Women Riders

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Women Riders in History

	Boadicea (Boudicca) is said to have been the first British Queen to maintain a racing stud. She is thought to have driven in chariot races and perhaps bred horses for export to Rome. But is most famous for leading the Iceni revolt against Rome.
	Lady Godiva, wife of Earl Leofric, the Governer of Coventry during the Eleventh century, rode her white horse naked through the streets of the town. She did this in order to persuade her husband to take off the tax on horses which affected most families very severely as they nearly all depended on horses for transport.
	Queen Elizabeth I, in long narrow bodices and countless skirts, rode so fast that she continually alarmed the Master of the Horse, Lord Robert Dudley, who was responsible for her safety. In a letter to the Earl of Sussex, she ordered a number of Irish horses to be despatched to her in England as they might be faster than hers.

Quotes:

The great want in a man's seat is firmness, which would be still more difficult for a woman to acquire if she rode in a cross-saddle, because her thighs are rounder and weaker than those of a man. Discussion of this subject is, therefore, useless. Ladies who ride astride get such bad falls that they soon give up this practice"

-from Breaking and Riding by James Fillis, 1890

"Four things greater than all things are Women and horses and power and War." -Arab proverb

The daughter who won't lift a finger in the house is the same child who cycles madly off in the pouring rain to spend all morning mucking out a stable.

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At the Olympics
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Women Riders at the Olympics

Trivia

At the time of the first modern Olympics in 1892, its founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, wrote "Olympics with women would be incorrect, unpractical, uninteresting and unaesthetic."

Women were finally allowed to ride Olympic Dressage in 1952 and Denmark's Liz Hartel immediately won silver on Jubilee. She was again place second in the 1956 Olympics with Liselott Linsenhoff winning bronze when the first women were permitted to compete in Olympic Show Jumping. Pat Smythe promptly won bronze in the team SJ event.

Sheila Willcox was initially refused entry to the British Olympic 3-day eventing team despite the fact that she was the 1957 European Champion and winner of Badminton in 1956, 1957 and 1958. The British Olympic eventing team first included women in 1968 and by 1975 the European Championship team which won silver did not have any male team members.

In 1968 Britain's Jane Bullen (later Holderness-Roddam) was the first woman to win an individual Olympic Gold medal, in the 3-day Event. In 1972 Germany's Liselott Linsenhoff was the first woman to win individual Olympic Gold in the dressage on Piaff and for good measure Silver was won by Russian Elena Petouchkova.

By the year 2000, 75% of the competitors in the Olympic dressage at Sydney were women, with all of the top places in both team and individual competitions being won by women.

Women like their horses better than their men

Two-thirds of horse riders prefer the company of horses to men, according to a 1997 UK survey. The survey of 1,000 riders by Gallop! magazine showed that nearly 50 per cent of women riders would not be able to choose between their husband or boyfriend and their horse, while one-quarter said the horse would win hands down.

Half the riders admitted to having sneaked off work for a secret riding rendezvous with their horse. The average horse-owner spends 10-and-a-half hours a week grooming and eight-and-a-half hours in the saddle. Ninety per cent of women riders said they would rather have a new horse than a baby, and almost three-quarters admitted that they told their horse their problems rather than their lovers.

Fifty-three per cent of men admitted that they were jealous of their four-legged rivals. Only one-third shared their lover's passion for ponies. Maureen Collins, of Gallop! magazine, said: "People are passionate about their ponies. Riding a horse is like a drug - one gallop and you're hooked for life."

Read 'Why Women and Horses' blog and add your own comments

Links to Great Womens Websites

Women and Horses - Mary Midkiff's website devoted to womens riding, includes information on the physiological differences of women riders and their saddle requirements

Womens Saddles

Peter Horobin (Australia) now has a saddle tree especially designed for women's pelvic conformation - The Amazone. Matamata saddlery and Pryors of Cambridge are his local distributors.

Women Riders Websites

	Anky van Grunsven - Top dressage rider. Great photos of her horses, and includes Anky's new clothing range website
	Isabell Werth - this new website is in German but you can either use translation software or guess what's going on. Interestingly the menu item for her retired horses is 'oldies'
	Nicole Uphoff - in German, use translation software
	Lisa Wilcox - Good information and plenty of video clips of Lisa in Action
	Gillian Rolton - Olympic gold Medal winning eventer