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HORSE Magazine



Features : Leading ladies – why are there so few at the top of our sport?

Battle of the sexes

Friday 6 March 2009

Martha Terry

Equestrianism is one of only three summer Olympic sports where women and men compete on equal terms.

Yet in general, female riders far outnumber males. In dressage, show jumping and eventing, 82 per cent of members are women.

Yet when it comes to the top end, the male/female split is far more even.

In fact, in show jumping, the pendulum swings violently man-wards. When was the last time we saw a British woman jumping at the Olympics?

So are men better riders, naturally more competitive – or is it simply antiquated tradition that owners favour male riders?

In most sports, men have a physical superiority. But Jon Pitts, sports trainer to the British Olympic team, believes the gender advantages balance out.

“When jumping, it can be an advantage for the rider to have longer levers [height] to manipulate your centre of mass and assist the horse – William Fox-Pitt being the obvious example,” says Jon.

“But without a handicap system, the less weight a horse has to carry with a woman rider is also important. There are many differences, but men and women cope in different ways.”

Eventing is the most evenly divided in the top echelons, with half of the top-20 being women – although this is still markedly down from the 84 per cent female bias in membership.

Eventing's inherent risk factor may play its part. Like it or lump it, a woman still shoulders the main responsibility for her family and the consequences should she be seriously injured.

However, 91.5 per cent of British Dressage's membership is female. The girls don't let the boys get too much of a look-in at top level either, with 80 per cent in the top 10 at Small and Big Tour level being female.

Thanks to dressage and eventing, women are more than holding their own, but what of the show jumping imbalance? Jon suggests that much of male dominance is purely tradition.

Because the Whitakers et al can still keep competing into their 50s and 60s, it is hard for a woman to break the mould, especially if she wants to have children by her 30s.

One final school of thought is that women riders are less likely to be diverted by other sports, and therefore make up the lion's share of recreational riders. If you find a man who has stuck with horses, he really means business.


This is an extract from a feature in Horse magazine. To read the article in full, buy the April issue, on sale from 5 March.