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 worlds largest riding tour companies and we...