PARIS — Laura Hassan, 36, started to ride at the age of 8, on holiday with her grandparents in the Charente-Maritime department, in southwestern France. “My first animal? Un ‘double poney,” she recalls, using an old French word for a large pony. Following her discovery of the equestrian world, her parents enrolled her in the local club in Joinville-le-Pont, near Paris, where the family had just moved.
Now a mother of two, she rekindled her passion for horse riding just two years ago, after a 10 year break due to professional and family engagements.
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Almost 30 years later, Hassan has “happily” rediscovered the feeling of getting back in the saddle at her home club, as if she has come full circle. Today, between private lessons, strengthening sessions and competitions, she rides an average of four times a week.
“Riding is part of my equilibrium. It teaches me patience, perseverance and the need to stay focused and calm in all circumstances. A summary of what I try to apply in my professional life, where I constantly need to make important decisions and manage great responsibilities. Being in the saddle puts me back in the role of a learner. My instructors and my horse never fail to remind me of the importance of humility and questioning,” Hassan says.
A remedy for stress
The same addictive passion, but a different beginning for Séverine Le Mière. Originally from Lyon, now the Director of the apprentice training center at energy giant Engie, she only started to ride when she was 27. “As a child, while I was drawn to the world of horses, my parents thought it was an expensive and dangerous activity. So, I dropped the issue,” says the dynamic 50-something, who rides once a week, in the evening, at her club in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, west of Paris.
Whether it’s raining or snowing, the ritual is the same: She leaves her Parisian home at 7:30 p.m., then it’s 30 minutes to prepare the horse, one hour of group lessons (with dressage or show jumping every other week) and 30 minutes to look after the animal in its stall, plus a shower for the latter when the temperatures start to climb.
Horse riding is a true remedy against stress and has the benefits of a complete physical activity.
“I never get home before 11pm. Sometimes we improvise an aperitif or a dinner party in the equestrian center. There’s a convivial atmosphere in this group, which brings together people from all walks of life and of all ages. It’s the only moment in my week where I don’t think about my family, my job, the bills – in short, I forget everything.” Not forgetting, she adds, horse riding is a true remedy against stress and has the benefits of a complete physical activity (thighs, adductors, back, abs, muscle tone).
Top female sport in France
In a few months, the equestrian events of the Olympic Games will be held in the splendid grounds of the Château de Versailles from Saturday 27 July. Meanwhile, the equestrian world is breathing an impressive air of serenity.
Every year, nearly 700,000 people pay for their license to indulge their passion in one of the 9,500 agricultural structures linked to the practice of sport and leisure that cover France (pony clubs, riding schools) and employ more than 17,000 people. In fact, horse riding is the third most popular sport in France, after football and tennis, and the leading sport for women (85% of license holders).
“Beyond the license holders who frequent our equestrian centers, our country accounts for nearly 3 million riders who regularly or occasionally practice horse riding each year,” says Frédéric Bouiz, general delegate of the French Horse Riding Federation (FFE), from the head office of the organization, sheltered in the splendid equestrian park in Lamotte-Beuvron, in the Loir-et-Cher department.
Although in 2020 the sector, like so many others, suffered the consequences of the pandemic (with the closure of equestrian centers, travel restrictions), the practice of this individual outdoor sport took off again from the summer of the first lockdown. “We saw an 11% rebound in the number of license holders between 2020 and 2021,” says Frédéric Bouix, who points out that the licenses issued by the Federation are divided between “horse,” “tourism” and “pony” (50% of the total).
These “mini horses,” so called because their height at the withers doesn’t exceed 1.48 meters (4.8 feet), were indirectly responsible for the growth and democratization of horse riding some 50 years ago in riding schools, which were then mainly run by former military instructors.
“The economic dynamism of France during the ‘The Glorious Thirty’ led young qualified instructors to set up their own structures and take over, often offering ponies, which were much cheaper to maintain than traditional horses,” says Vérène Chevalier, a lecturer at the University of Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne (UPEC) and a specialist in the equestrian world. This new offer met with demand, particularly from girls for whom the range of sporting activities available at the time was less extensive than that for boys.
An affordable leisure sport
Among the enduring clichés about this sport, which was transformed into a leisure activity at the end of the 19th century, when the horse lost its utilitarian role, elitism and the bourgeois regularly come up in discussion. The FFE firmly denies this, pointing to a recent study by its departments that found the average household income of a license holder does not exceed 30,000 euros (,000) a year and that the price of a “basic” license does not exceed 35 euros (.60).
That is certainly not the case for riders who compete in equestrian events (one in four license holders), whose annual budget remains considerable, between the purchase of the horse (minimum of ,300), the cost of the equipment and the van on purchase (,600 to ,000) and maintenance (and renewal of equipment, from ,500 to ,600) — not to mention the cost of board.
Horse riding, like all sports, evokes strong feelings in those who practice it, whether it’s a way of surpassing themselves, relieving stress, a soothing environment or a taste for competition (for some). And there’s one major difference: the presence of a partner whose reactions are often unpredictable. “It’s a long process of getting to know yourself as a rider, but also of merging with your horse and being able to anticipate its attitudes as far as possible,” Hassan says.
Riding requires emotional intelligence. You can’t cheat with a horse.
“Riding requires emotional intelligence. You can’t cheat with a horse. You have to be sincere in your relationship and humble. The horse is a sponge that instinctively knows whether you’re happy or in a terrible mood,” says Astrid Sergeant. The tall, red-haired 40-something, who is a press officer in Paris, has been riding since she was 6.
“When I was small, I was attracted by the nobility of the animal but also a little scared by its size. In my childhood, horse riding allowed me to tame my fears and learn to be independent. When you’re on a horse, you have to manage everything and constantly improvise,” Sergeant says.
A Parisian for many years, the Harley Davidson fan, who had her own horse from the ages of 15 to 35, Sergeant regularly rides on holiday in La Baule, near Nantes, with her 12-year-old daughter, who she gave the riding bug to. Her plan is to buy another horse in the coming months. “I don’t have the same expectations today as I did 25 years ago, when I was a competition enthusiast. I like ethology, the relationship with the horse that teaches us so much about ourselves.”
Endless opportunities
Marion Lebel, a 31-year-old consultant in corporate communication and media relations, fell into the equestrian world at an early age. “We lived in Rambouillet (west of Paris), in the middle of the countryside. My father owned and was passionate about horses,” she says. After endless hours of practicing taming the animal, perfecting her technique and taking an sport-education course in horse riding, she started competing in show jumping.
“My love of horses was born, consciously or unconsciously, with the desire to spend time with my father,” says Marion, who now has two Selle Français breed sportshorses (Garance, aged 8 and Issendro, 6), which she and her coach ride during the week to train for weekend competitions, in the Paris region, Le Mans and Normandy.
“I love the competition, the speed, the adrenaline. To be successful, you need to have your own horse. At the highest level, it’s the horse who is the athlete not the rider,” she smiles, celebrating that horse riding is one of the rare sports in which women and men compete in the same events, regardless of category. In fact, it is a woman rider, Pénélope Leprévost, with her horse Vancouver de Lanlore, who has a high chance of getting a medal at the Paris Olympics.
Contact with this very special world gives me intense emotions and a real sense of inner peace.
Between competitions, family outings, acrobatics or carriage driving, the possibilities for spending time with horses seem (almost) endless. After 15 years of riding in a club in the Bois-de-Boulogne, on the edge of Paris’ 16th arrondissement, Laurent Tisseyre, 53, fell in love with polo, this ‘chic’ and niche team sport on horseback (900 members, 31 clubs in France).
Different path
The principle: Two teams of four players on horseback, each equipped with a long-handled mallet, struggle to propel a plastic ball into the opposing team’s goal, over an area of grass the size of four football pitches. “This sport is less solitary and more fun than show-jumping, which I practiced for a long time. It’s fun, intense and terribly physical. There’s a very strong sense of camaraderie, but also an acute sense of competition,” says the cybersecurity specialist.
French news presenter Xavier de Moulins, 52, has also taken a different path with horse riding, which he has regularly practiced since the age of 10. He was a hyperactive child who found the serenity he needed in connecting with animals. Eight years ago, he discovered the world of horse racing, its demanding trainers, its elite horses and the infinite diversity of its professions. “Contact with this very special world gives me intense emotions and a real sense of inner peace,” he says.
Twice a week, he sets off at dawn for Chantilly, the Mecca of the horse world, north of Paris, to soak up the special atmosphere and get down to work preparing the horses that will compete in the afternoon. “It brightens up my day and gives me the peace of mind I need to deal with the stress of preparing my evening news programme,” says the prolific author, whose latest book, which came out last year, is called The Night of the Thoroughbreds (La nuit des pur-sang).
