Women And Horses - A Powerful Synergy
By Bayard Fox

Horseback riding is a sport at which women excel. One can try to explain their success because they are lighter than men and have obvious anatomical advantages for the saddle. This is certainly not everything. After 70 years of riding and close association with riders, I am convinced that the most important reason for feminine preeminence in the sport is their ability to relate to horses. It is partly a matter of sensitivity and patience. It is also a matter of willingness to trust in a real partnership where the whole is far more powerful than the sum of the parts.

Men are often too preoccupied by the need to show their macho strength in dominating a horse and are less willing to seek a harmonious relationship. They often seem to feel they must overpower a horse and make it totally subservient to their will. Many of them would be pleased if a horse reacted in the same insensate way as an automobile to a turn of the wheel, a foot on the brake or a push on the accelerator. Some people are just more at ease with machines which will always obey even suicidal commands unquestioningly.

For 25 years I have owned one of the world's largest riding tour companies and we have found that about 70% of our clients are female. They tend to find an easy rapport with horses which most men have more trouble achieving. At our own dude ranch the majority of our wranglers are women. They love working with horses and are invariably patient, friendly and understanding to both horses and guests without showing off. They have taken the time to study equitation and horses in depth and many hold degrees from the British Horse Society or similar American institutions. Our wranglers care passionately about the physical and psychological welfare of their horses and are extremely conscientious. We have seen few situations where great strength is an asset although men do have an advantage with shoeing.

For 20 years Linda Tellington-Jones has been doing a clinic at our ranch each year to teach people how to start young horses. During the week she starts our four-year-old Arabians who have not yet been backed although they are used to being around people from the time they are born. These clinics using non-confrontational techniques have been immensely successful with clients (90% women) and they have given our horses a wonderful start. During the week the young horses are slowly prepared for a rider without being pushed too