At 00:21:50 on 18.01.10, lydia6dg wrote:
Yea, and guess which sex is at the top of every sport/profession..yea MEN !!!!

At 17:43:31 on 19.01.10, Sambo wrote:
Well as a child lots of my male friends thought I was "ponsey" going riding but I think its more a fear thing. I'm sure I had the last laugh the only teenage boy surrounded by hormonal teenage girls in jodhpurs....perfect

At 17:55:54 on 19.01.10, Pete wrote:
I really really wish I had been given the opportunity to learn to ride when I was a child. Unfortunately my dad's idea of entertaining me was dragging me round the scrap yards (which I still find oddly therapeutic lol) and we never had the money for my parents to even think about putting the idea in my head (not that I'd have taken them up on it then). I have had lots of WTF type looks when I've mentioned to my colleagues at work that I am learning to ride... most just don't get it and the rest are just waiting for me to turn up with my arm in a sling and unable to go to sea! lol. My best male friends are really excited for me and when they were younger they had lessons but I didn't know them then. It does seem more acceptable to be horsey if you are female in my social circle which is such a shame.

At 18:17:18 on 19.01.10, Flicka wrote:
Ha ha Sambo-my husband would agree with you as he was one of 4 boys surrounded by girls at pony club camp!! In fact I was one of them but I was more into the sort of lad who had a car and tattoos lol!! Is that more like you Pete if you were bought up on scrap yards?-I feel you may have petrol in your blood as well as horse hairs on your clothes!! It's such a shame though that boys are put off riding at an early age-the more men the merrier I say!!

At 18:43:47 on 19.01.10, Pete wrote:
only got the one tattoo lol, defo a petrol head although not really into cars (mainly due to room and cost lol) At the moment my garage has 4 motorcycles in it :$ (only 3 are mine tho)

At 19:05:06 on 19.01.10, plodalong wrote:
ive got tatoos, never thought about riding bareback but figjam has now given me another goal for 2010.haha. naughty Plodalong,lol.

At 04:11:40 on 21.01.10, Liosliath wrote:
I have two comments on this - first, I've noted a feeling among some men that riding is a gay sport (unless riding western which isn't as predominant here on the east coast of USA where I live). Men here have more issues with 'machoness' except upper income level guys (and who can afford to compete at upper levels except upper income people?) Also I was told by a psychologist that love of horses is common in girls who had bad relationships with their father - father who was absent phsyically or emotionally or didn't interact with his daughter (like mine though love of horses started really early for me).

At 19:50:16 on 05.02.10, Polkadotpolly wrote:
There are more and more men having a go at this horse riding thing every year. Men can have just a good relationship with their horses as women, and they ride for just as many reasons as women, I know a huge number of men who ride and love it for the the love of their horses just as much as women...

At 05:55:48 on 06.02.10, johnthecob wrote:
Well said Polkadotpolly - I fairly sure that what a man gets out of a relationship with a horse is the same as what a women gets out of it - yes there are some men who don't build up empathy with their horses just as there are some women who equally don't - what horses give you is universally the same man or women - maybe it is simply that those *qualities* attract in more women than men in the same way that Cars generally attract in more blokes than gals

At 08:18:53 on 06.02.10, Angelalain wrote:
When my husband asked this question of our (now quite elderly) ex-DC she replied. 'Little girls ride because they love the ponies to brush and cuddle, once they've got hooked they stay with it whether they are good or merely indifferent riders. Little boys only stick with it if they are good at it. Boys don't like doing things if they fail' How true that is was only her observations from years at PC, b ut it could explain why the men are the ones at the top!These sort of ideas are always generalisations. I do think men have a more mechanical 'bent'. Women in the motorbike clubs must be in the same proportions as men in the riding clubs. Hey figjam, are bikes to men the way horses are to women? lol.