.. and Allah took a handful of Southerly wind... and created the horse” : the history of international equestrian sports

• The aim of this paper is to chart the relationship between men, women and horses with focus on equestrian sports. The degree of internationality of these sports, as well as the question of whether a sport can be seen as international if only men or women participate, are discussed. Furthermore, the diffusion of equestrian sports are presented; in short, equestrian activities spread internationally in different directions up until the late 19th century. Since then Olympic Equestrian events (dressage, show jumping and eventing) have been diffused from Europe. Even though men and women are allowed to compete against each other in the equestrian events, the number of men and women varies widely, irrespective of country, and until this imbalance is redressed, equestrian sports cannot be seen as truly international.

Keyword

Equestrian sport

Gender

international sport

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)