48a61adelman-riding for our lives.pdf
TRANSCRIPT
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48 MONDES DU TOUR I SME (HORS S R I E ) J U IN 2 0 1 5
MIRIAM ADELMAN
MIRIAM ADELMAN Professor of sociology, Federal University of Paran (Brazil) - [[email protected]]
Abstract. Equestrian sport is often praised for its ability to integrate different types of people, at least at theamateur level. Women and men of all ages, with different levels of physical ability and often from different social
backgrounds, may find a place for themselves within this sector, which include a wide range of modes of practice.
In Brazil, for example, more well-off members of urban middle classes make up the bulk of those who take part
in dressage and show jumping, while popular equestrian traditions engage people from across the social spectrum
in activities that range from casual leisure riding to rodeo competition. One way or another, the feminization of
equestrian sports that has been noted the world over seems to be at least partially applicable to Brazil, with high
and growing female participation observed in many different situations and easily perceived by researchers and
observers. Furthermore, the ideas that are so often expressed in popular international literature, claiming womens
special connection to horses, or womens empowerment through horses are also disseminated in Brazil. In this
text, we focus on women and leisure riding activities. Taking off from our own previous research within three
different Brazilian equestrian milieux, this article develops new strands of argument, considerations based on five
interviews with five amateur horsewomen between ages 29 and 54, residents of the city of Curitiba and neighboring
municipalities. Varying in terms of social (class) origin, educational level, the type of riding they engage in and
other factors that will be pointed out the pages that follow, we will look at what horses represent in their lives, as
linked to issues of gender and leisure.
Rsum. On loue souvent les sports questres pour leur capacit intgrer diffrents profils de personnes,au moins au niveau amateur. Femmes et hommes de tous les ges, de diffrents niveaux et souvent denvironnements
sociaux diffrents peuvent trouver une place dans ce domaine qui inclut des modes de pratique trs varis. Au
Brsil, par exemple, les classes moyennes urbaines composent la plus grande partie de ceux qui pratiquent le
dressage et lobstacle, tandis que des traditions questres, tel le rodo, sont plus populaires. Dune faon ou
dune autre, la fminisation des sports questres qui a t note dans le monde entier semble tre au moins
partiellement applicable au Brsil, avec une participation importante et croissante des femmes, nettement
observable par les chercheurs et observateurs. En outre, les ides qui sont si souvent exprimes dans la littrature
internationale populaire, quant au rapport spcial des femmes aux chevaux et de lmancipation des femmes
grce lquitation, sont galement rpandues au Brsil. Dans ce texte, nous nous intresserons aux femmes et
aux loisirs questres. Partant de notre recherche prcdente mene dans trois milieux questres brsiliens
diffrents, cet article dveloppe de nouveaux arguments et considrations, fonds sur des entretiens avec cinq
cavalires amatrices ges de 29 54 ans, habitant la ville de Curitiba ou les municipalits voisines, issues de
diffrents milieux sociaux, prsentant des niveaux dtudes varis et pratiquant des activits questres diversifies.
Nous tudierons ce que le cheval reprsente dans leur vie, en lien avec les questions de genre et de loisir.
Riding for our lives: women,
leisure and equestrian practice in Brazil today
Monter pour exister. Femmes, loisirs et quitation au Brsil de nos jours
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49J U IN 2 0 1 5 CHEVAL , TOUR I SME ET LO I S I R S
CHAPITRE I
I n many parts of the world, thetransformation of the horse, fromwork animal to sport and leisurecompanion, is now a clearly conso-
lidated social phenomenon
(Hedenborg, 2007). Leisure, in turn,
has become a major area of study
and interest in the social sciences,
reflecting the centrality it has taken
on in peoples lives during the latter
part of the twentieth century and
the ensuing need for research on lei-
sures relationship to individual and
collective well-being (Roberts, 2010;
Tomlinson, 2003). At the same time,
considerations on leisure uses of the
horse bring gender issues to the fore-
front, as international literature
demonstrates clear trends toward
the feminization of equestrian acti-
vities around the globe. While this
tendency is often met with enthu-
siasm by those who salute it as a
unique opportunity to increase gen-
der equality within particular socie-
ties and cultures, there are others
who as Plymoth demonstrates in
her discussion of the Swedish eques-
trian federation (Plymoth, 2013)
manage to find reasons for lament.
Our own research in Brazil has
identified equestrian sport as an
arena in which women have found
singular possibilities for enjoyment,
self-development and sociability.
The physical and emotional chal-
lenges involved in mastery of the
technical skills of riding and caring
for horses, as well as the sheer plea-
sure taken in learning particular
ways of being around these large
and powerful animals in out-of-
doors settings, seem to push beyond
the boundaries of normative femi-
ninity. Birke and Brandt, referring
to a European and North American
cultural context, have pointed out
that barn work engages women in
activities that pose a challenge to
gender stereotypes: Women wor-
king with horses must be tough,
capable and not mind getting dirty
[] In this world, women may have
to drive large trucks, lift heavy hay
bales, carry heavy water buckets,
not to mention handle large and
sometimes badly behaved horses.
Horsewomen spend a great deal of
time labouring outside in the wind
and the sun. Their faces are wea-
thered and hands calloused, their
clothes are worn and dirty, and they
are far from the ideals of feminine
style (Birke and Brandt, 2009, p. 191).
Although our years of research
in different equestrian milieux in
Brazil render a scenario in which
most hard barn labor is still perfor-
med by men, horsewomen in this
country known for its intense pro-
motion of (feminized) beauty cul-
ture sometimes portray their own
attitudes and behavior as different
from those of more conventional
women (cf. Adelman and Ruggi, 2008;
Adelman, 2010). Furthermore, female
informants who engage in leisure
riding (leisurewill be rather loosely
defined here, as activity pertaining
to the sphere of free time or
hobby, in contrast to paid work
and obligation) fiercely defend
their right to enjoy it. These findings
create an interesting tension with
regard to tendencies identified in
sociological literature, stating that
women have a harder time than men
in preserving this type of freedom
(McGinnis et al., 2003). The present
text, then, looks particularly at issues
of identity, subjectivity and sociability,
as developed and expressed through
womens equestrian activities whe-ther in mixed gender contexts and/or
within more women-oriented com-
munities of practice (Birke and Brandt,
2009, p. 190).
WOMEN LEISURE RIDERSAND THE QUEST FOR FULFILLMENT
For over fifteen years now, we
have carried out research inspired
by initial observations on how the
equestrian field provides singular
opportunities to study gender in the
construction of bodies, subjectivities,
identities and sporting cultures
(Adelman, 2010; Adelman and Moraes,
2008; Adelman and Becker, 2013).
International literature that supports
this claim comes from several parts
of the world, most notably, from
North America (Burke, 1997;
LeCompte, 1993) and Europe
(Smythe, 1992; Lagier, 2009), where
biography, historical work and fic-
tion (for young people and adults)
have produced a wide range of nar-
ratives on womens and girls invol-
vement with horses and equestrian
sports (Nauleau, 2007; Smiley, 2004;
Pierson, 2002). From the history of
North American rodeo women and
the first Olympic show jumpers to
contemporary popular literature on
women and horses, we find an ever-
growing field of discursive produc-
tion that, in some of its most com-
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50 MONDES DU TOUR I SME (HORS S R I E ) J U IN 2 0 1 5
MIRIAM ADELMAN
mon forms, may favor essential
notions of womens special connec-
tion to equines (Midkiff, 2001) or
promote celebratory narratives of
female equestrian athletes who
triumph against all odds (Burke,
1997)(1). There is also ample historical
record of women, who from the end
of the 19th century took on a pio-
neering role within circus and rodeo
equestrian performance, placing
themselves firmly within the emer-
ging entertainment industry. Thus,
the recurrent signification of horses
and women in modern Western dis-
course is cast in somewhat ambiva-
lent or contradictory terms, with
the woman/horse pair alternatively
or simultaneously evoked to signify
independent free-spiritedness and/or
an eroticized, heteronormatively-
desirable female body.
As mentioned above, worldwide
tendencies toward the feminization
of horse sports and equestrian acti-
vities have consistently demonstrated
that women outnumber men in lei-
sure riding, at least in the United
States, Canada and several European
nations such as Sweden and France,
where systematic data on horses and
riding is provided through a network
of equestrian federations and govern-
ment ministries (Guibert and Pickel-
Chevalier, 2014; Rgnier et al., 2012;
Cochrane and Dashper, 2012; Plymoth,
2013)(2). In fact, both equestrian fede-
rations and the horse industry have
clear interest in understanding the
diverse needs and desires of those
who ride or could become riders.
Scholars, interested for their own
purposes in uncovering the social
dynamics and contradictions that
prevail therein, have also begun to
look more carefully at who engages
in leisure riding and why. Cochrane
and Dashper (2012), for example,
have examined the British case,
emphasizing the construction of
identities and subjectivities emerging
within this particular community of
practice: Participants enjoy riding
in social groups, valuing the oppor-
tunity to socialize as they travel
round the route, including admiring
and talking about each others
horses. The sense of community is
often carried through in membership
in affinity groups such as riding clubs
and online equine forums. The rein-
forcement of social bonds within
the leisure equestrian network also
helps to buttress peoples self-identity
as horse lovers (Cochrane and
Dashper, 2012).
Given the fact these people are
largely women, another series of
questions emerge, linked to a politics
of daily life and leisure in which gen-
der asymmetries and inequality also
play themselves out: objective
queries that may aid us in describing
the population of women engaging
in equestrian activities in terms of
age, marital/familial status, occupa-
tion, income etc., are connected in
turn to subjective and qualitative
issues of womens particular needs,
interests and experiences in a leisure
activity that provides sociability,
physical activity and challenge and
perhaps, as we have suggested, a
unique terrain for self-development,
fulfillment and widened horizons.
Like many other countries, Brazil
boasts a longstanding and diverse
equestrian culture and heritage.
Nonetheless, academic or literary
texts focusing on or dealing speci-
fically with womens experiences
within Brazilian equestrian culture
and practice are extremely scarce.
There are numerous popular eques-
trian magazines in whose pages
women appear quite frequently, and
wherein their equestrian expertise
may be exalted, although from a
point of view linked more to horse
industry promotion than to concerns
for gender equality. Womens increa-
sed participation in medical and
scientific professions involving horses
and other animals has been extre-
mely significant, garnering a thematic
issue of the Brazilian Federal Council
of Veterinary Medicines journal in
2013 (CFMV, 2013). There are a gro-
wing number of academic studies
of the rodeo world which highlight
issues of masculinity but are not
devoted to a specific examination
of womens participation (Costa,
2003; Andrade et al., 2009). Mary D.
Midkiff, the American equestrian
and writer who is well-known for
her Women & Horses workshops,
visited Brazil in 2010. Her book
extolling the woman-horse relation-
ship, She Flies without Wings (2001)
was translated into Portuguese and
launched on the Brazilian market
(Midkiff, 2010), indicating industry
recognition of audience potential.
There is at least one book although
from the decade of the 1990s dea-
ling specifically with women in cam-
peira equestrian culture. It tells the
story of a number of women of dif-
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51J U IN 2 0 1 5 CHEVAL , TOUR I SME ET LO I S I R S
CHAPITRE I
ferent backgrounds and social classes
whom, in the southern state of Rio
Grande do Sul known for its long-
standing horse tradition (linked to
Gaucho pampa culture and cattle
ranching) subvert common mid-20th century notions of Gaucha
women as delicate and domestic by
recognizing their involvement in
work, leisure and sporting practices
that are to this day signified as male.
Against the grain of a masculine
imaginary, the books author clearly
portrays these Gaucha horse women
as people who present a challenge
to deeply-rooted forms of homoso-
ciality(3) and gender prejudice
(SantAna, 1993).
It seems that urban middle-class
women with disposable income are
now attracting considerable horse
industry attention in Brazil, as a gro-
wing market for equestrian tou-
rism and other forms of leisure
riding. Information provided by the
firm Cavalgadas Brasils states that
65% of the clients of Cavalgadas
Brasil first Brazilian travel agent
specialized in equestrian tourism,
which programs riding trips to natio-
nal and international tourist desti-
nations are women , stirring, as
can be expected, a greater desire to
detect and cater to what could
emerge as specific interests per-
taining to them. Rural and semi-
rural women who, as our own
research indicates (Adelman and
Becker, 2013) have often moved
spontaneously (through family and
community connections) into the
world of popular equestrian prac-
tices, remain less visible than their
middle-class equestrienne counter-
parts, although it may be safe to
surmise that, numerically speaking,
they constitute a more expressive
contingent. Nonetheless, the few
scholarly articles that we found dis-
cussing the leisure pursuits of rural
and semi-rural women portray them
as absorbed in familial roles and
imbued with a family-oriented mind-
set. Thus, they have been portrayed
as relatively uninterested or unen-
gaged in leisure time and activities
of their own, with the exception,
perhaps, of church-based community
activities. One such very recent article
Illustration 1 Girl riders chasing a calf, rodeo in southern Brazil
A
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52 MONDES DU TOUR I SME (HORS S R I E ) J U IN 2 0 1 5
MIRIAM ADELMAN
summarizes it this way: Leisure is
thus configured as an element that
corresponds with womens and
mens roles as they are asserted
within the rural milieu in which a
woman is raised and even self-edu-
cated to take part [only] in activities
that do not place her emotional and
physical constitution at risk, such
as going out with her children or
visiting relatives. In mens case, the
situation is quite different. They seek
the highest levels of emotional exci-
tement within the realm of leisure,
and in so doing assert their masculine
identity, which including manifes-
tations of violence and the desire
for adventure and risk, within the
context of a performance that rein-
forces the visibility of their macho
traits. Thus, we can affirm that lei-
sure is constituted as a vehicle for
the reproduction of models of femi-
ninity and masculinity (Andrade et
al., 2009, p. 48, [our translation]).
Yet our examination of the CTG
(Centro de Tradies Gauchas) or
Gacho traditionalist rodeos that
are characteristic of the southern
region of the country point to quite
a different scenario. Observing and
examining girls and womens growing
participation in rodeo sport within
this context (cf. illustration 1), we
suggest that important changes have
been underway for over a decade,
and that it is no longer possible to
presume such lack of interest or enga-
gement on womens part. Rather, we
must begin to look more carefully at
a reality which for many years was
seen through a naturalized and natu-
ralizing lens (Adelman and Becker, 2013).
Thus, we have perceived that
horses continue to be important
symbolic and material resources
within rural traditions and commu-
nities throughout Brazil, and many
popular equestrian activities mix
not only genders but social classes.
Both the Gaucho rodeos that pre-
vail in southern Brazil and the
Country rodeos that bear the
imprint of an (imported) US
Western equestrian style and tech-
nology attract large weekend crowds
and stimulate participation of dif-
ferent sorts. While the former are
increasingly integrating women in
calf-roping competitions (a deve-
lopment that seems to have picked
up since the beginning of the new
millennium (Becker, 2011), the
Country rodeo circuit has created
one particular type of competition
that is increasingly marked as female
(barrel racing), while others calf-
roping and bronco riding are mar-
ked as masculine and generally pro-
mote womens exclusion (Costa,
2003). Popular horseback proces-
sions and trail riding are, on the
other hand, a moment in which
women and men, children and adults
and sometimes people of different
social origins take part in shared
outdoor leisure.
Furthermore, English or classi-
cal riding, such as dressage and
show jumping, is also moving from
more restricted elite practice to acti-
vities that afford riding opportunities
to include a wider range of people
from the urban middle classes, as
equestrian centers spring up in ever
increasing numbers in or near
medium and large Brazilian cities
(cf. illustration 2).
The equestrian tourism mentioned
above attracts more women than
men, as may also be the case for endu-
rance riding, a competitive option
that is open to many people who
might not be inclined toward com-
petition that is perceived as more
risky (such as show jumping or calf-
roping). Yet the contention that eques-
trian sport has an uncanny democratic
potential, promoting the mingling
people of different ages, classes and
genders, is both a heartening and
provocative assumption, one that in
itself justifies looking more carefully
into peoples actual experiences.
While sociologists and gender scho-
lars such as ourselves may have an
understandable interest in probing
just how realistic this assessment is,
it might be added that not only indus-
try (the horse and tourism sectors,
primarily), but also public policy
makers, might have reason to encou-
rage exploring such potential.
WOMEN LEISURE RIDERS: A PILOT STUDY
For this pilot study of womens
use of leisure time and construction
of identity and sociabilities within
the equestrian world, we interviewed
five women between the ages of
3054. All of them belonged to ourcircle of contacts considerably wide
as a result of fifteen years of research
within different equestrian milieux
in or around the city of Curitiba.
Conversations with our informants
were based on a life history method
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53J U IN 2 0 1 5 CHEVAL , TOUR I SME ET LO I S I R S
CHAPITRE I
which encouraged each of them to
tell their own story, from childhood,
focusing on the role of horses and
riding within their lives. Wherever
necessary, we asked specific ques-
tions to elicit discussion of subjective
elements, regarding issues such as
where horses and riding stood in
relation to other aspects of the infor-
mants life, as well as more objective
questions regarding how our infor-
mants acquired and managed the
resources needed to support their
riding activities. All of our informants
were native Brazilians, current resi-
dents of Curitiba or neighboring
municipalities. They came to us from
a vast pool of friends and acquain-
tances, on the basis of their own
availability and our desire to include
women from different social and
educational backgrounds. Diversity
(differences in urban and rural,
middle and popular class womens
access to and relationship with eques-
trian practices) was a primary
concern, given our basic hypothesis
on the inclusive nature of equestrian
practices and our interest in further
comparative work to test it. The dif-
ferent types of riding that are repre-
sented in this pilot study are consis-
tent with the findings of our earlier
researches (Adelman and Becker, 2013;
Adelman, 2010; Adelman and Moraes,
2008; Adelman, 2004) indicating that
equestrian practice takes on different
forms in different segments of
Brazilian society, from more elite
forms (which, although a minority
practice, have more general cultural
visibility) and the widespread and
popular forms whose existence many
urban middle-class city dwellers are
completely unaware of.
An apparent coincidence, none
of our informants were married at
the time we conducted our inter-
views. Three of them, however, had
children whom they were still all or
partially responsible for, and four
of the five reported current invol-
vement with boyfriends or (non live-
in) male partners. Moreover,
although they constitute an initially
small sample, the feelings and
ideas that they expressed regarding
their relationship to horses, eques-
trian culture and equestrian sport
mirrored those of the women inter-
viewed in earlier research (Adelman,
2010; Adelman and Moraes, 2008;
Adelman, 2003), studies which inclu-
ded married women and women
who rode professionally.
The five women whose narratives
are analysed in the following para-
graphs, include a full time low status
worker, two professionals, a single
mother currently at home with a
young baby and a young woman
who is finishing a law degree. At
present, all of them can be roughly
categorized as leisure riders. Yet
all are very seriously devoted to this
hobby and the possibility of
future professional activity that is
linked to it is a possibility for at
least one of them.
Elisa(4), age 54, divorced, has wor-
ked as a lawyer for twenty-eight
years. While her own children, a
grown son and daughter, still count
on her moral and sometimes financial
support, she reports having finally
gotten to a phase of greater freedom.
This has enabled her to finally fulfil
her long-time dream of acquiring a
horse, which she postponed it until
Illustration 2 Girl and her instructor at a lesson, elite social club in southern Brazil
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MIRIAM ADELMAN
54
Quite another life story, and a
different riding history, comes from
Francisca, a 33 year old woman
from a working-class background.
Francisca spent her early years in
the urban periphery of Curitiba,
living in a number of different neigh-
bourhoods characteristically popu-
lated by people who have made the
historically-recent migration from
rural to urban areas (a movement
of rural exodus that has been well-
documented, picking up steam and
reaching its apex during the 1970s).
When she finished high school, she
took work at whatever jobs were
most readily availablewaitressing,in particular. She says, Ill do any
kind of work, any kind. You see,
Im not afraid of working, I roll up
my sleeves and do what I have to
do! Although her brothers have
ridden horses since childhood,
Francisca only began riding in her
twenties, but was immediately ready
to throw herself into the fray: muc-
king stalls, grooming, staying up at
night with sick horses or whatever
it was that taking care of the horses
that her family kept in their own
backyard involved. While her bro-
thers are ropers, she characterizes
herself as a non-competitively-orien-
ted leisure rider: I love horses, I
really do. I just dont spend more
time with them because I dont get
a chance. But as soon as I began my
own life of, you know, being able
to have fun on the weekends and
so forth, I chose horses. Cause I
could have gone out dancing and
drinking at all of that, but no, never.
Well, not that I never do, but I prefer
weekend competitions. She sees her
riding as that which enabled her to
move on with her life at a crucial
moment, referring to the period after
her marriage broke up in these terms:
I was taking a lot of medication,
too much, and I was given an anti-
depressant, and all I did was sleep.
Then my doctor changed my medi-
cation, and I was always irritated,
bickering with everyone. Another
doctor said I had a vitamin defi-
ciency, and then prescribed a ton of
vitamins, and that made me gain
weight six kilos and that really
drove me crazy ... And things went
on like that till the day I started
riding, and from then on I always
felt fine, the nausea and fainting
stopped, so its even a question of
health, in addition to being some-
thing I love, and if there is ever a
week that goes by without being
able to ride because of work, I start
feeling bad ... I have been horse-
crazy since I was a little girl ... Erica
portrays her daily life is an active
one: she rides weekday mornings,
before going into the office (fortu-
nately, the club the Hpica is
conveniently located in relation to
downtown Curitiba) and after a
busy workday, she takes evening
classes toward an MBA degree and
studies German. She characterizes
herself as someone who is always
on the move, Ive always been like
this, I cant stand not being active.
And, when asked about what makes
her the happiest in life, she readily
responds that happiness to her has
two basic ingredients: her work and
her horses.
her daughter finished collegeanexpense that had fallen on her shoul-
ders, since her ex-husband had long
since stopped paying child support.
She has become the proud owner of
a young Quarter Horse mare; now,
rather than occasional riding on rental
horses or taking lessons, riding her
own horse has become her major lei-
sure activity. Elisa and her horse have
also recently begun to participate in
endurance riding. She says she enjoys
the adrenaline of competition and
sees endurance riding as offering
more of it, since sports like barrel
racing and jumping competitions are
over in a few secondswhile in her
chosen mode, the ride goes on for
hours. She explains, I identify with
the sport, which is a sport in which
you arent allowed to mistreat your
animal ... and the landscapes out on
those trails are absolutely marvel-
lous!Elisa relished in describing the
evolution of her relationship to her
mare, Cocoa. Cocoa, she says, came
into my life to fulfil ... a need, the
need to feel special to someone. [After
I got her] ... I never felt lonely again!
Erica, an established lawyer in
Curitiba, age 34, divorced, could
also be seen as the epitome of pro-
fessional success and independence.
When, as she puts it, she became
single again, she took up riding at
the Sociedade Hpica Paranaense,
an elite riding club that is part of a
national show jumping circuit coor-
dinated by the Brazilian Equestrian
Federation. Since then, Erica has
become an accomplished show jum-
per, riding every morning before
work and participating regularly in
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55J U IN 2 0 1 5 CHEVAL , TOUR I SME ET LO I S I R S
CHAPITRE I
and her two brothers (but not her
sister) followed a tradition that had
most often been passed down from
grandfather and father to son. In
her own family, gendered patterns
of childrearing were present, but did
not close the equestrian world off
to her. As she puts it: My dad used
to say So, if you kids are good this
week, therell be rodeo for you on
the weekend! So we were perfect,
you know, so that dad wouldnt
have reason to get made at us, not
take us, like No, you guys did this
and that! And it was so nice, because
we did our schoolwork, the house-
work ... you know since I was a girl,
I washed dishes for my mom, kept
the house clean, did everything right
so I could go to the rodeo on the
weekend.
In Cristianes case, horses and the
rodeo world have been a driving
force and a non-negotiable passion
in her life. She did a stint as a bronc
rider the only woman in the state
who took part in bronc riding at
that time, she says. Mostly, though,
she has taken part in roping com-
petition and enjoys pleasure riding.
She has built her life around horses
and the social milieu of the rodeo,
which stands in contrast to her
overtly pragmatic relationship to
paid employment: mere obligation.
She makes reference to the physical
pleasure of riding and amateur com-
petition including the adrenaline
of bronc riding. Traditionalist rodeo
activities, such as frequent weekends
spent camping at the parks where
rodeos take place, bring her family
and social life into a unique whole
(cf. illustration 3).
At present, she says, she still does
her part of the stable chores, so that
her workday is not over when she
jumps off her motorcycle at the front
to be out in the country, helping
with the horses. My middle brother
for example likes motorcycles, jeeps,
thats what he does. I could have
chosen that but I didnt ... I went
the other way, chose horses. So come
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, when I
have free time, I can be with the
horses. Do what I want. Go to the
rodeo, I love that. My brothers are
rodeo riders, you see. They go, ride,
camp out. We go there, hang out
with our friends, laugh, see people
we like!Currently devoted to caring
for her new baby, Francisca is uncer-
tain about her work future. Single
mother of two children, she none-
theless harbors idyllic plans for the
future: to move further away from
the city, to the place in the country
that her mother and stepfather have
purchased, and to devote herself, in
upcoming years, to raising her
daughters and tending to horses and
farm work.
Cristiane, also in her thirties, is,
like Francisca, from one of the many
Brazilian working or popular class
families that could be placed somew-
here between rural and urbanwith roots both in the countryside
and its cultural patterns and the
rapidly urbanizing and industrializing
world of latter 20th century Brazil.
When commenting on her child-
hood, she underscored being raised
within southern Brazilian traditio-
nalist culture(5): My father was a
traditionalist and we got that from
him. So it was like this: during the
week, school, normal activities, nor-
mal life; come the weekend, if there
was a rodeo, there we went! She
Illustration 3 Pole bending competition, rodeo in southern Brazil
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MONDES DU TOUR I SME (HORS S R I E ) J U IN 2 0 1 5
MIRIAM ADELMAN
56
door of her house in a Curitiba peri-
urban region. Yet she poses the
hard physical work that barn work
entails as a labor of love. She sees
the sheer experience of being out in
the country with her horses as the-
rapeutic: Today I say: there is no
better therapy for a person than that,
lets say, on the week-end, if you
have a place in the country. And
you go there, talk to your animals,
talk to your horse, and it seems like
it understands you. You know, it
seems like youre in another life ...
the whole week, exhausted from
work [but now] you dont even have
to get that close to your horses ...
you just look, you see they are there,
and its such an opportunity to be
there in that world. Like me, no
stress, no cars honking my ears off,
none of that. Just the horses whin-
nying from the pasture, you know?
It is so good, for those who really
appreciate it, who know what I am
talking about, right? Because the
sensation they [the horses] give us
is so good, its extraordinary! ... I
wouldnt exchange this life for any-
thing; on the contrary, I tell everyone
to go, spend a weekend, every two
weeks, holidays: go somewhere in
the country where you can enjoy
these things, because nothing on
earth is better!
Lia, at age 29 the youngest of our
interviewees, is from a middle-class
Curitiba family. Lias mother, per-
ceiving her daughters love for horses,
signed her up for riding lessons when
she was 9. Over the years that fol-
lowed, Lia mastered the basics of
English riding, did some jumping
and also began to learn to ride
Western, as barrel racing a
Western sport coming to Brazil
via the US and often signified as
standing in contrast to Brazilian
popular rodeo traditionbecameincreasingly popular in the region.
A landmark moment was when, at
age 15, her mother bought her first
horse, a young colt still far from
training age. Unfortunately, within
little over a years time, the country
was struck by a period of economic
instability that made it hard for her
mother to manage the colts upkeep.
Having to sell the animal was, for
Lia, a traumatic experience. And
thus began a twelve years hiatus in
which she had little contact with
horses and no opportunity to ride.
It also roughly coincided with her
first love, a boyfriend with whom
she spent many years, from adoles-
cence and into adulthood. Lia is cur-
rently finishing a law degree that
she is not particularly invested in
and is in the process of making plans
to do the entrance exam for a private
university where she hopes to carry
out her dream of studying veterinary
medicine. She has two horses, one
she rides regularly and a colt who
is rapidly approaching training age.
Like Cristiane, she portrays her
connection to horses as much more
than a hobby and perhaps with
certain complexities that go beyond
the boundaries of leisure par-
ticularly insofar as she dreams of
turning her hobby into something
more along the lines of a life project:
My relationship to horses is this:
in the future I would like to work
with horses, or if I cant do that,
then have my own place to raise
them, or maybe a training barn,
something so that I wouldnt have
to make a living off it but it would
be [central] in my life. Those are my
intentions, short, middle and long
term, to have a place [for horses] of
my own.
At present, however, horses and
riding remain a very absorbing lei-
sure, around which she has construc-
ted a network of friends and a social
life in which, she says, she is oftenagain, as in her childhoodaroundmore guys than girls. Although
she acknowledges the existence of
a lot of machismo in the eques-
trian world (and here it is important
to cite the fact that today she is pri-
marily involved in Western-riding,
rather than the more feminized
world of classical equitation and
showjumping) and believes that
women should be allowed more
space therein, she states that, given
her own personal story, she is com-
fortable in homosocial environments.
My [male] friends just see me as
another one of the guys.
INITIAL FINDINGS
As we have shown above, our
five interviewees vary in terms of
class origin, educational level and
life trajectory. Yet there are some
important similarities and compa-
risons to be drawn regarding the
place they have given to equestrian
activities in their lives and the benefits
they see as accruing from them.
Furthermore, the cross-class cha-
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57J U IN 2 0 1 5 CHEVAL , TOUR I SME ET LO I S I R S
CHAPITRE I
racter of this albeit small sample
also provides insights into some
social processes that are currently
underway in Brazil, in which signi-
ficant changes in gender and culture
shape not only elite womens sense
of entitlement to pleasure and leisure
but acquire a wide-reaching scope
and touch the lives of women across
the social spectrum. Thus, our study
constitutes revealing evidence of
how women from different social
segments negotiate personal auto-
nomy, desire and control over key
aspects of their lives, from work and
reproduction to sport and leisure.
Of course, paths to change are
here and everywhere paved with
conflict and contradiction, yet we
have sought to explore the evidence
that horses and riding are in fact
offering many women and girls a
unique space and singular oppor-
tunities for fulfilment, self-affirma-
tion and empowerment. The latter,
we argue, is centrally linked to the
physical challenges that riding and
dealing with horses offer and as
we discussed earlier possibilities
for constructing subjectivities and
corporealities less constrained by
normative notions of the feminine.
We have seen that horses represent
a range of things to our interviewees:
signifiers of freedom and mobility,
of taking the reins of life into
ones own hands, of connection to
nature, emotional relationship to
another living being who is in need
of care and attention and whom can
be relied on to give back in the
same measure that it has received
(cf. illustration 4).
This was expressed by our inter-
viewees, time and again: Elisa, for
example, went into great lengths to
describe how her young mare was
initially indifferent and perhaps a
bit afraid of people, and how it took
several months of relationship buil-
ding before a breakthrough: the
day the horse showed the first signs
of recognition that Elisa was
someone special to her.
Similarly, Francisca spoke proudly
of the way she cares for the family
horses, and how her mare has com-
pensated that with her curiosity and
affection: My brothers want to go
to the rodeo [calf-roping] every wee-
kend and they go, I go with them.
I ride around, take care of the horses.
At home, Im the one who does the
barn chores. If a horse gets hurt,
Im the one who calls the vet. Im
Illustration 4 Riding and managing horses, perceived asa metonymy of taking the reins of yourlife whatever is the social status of women
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MIRIAM ADELMAN
58
the one who orders the feed. The
one who brushes them. I take care
of them much more than my bro-
thers do, all they do is get on, ride
off, go to the roping tournaments.
Theyre rough with the horses, Im
more affectionate ... My brothers
mare, when I was pregnant she
would always come around sniffing
my belly. I give her sugar, salt, she
eats bread from my hands...
In the passage transcribed above,
Francisca provides an earnest des-
cription of how she sees her own
and her brothers relationship to
horses. As many authors have poin-
ted out, horse-human relationships
are frequently signified in highly
gendered terms (Birke and Brandt,
2009; Pierson, 2002) and statements
that contrast men and womens atti-
tudes in handling horses, often reso-
nating with the common clichs
that associate women with sensitive,
care-giving roles and men with more
instrumental relationships to their
horses as mounts, were not altoge-
ther absent from our conversations.
They tended, however, to focus
more specifically on the benefits
and pleasures that women reap in
their life with horses, rather than
reproducing simplified binaries.
Elisa noted that women tend to
treat their horses with greater care,
bringing to fruition a relationship
that is more cooperative, pleasurable
and productive. Lia, while gende-
ring her own relationship to
horsesthe sensation that ... a fra-gile woman can master an animal,
such strength and such fragility, is
something I find moving, the most
beautiful thing on earth!, avoidedcommon generalizations on mens
and womens attitudes, and was
quick to point out that there are
members of both sexes who treat
their animals with sensitivity and
kindness, or in more brutish ways.
When our informants narrate the
role horses have had in their lives,
their speech echoes much that we
have heard elsewhere throughout
years of research: the notion of an
almost magical attraction that horses
have always had on them. Those
who had less contact with horses in
early childhood (for example, from
urban and non-horsey families)
spoke of an enigmatic connection
springing from nowhere or from
who knows where! and often beco-
ming a dream patiently nurtured for
many long years before horse-owner-
ship could become a reality.
Economic factors are also at work:
horses and equestrian culture are,
as we have stated above, important
in Brazilian popular culture and thus
many women and girls from humble
rural environments have some access
to both, but for urban residents,
boarding a horse can be expensive.
Although today boarding options
run from fairly inexpensive caban-
has to fancy hpicas, two of our
informants mentioned an extended
wait until the moment came in which
resourcestime and moneyweremore readily available. Yet, both
for those whose access to horses had
been harder and for those who
favoured by family-based access, the
enchantment factor was portrayed
as strong and enduring. Thus, horses
were signified as an element of emo-
tional stability, physical and mental
well-being, and even an element len-
ding a certain consistency to life,
mending frayed edges and restoring
coherency to the tatters of existence.
This was expressed in recurrent
tropes such as finding in your horse
a companion you can always
count on [when others (may) let
you down] ... A feeling, we might
suggest, that is not to be belittled
in a world that is increasingly per-
ceived as fluid, turbulent, uncertain,
inherently complicated, as in
Marxs famous all that is solid
melts into air and contemporary
sociologist Baumans liquid
modernity (Bauman, 2000). Horses,
then, become reliable connections
in a challenging and sometimes
overwhelming world. The acknow-
ledged open-endness of life projects,
personal trajectories that must be
built in the face of social constraints
and the general unpredictability of
human relationships are also
fraught, furthermore, with the ten-
sions of gender change and conflict.
Elisa and Erica seem to see their
horses as filling in empty spaces
in their lives, yet even so, frame
this in terms of choice and agency,
not as Piersons critique also
points out (2002) to be reduced
to a discourse that labels closeness
with animals as a deficient sub-
stitute for human relationship.
Furthermore, the relationships that
our informants develop with their
non-human companions unfold
within human contexts of sociality
that they cite as highly rewarding.
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59J U IN 2 0 1 5 CHEVAL , TOUR I SME ET LO I S I R S
CHAPITRE I
This is so for the women who grew
up within families connected to the
Brazilian popular rodeo culture as
well as for those who moved into
equestrian circles on their own,
such as Lia and Elisa, who unders-
core their own increasing absorp-
tion in horsey circles. Francisca
has built a social life in the urban
periphery area she lives in around
horsesher comadre and com-padre(6), a young couple close to
her in age, origin and interests, run
a barn, not far from her house, and
she signals this as the place she pre-
fers to hang out whenever possible.
She is also heartened by the fact
that her elder daughter adores
horses, and mentions the fact that
the girls teacher has noticed the
calming effects that a weekend
near equines seems to have on her.
CONCLUSIONAgain and again, women empha-
size the personal benefits and plea-
sures of a life around horses: emo-
tionally strengthening, encouraging
independence, a type of end in itself
that mobilizes psychic investments
as well as considerable investment
of time and/or resources some-
thing they are willing to work for
regardless of what it costs or what
others think. Perhaps, as horse
enthusiasts ourselves, it is hard to
resist the trap of a facile or naive
notion of womens empowerment,
such as that which characterizes
some contemporary self-help type
women and horses literature. In
this terrain as in all other arenas
of social life and culture, conflicts
of different types are played out.
Gender stereotyping and hetero-
normative policing of women in
equestrian sports have been docu-
mented (Adelman and Knijnik, 2013;
Birke and Brandt, 2009), and social,
cultural and financial constraints
often mark the scenario within
which human and human-horse
interactions unfold. Birke and
Brandts analysis of North
American and British contexts leads
them to conclude that The pre-
sence of horses enables a subversion
of dominant gender practices par-
ticularly at the localized (private)
level, while at the same time enables
a reinscription of traditional gender
ideals at the global (public) level
(Birke and Brandt, 2009, p. 189).
Women themselves contribute to
the latter when they resort to or
reproduce a women and horses
discourse that essentializes special
bonds between human females and
equines. Furthermore, some of the
most intense conflicts are located
precisely at the private level. Within
the context of heterosexual rela-
tionships and marriage, for
example, women contend with all
the contemporary pressures that
feminist family scholars have been
documenting for several decades
(Gerson, 1986; Vaitsman, 1994; Arajo
and Scalon, 2005); those who parti-
cipate in equestrian activities are
often forced into difficult choices,
or difficult negotiations (Adelman,
2004). The five women we spoke
to in this pilot study were chosen
on the basis of our desire to begin
with a socially heterogeneous group
and it is perhaps, as stated above,
no more than coincidence that all
were single at the time we spoke
to them. Yet whether in relation
to current or past relationships or
simply with regard to their personal
use of time and space, all made it
clear that horses and riding are
non-negotiable aspects of their daily
lives and interests. Partners, hus-
bands, boyfriends and companions
who do not share this passion must
nonetheless accept and respect it.
Generalizing claims comparing
women who ride to those who cul-
tivate other leisure pursuits are far
beyond the scope and purpose of
the present text. Yet the brave res-
ponses that many of those we have
interviewed here and elsewhere
(Adelman and Becker, 2013; Adelman,
2010; Adelman and Moraes, 2008;
Adelman, 2004) stand out in terms
of the notions of womanhood emer-
ging from them: the quest for self-
determination and autonomy, a
belief that a womans body, life,
sexuality and pleasure are her own,
a search for new forms of connec-
tion to men and women, children,
animals and nature, as our research
and that of many others in different
parts of the world seem to suggest(7).
The tentative findings from the pilot
study we have presented here are
also indicative of deep and often
tempestuous changes that are swee-
ping Brazilian society today, as res-
trictive notions of gender and the
norms of conventional nuclear
family and heterosexual marriage
are increasingly challenged, and
sometimes transcended. n
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60 MONDES DU TOUR I SME (HORS S R I E ) J U IN 2 0 1 5
MIRIAM ADELMAN
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NOTES
(*)The author thanks Mara Ferreira, docto-
ral candidate in sociology (UFPR), for her
contribution as research assistant, with
interviews and transcriptions.
(1) Pierson (2000]), on the other hand,
provides a subtle, nuanced and often ironic
view of essentializing approaches to
women and horses in her marvellous text,
Dark Horses and Black Beauties: Animals,
Women, a Passion.
(2) Unfortunately, in Brazil, equivalent data
is not readily available.
(3) Following Sedgwick (1985) who argues
that homosociality is the common format
taken by modernitys public sphere activity.
(4) All names given here are pseudonyms.
(5) In another recently published text
(Adelman and Becker, 2013), we discuss
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thern Brazilian traditionalist movement: a
re-signification of historic regional patterns
linked to South American pampas culture
and economic (cattle range) activity.
(6) Terms used in Latin American coun-
tries to denote a particular type of fictive
kinship, referring specifically to the relation-
ship that is established with the godmother
and/or godfather of ones own children,
and suggesting a sort of co-parenting; in
other words, substantial bonds of recipro-
city.
(7) See Adelman and Knijnik (2013) for
discussion of studies which come to similar
conclusions.
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