Male riders

I'm not on a yard but we have quite a few around here, on my lane out of 8 small horse properties there are 4 men. My old livery has 3 males there. In the western competitions there's probably 1/3 men, they like being cowboys and the boys don't seem to get picked on for it so much ;)
 
On horseback, I feel like you aren't really a man or a woman, you're first and foremost a rider. There's something very powerful about that, given how relentlessly we are told who and what boys and girls should be. We've heard in this thread about boys being seen as "girly" for daring to ride. Go back fifty years or so, and it was the opposite, and still is in many countries.

Unless anyone knows otherwise, I don't think horses can tell the difference? Humans, too, can admire someone's riding and compete against them regardless of their gender. That's just great I think, particularly in this day and age.

But do men and women ride differently?
 
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Jessey said:
Their pelvis' are different, its meant to be easier for a man to get a better poisition
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I would agree with that, it used to annoy me how effortlessly Steve achieved a seat I had really worked for!

We have about 15- 20% men among our regular hackers. Some are exercising racehorses, but several are just hacking. One of them always gallops everywhere, but one lovely old bloke rides a big old lean grey Irish hunter and they pootle everywhere on the buckle. I like to see them, they have obviously been riding out together for years and years.
 
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Kite_Rider said:
Which when you think about it is odd, men have a narrower pelvis which you would think would make it harder for them.
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I think its because astride saddles evolved for men as women didn't ride astride, since they have there have been very few modifications to saddles to make them more suited to women, so the astride saddle generally is better suited to a mans pelvis and leg position
ETA https://horobin.com.au/journal/male-vs-female-pelvis
 
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Kite_Rider said:
Which when you think about it is odd, men have a narrower pelvis which you would think would make it harder for them.
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The way I understand it, a narrower pelvis allows the seatbones to sit on top of the saddle more easily. As womens' are spaced wider apart, they are less likely to plug in on top.

However, it depends on the horse, saddle and rider. I wonder if the reason many women ride chunky cobs these days as they are easier for them to sit?

JB, the horse I most often ride at my RS, is very swaybacked and has an odd saddle. It's not the most comfortable for me, but one adjusts. Many RS saddles, however, are too small for me, possibly as they are in part meant to fit women and young girls.

But it seems to me that a good rider, male or female, is one who can use their body shape to its best advantage regardless.
 
We have quite a few male riders and owners here, the bloke next door to us keeps and breeds Spanish horses and rides Spanish style- breaks the youngsters himself. quite a few at the EC up the road as well and a couple in the next village, both my grandsons like messing about/riding (loose term as they at not here very often so very novice) don't think it matters much re gender providing you enjoy what you are doing.
 
Cowboy culture - prompted my OH to ride. That is US history and male oriented.
Aged 67 - He gave up after 8 years when his RS horse became too old to enjoy canter and like someone above was put off by a fall. I didnt encourage him to go on riding -h igh cost if he no longer enjoyed it. But fully expect him to take a refresher lesson or two in the UK (balance) and then to trail ride again if we ever travel again in the USA.
 
I have ridden cowboy-style on trails when I lived in the US, but what they call 'English' riding over there has always been my main interest. Riding is even more gendered over there than here, with "English" (European, really) being an overwhelmingly female pursuit.

Susanna Forrest's excellent book on horses and gender If Wishes Were Horses describes the rather recent coding of riding as 'girly' in some detail. It's not just that boys may get teased for putting on jodhpurs (I've experienced this myself), but also that horsey girls are no longer typically seen as tomboys nowadays, even though the horsey lifestyle is no less arduous, dirty and dangerous as it was for the pioneering female equestrians of less than a century ago. Gender has always been a bit of an act: horses are a remarkable for the many ways they provide for staging it.
 
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Calder said:
Susanna Forrest's excellent book on horses and gender If Wishes Were Horses describes the rather recent coding of riding as 'girly' in some detail. It's not just that boys may get teased for putting on jodhpurs (I've experienced this myself), but also that horsey girls are no longer typically seen as tomboys nowadays, even though the horsey lifestyle is no less arduous, dirty and dangerous as it was for the pioneering female equestrians of less than a century ago. Gender has always been a bit of an act: horses are a remarkable for the many ways they provide for staging it.
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That is a very good book, I enjoyed it a lot. And certainly horses are not a "girly" pastime!
 
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There's a new advert on TV isn't there, might be for guiness but I can't remember. I do remember that it features a group of guys riding, and he's talking about how important his horse is to him.
 
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Most saddles are made for the male pelvis and some companies are just starting to cotton on to the narrow seat for the female. I know the treeless saddle company that made mine have brought out a model specifically for women. But all I did was just change the seat for the cob from classic to western.
Ladies rode side saddle and so the old military saddles didn't have females in mind. Maybe training to be a saddler these days has altered?

www.horsejournals.com/horse-saddle-fit-rider-men-vs-women


As for do horses know. I can't say. But I have heard the term 'a man's horse'
Mine was owned and bred by a man. She would step over him if he lay down- not dared to test that theory!! But I could tell she had been handled by a man as oppose to female.
I have known stallions that are only handled by female and not male.
 
newforest said:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/are-horses-affected-rider-gender-461302

This might shed light on the term.
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Thanks! So, according to the study, there's no apparent differences in how men and women ride, at least measured by the horse's stress. I'm glad to hear that I don't stress out horses just by being male! My novice riding, however, might be a different story..I guess it's up to all of us to ride fairly and treat our horses well, regardless of gender.

Could you say more about how you knew your mare had been handled by a man?
 
I can't put my finger on it. She was just so gentle with him and flattened me.

She didn't have those clear boundaries @Jessey, she was spoilt. Not great.:p
 
There are currently no men on my yard. There were no men on my previous yard. There have never been any boys in the lessons the girls had. There are about 2 boys in pony club - allegedly - there have never been any boys in any of the pc rallies my kids have done so I have never seen them personally! There are no men who ride in the riding club I am in (there are a few social members). And then when I turn up to an event half the field are men!! Where do they all learn to ride?!
 
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