1944, it took place against a backdrop of women taking over the tasks usually assigned to their husbands who had been mobilized for the Second World War.

Med Hondo Sarraounia 's film (1986) features the African horsewoman and warrior queen of the same name.

The release of Disney Studios ' animated film Mulan in 1998 marked a generation in the Western world, depicting a female warrior and horsewoman who disguises herself as a man, takes part in all the action scenes and saves her country.

In 2012, the film Sport de filles was released, shedding light on the sociology of sport through the example of the feminization of equestrianism. The film features a gifted young rider trying to gain recognition for her talent from a riding master.

Disney's Frozen 2 reflects the feminization of the equestrian world in the West and breaks down gender stereotypes, featuring Elsa with whispering skills, and a mythological horse (a Nokk).

Toys
There are many horse-shaped toys for girls, with Catherine Tourre-Malen citing the figurines in the My Little Pony range for the youngest, followed by the horses accompanying Barbie dolls. Horses were the first animals to accompany the development of the Barbie range.

Taking a stand
The feminization of horse riding in France provoked comment, debate, and position-taking. In 1995, ethnologist and anthropologist Jean-Pierre Digard felt that the feminization of equestrianism threatened the horse's future disappearance, due to the "animal sensibility" of women: "What would be left of horses if, having disappeared from streets and roads, battlefields and fields, they were also eliminated from race courses and riding arenas? The Falabella pony, a house horse with 50 centimeters at the withers? The companion horse, the Bardotian ideal of the dada-à-sa-mémère? It can never be too wary of love.

During a debate entitled "Le cheval, animal de droite ou de gauche? "organized by the Paris Horse Show in 2009, Digard declared that "horse-riding has become a sport for chicks", while anthropologist Catherine Tourre-Malen added that little girls are taught to "look after the pony and then the horse, tie little knots in their manes or prepare the saddle, on an emotional level, while boys, who are increasingly rare and no longer want to be mixed with girls, are taught to play games on horseback, referring to feats or chivalry", thus reinforcing gender stereotypes. Both declare that "what's important for the horse is not its well-being, but its outlets... including hippophagy, so eat horse! [...] Especially if you're a woman! This stance provoked strong condemnation, notably from women riders on forums.

Tourre-Malen concludes her thesis with the idea that the feminization of riding is not beneficial to the status of women, as women reproduce "patterns that assign [them] to the domestic sphere and child-rearing". Like Jean-Pierre Digard, she deplores women's desire to change the legal status of the horse to that of a pet.

Geographer Sylvie Brunel takes the opposite view, noting that women, notably through their awareness of the horse's sensitivity and their attachment to older horses, have spurred the development of equestrian practices that men's activities had not taken up or had left in decline, such as equitherapy, green tourism and ethological riding, which developed strongly from the mid-20th century onwards; she also notes that, far from disappearing under the impetus of women, the horse is spreading into geographical areas (urban and neo-rural) from which it had virtually disappeared.

According to Australian professor Kirrilly Thompson, the feminization of equestrian sports is met with opposition in Sweden and is not perceived as a symbol of gender equality.

Ancient sources and travel reports


Press references


Dictionary


Category:Women's sports Category:Gender and employment Category:Show jumping riders Category:Show jumping events Category:Dressage World Cup