We celebrate equestrian males with Boys Ride Too

We recently featured BGA member Alex Jones, where he shared his story to highlight the important topic of men’s mental health within the equestrian industry.

So we thought we would widen the spotlight to all equestrian males and what better way than to celebrate the boys who could be our next generation of grooms and riders.

Shining the light on male equestrians is exactly what the ‘Boys Ride Too’ community is focussed on.

The project started with a magazine, created during Lockdown by friends Kerry and Heather, who met because of their sons' shared love of ponies.

The ladies first had the idea to celebrate the boys who ride due to a lack of representation of boys within mainstream equine magazines as well as the need to purchase products that appealed to the boys, as a lot of jodhpurs and other equestrian items are pink or covered in glitter.

Since it's inception, Boys Ride Too has developed into a wonderful community to celebrate boys enjoying our amazing sport.

Join the Boys Ride Too community by visiting their Facebook page.

We recently spoke with one of the founders, Kerry Howard to find out why it’s important to acknowledge equestrian boys.

"Representation is important and so is being able to purchase products that appeal to boys, as this helps them to feel included within the sport, and this is why we work with lots of small businesses that have items for boys who ride. We are also a community where boys come together to enjoy their sport.

We want to appeal to riders at the Grassroots level, to show boys that there are so many different horse sports to try, it doesn’t have to be eventing, dressage, and showjumping. There are so many more disciplines to enjoy, such as polo, horseball and carriage driving.”

What are your hopes for the future of boys in equestrianism?

“For more boys to take up riding and for this to become part of our culture. In Europe and America, there are so many more boys on horseback. In many countries boys riding is normal, it isn’t frowned upon by their young peers, in some cases boys who ride have endured unnecessary name-calling as their chosen sport isn’t mainstream for males such as football or rugby. We would love to see more boys riding at the grassroots level and just enjoying horse sports.  

We asked Kerry at what age do you think the name-calling for boys riding stops?

The equestrian industry is full of successful males such as Carl Hester, Ben Maher, Oliver Townend, and Boyd Excel, when does riding become accepted for males?

Kerry said she had spoken to someone who suddenly got the respect they deserved when they started earning decent money!

In one of the few sports where men and women compete equally, we hope more boys are encouraged to try equestrian sports.

Let's feed the passion of young equestrian males, they may be our next generation of grooms!

Belong to your professional association!

JOIN US

The BGA represents boys too!

We have plenty of amazing male members.

Be part of a community of grooms, just like you. 

If you would like to become a BGA member, have a look at our membership options, from £25.50 per year. 

BGA MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS