International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.
Equestrian sport is one of the few sports worldwide in which men and women compete equally. Women were first permitted to compete at the Olympics in Dressage in 1952, followed by Jumping in 1956 and in Eventing in 1964; since then, equestrian sports have been among the very few Olympic sports in which men and women compete with and directly against one another.
“The FEI and equestrian have an exceptional quality - we consider ourselves the Olympic champions of gender equality, but equestrian is in fact gender neutral because there is no gender division in our sport” said Ingmar De Vos, President of the FEI in 2018 at the IF Gender Equality in Leadership Forum
“Female and male equestrian athletes compete on the same stage for the same medals, from grassroots to the elite level, and while this is totally normal for everyone in our sport, it is obviously totally unique to everyone looking in on equestrian.”
If you want to know about women in the sport of eventing, we figured there is no-one better to ask than Australian Olympic silver medallist, Megan Jones. Megan provided her perspective as not only a top competitor and mum, but also as one who knows what it takes to stay at the top of the sport
“It’s not about being ‘blokey tough’, it’s about being mentally prepared” says Megan
