‘Shequestrians’: riding mistresses, female sport coaches, and equestrian instructors in Britain, 1730–1930

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article seeks to redress the lack of research on women’s roles as riding instructors and sport coaches in Britain. During the long nineteenth century, women were enmeshed in professional equestrian activities, and their activities had momentous consequences on the practice of equestrianism as a whole. Women were needed to teach riding to other women because women rode differently from men – on a different saddle and in different clothes. These differences created a space, and a need, for a new kind of female businesswoman, coach, and sporting authority, and enabled a new kind of sporting liberation.