Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
History
First Advisor
Thomas Brown
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes horseback riding as a constitutive gender practice for nineteenth-century American women. During this era, horses were central to many middle-to-upper class women’s everyday lives as they rode recreationally in female- dominated and co-ed spaces, performed as competitive jockeys, and trained horses. This project illustrates how women’s participation in these different arenas of horse(wo)manship, as I term it, provided them with opportunities to transgress gender expectations and forge interpersonal and interspecies relationships. Eventually, their commitment to developing expertise in the saddle allowed women to dominate equestrianism, usurping men’s historic dominance as equestrians and challenging the association between horsemanship and manliness in Western culture. This project views the world of horse(wo)manship as a model feminine domain through which to understand the complexities of class-based gender norms. In doing so, it highlights the pervasiveness of gender ideologies and shows how women could use an everyday activity like riding to challenge gender expectations. Additionally, since these horsewomen were predominantly white and bourgeois, this narrative highlights how racial privilege and class standing shaped women’s ability to challenge social norms in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, by centering narratives of human-animal partnership, this project reveals how interspecies collaboration shaped human experiences, gender performance, and interpersonal connections. Taken together, this project contributes to our understanding of nineteenth-century history and animal studies while highlighting women’s agency in challenging gender expectations and constructing feminine spaces.
Rights
© 2026, Gabrielle Marie McCoy
Recommended Citation
McCoy, G. M.(2026). In the Saddle: Gender and the Rise of a Female Equestrian Culture. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8880