DROP in on a pony club camp somewhere in Britain this summer and, chances are, at least 90% of the children trotting around in jodhpurs will be girls. And so it continues in competitive riding up the rungs—until the very top. But in the Olympic eventing last week, where riders and horses locked hooves in the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country and show-jumping, nine out of the top ten places were taken by men.
This could be an anomaly; many of the most successful event riders over the last few decades have been women. It could also be a trend—led by the individual gold-medal winner in Rio, Michael Jung of Germany, who won in London four years ago and this year became only the second rider to complete the “Triple Crown” by winning consecutive Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky events. Whichever, it poses the question: does equestrianism really occur on the level field we want and believe it to? And if not, why not?
Equestrian events, in their current form—straight dressage and showjumping as well as eventing—have been a feature of the Olympics since the 1912 Stockholm games. Until 1952, they were open only to commissioned military officers and gentlemen. At that games in Helsinki, all men—whether gentle or not—were permitted to compete, and women were allowed in the dressage; the gates to showjumping opened to them in 1956, and to the more perilous eventing in 1964.
However, in eventing anyway, medals were slower to follow; a woman is yet to win an Olympic individual gold medal for riding, although since 1984, when America’s Karen Stives was the runner-up with Britain’s Virgina Holgate (later Leng) in third, there have been numerous silver- and bronze-medallists. But not in Rio. No doubt there will be some sort of inquest into why: of the 65 competitors, 23 were women, and they were well-placed after the dressage stage. It was in the cross-country that things went pear-shaped. Was the course, designed by Pierre Michelet, end-weighted in difficulty, giving an advantage to the stronger men? Or was it just bad luck on the day?
While more obvious in Rio, the dominance of men does seem to reflect the recent bigger picture. Lucinda Fredericks won an Olympic team silver medal for Australia in Beijing, as well as back-to-back victories at Badminton and Burghley. Rebecca Howard, the Canadian who was the top-placed woman rider in Rio, says that men have an undeniable advantage when it comes to muscle power: “Without question, men have strength we’ve never had, and they stay physically stronger for longer.” (Mark Todd, riding for New Zealand at the age of 60, came seventh in his seventh Olympics). “Real, deep core strength is very hard to maintain, particularly after having children. There were a number of tricky combinations at Rio and the men were able to wagon the horses over them better than we could.”
Very crudely, when push came to shove at the water combination, it is possible that the difference was down to muscle power and child-bearing—again. Though, if that were all there was to eventing success, Lucinda Green would never have won Badminton once, let alone six times, and Pippa Funnell wouldn’t have been the first rider to achieve the Triple Crown. Training, timing and feel are also important. And female eventers have no wish to segregate one of the only sporting events in which men and women compete against each other. “It’s is one of the best aspects of our sport,” says Fredericks. “Sometimes the girls win; sometimes the boys win. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
But that’s only one half of the picture. Finishing fourth, six places higher than Ms Howard, was another female athlete—Paulank Brockagh, the mount of Sam Griffiths of Australia. Like female humans, mares were rarely in the picture until relatively recently. When Lucinda Fredericks won Badminton in 2007, her partner, Headley Britannia, was the first mare to have done so for 53 years. These days mares, previously dismissed for being unreliably temperamental, are regularly to be found on the leaderboards. “People are realising that when it comes to it, a good mare can have amazing grit and determination,” says Fredericks.
Like film stars, competing mares no longer have to take time off—or lose muscle tone—for child-rearing. Embryo transfers (essentially, surrogate pregnancy) have become almost standard practice. Weihegold Old who, with her rider, Isabell Werth (pictured), was leading the dressage after two days (in the more subtle, technically exacting discipline of dressage, the top five going in to the final day are all women), has already had numerous foals without ever having to push. Their women riders have, thus far anyway, not sought to emulate them. But if the eventing field becomes more bumpy, it could become an option.
