I see lots of male equestrians in the Grand Prix or the Olympics but I barely see any at the barns I have been to so far.
Where do they train and how do they randomly spawn at the highest level of riding?
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Not that many boys go into riding, but those that do (especially if they are athletic) often progress dizzyingly fast because they have balance, strength, courage. Iāve heard of more than one male showjumper saying he took riding lessons as a teen on a whim and shot up to the big leagues. Indeed I met a 60 year old male skier who made a transition to eventing.
Tragically it just doesnāt come that easy to most of us women. I cannot imagine a 60 year old woman adult beginner ending up eventing.
Men created extreme sports too. Show jumping appeals to them like base jumping or cliff skiing or parkour.
Also some of them are children of trainers
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Ehhhhā¦.no. We see this across the board in disciplines that donāt require a lot of straight up ācourageā and brute strength, like dressage and reining. In ballet, the vast VAST majority of dancers are women, but if a man decides they want to do it, and they can perform at the companyās baseline, they have a guaranteed career. Many more promising women wash out. And guess who gets to run the companiesā¦the dudes.
I know my personal reasons for not following my trainer to Wellington as a teen and going to college instead and Iāve seen it time and again with others in my cohort.
I saw it during my PhD when I decided to say F it to academia and get into a job where I could get
paid while the getting was good. I watched the gauntlet women scholars dealt with to get tenure track.
It all comes down to the same reasons we donāt see as many women in c-suites or other elite positions. Women must make a choice between raising a family or pursuing elite sport or whatever and our society is just not that conducive to helping make that happen.
Even women athletes who swear up and down, they wonāt get pregnant, they wonāt sacrifice their shot, the money will ALWAYS DOUBT THEM.
We pay a real penalty for taking that time. Men just donāt. Even just 6 months at the end of a pregnancy and to recover. Itās real.
Add into that, men are āunderdogsā in equestrian sport so thereās a lot of people with money that line up to support them. If a dude wants to ride, he must be elite so letās back him. A lot of them come from family connections and are trusted to run the business side for the same sexist reasons.
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This is also all true
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I think we just notice them more is all really. 95% of the farriers I have used are male and ride and are not grand prix riders or BNTs. I had several male friends growing up riding and only a handful of them still ride now - one does trainer eventers with his wife but also course designs, ships, etc. Another trains field hunters and steeplechasers but he was born into the industry. One I knew became a vet. Most of them that I knew as a kid have moved on to other things.
On the other hand, riding was historically a menās sport and so I think much was developed to suit their bodies. My family owns a sports performance company and I see day in and day out that menās and womenās bodys are simply built differently. I will never be able to bench 420 like my spouse or do a number of other things he can do, but he thinks riding a horse is pure insanity. 
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As a male equestrian I came from the same place from where my fellow female equestrians come, amateur and professional.
I agree with some of the points raised by @MadTrotter, however, I counter with the experience of my sister. She wanted to ride in a GP and did everything needed to get to the level and compete. At that point she said, āThere is more to the world than riding, such as my kids, my company, my other interests,ā¦ā I think women show more maturity and realize that there is more to life than just riding. Men, such as me and my brothers, have a harder time growing into that mindset. It wasnāt until later in life we realized that we ride and train because of the enjoyment and love and that we can set aside horses to experience other aspects of life.
Outside of independently wealthy, any top rider, male or female, has to play the game, do the business to appease wealthy owners, make the business run, travel and compete,ā¦ It is not just āgivenā to men. Trust me. I thought I wanted to go for the team decades ago before I realized there is more to life and that horses are my place of happiness and fun.
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They come out of the womb as a Grand Prix rider!!! Haha well it feels like that.
My own trainer is a guy and heās the son of a Grand Prix rider. Growing up they:
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rode whatever sales/client horses came into the barn
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had constant feedback from the gp dad as they all rode together every day
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had the benefit of a schoolmaster for each new level
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did farm/feed/horse management/shipping themselves so know a lot of the skills necessary to run a program outside riding
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boys are competitive and he admits to wanting to beat his brother more than anything
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English riding is a non-mainstream sport for boysāone that might come with some significant teasing (or at least befuddlement) from oneās peers. To get interested in it and stick with it, a boy will need to be very committed and perhaps a bit talentedāotherwise, the tradeoffs wonāt be worth it.
For girls, itās a different story. There is a whole genre of childrenās literature that revolves around girl getting horse, girl overcoming some challenge, and girl loving horse forever. Unlike for boys, riding for girls is coolā¦ complete with opportunities to put glitter on ponies and give them kisses. Thus, you can have a lot of girls who arenāt particularly committed or talented, but just enjoy the āpony campā/social aspect of riding.
Bottom line: the boys who stick with riding are likely to be serious riders, whereas in the much large pool of girls who ride, many may be just doing it as a fun activity.
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This I agree with.
Kids and pregnancy may stop some women from reaching the top, not me lol. Iām in my thirties with no kids, and itās been pretty clear since I was a teenager that I was never making it to the big leagues.
My trainer is male and rode in his first Grand Prix while in his forties. The other men at the barn jump around at 2ā6".
Iād say that the males who stick with it are serious. Couple that with the fact that the average male has faster reaction times than the average female, and is likely stronger and maybe braver than the average female, they have a bit of an advantage. Obviously some luck is involved, ie getting matched with appropriate horses, a good trainer, the funds to show, etc.
Iād add that theyāre probably far less likely to hang out in the 3ā hunters. Whether thatās because of drive or appearances.
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Boys may also have the advantage of getting noticed, if they ride in Eq or Hunters. When my daughter was showing in local/regional shows, everyone knew the teenage boy rider who really stood out from the legions of Kaitlins, Madisons, and Sarahsā¦ He tended to place very high and he was a good rider, but was he really better than most of the girls???
Itās like the advantage of riding a horse with flashy white socks and a blaze. You might just catch the judgeās eye a tiny bit moreā¦
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Olympic horse sport is equal opportunity sport. It is almost unique in that men and women can compete on equal terms. We should all rejoice in that.
I read an article many years ago that (semi-jokingly) identified how to encourage boys to ride. Ride with other boys of similar age, make certain they have a competitive pony so they habitually win and never ask them to do anything boring, such as grooming, mucking out or dressage lessons. It sticks in my mind because I think there is a kernel of truth in it.
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Genuine question - is it true the average male has a faster reaction time than the average female?
Asking on behalf of my SO, who aināt never been able to save a single dish heās dropped. 
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Males also, as teenagers and young men, tend to have the long, thin, straight physique that is prized in equitation circles and hunters. Which in turn gets them favorably noticed in the ring and in barns looking for a rising star prospect.
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Women throw money at male trainers as though they were in a male strip club. I first saw it with Rodney Jenkins when I was just a kid. This gaggle of rich middle-aged women huddled around him.
How many male trainers do you know who pretend to be straight and/or not married in order to appeal to the potential female clients? 
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this - itās a numbers game, english riding isnāt marketed at random teenage boys like it is at girls so boys involved are very committed or are involved thru family, both of which are advantage to making it to the top while there is tons of girls who arenāt really commited or are outliers in their family who will either peter out or stay at the lower levels. There are tons of average riding males who wonāt make it to the top in the ācowboyā disciplines like roping, cutting and reining
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Um, none??
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I know a trainer with boy and girl children. The one girl is a phenom and the one boy rides extremely well. The other kids are more dabblers. Watching her go, I said to him once, āIf I had a million dollars riding on the results of the junior hunter classic, thereās no one Iād rather have than your daughter.ā He said, āwell, except for my son, of course.ā
The son never crossed my mind. And the results bear that out.
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Maybe.
But then you (that standout rider) need to be on your A Game every round.
Guy I showed alongside rode an Appy with the sad Appy tail in Working Hunter.
He rode the spots off that mare Every.Time. & earned his ribbons.
FWIW:
His family trained for local TB Racing royalty.
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I think thatās an antiquated idea. Like the days when gay male actors had to pretend to be straight and even marry women.
I read an interview with an older male singer the other day who did not come out as gay until well after his Top 10 career was over. He said he always feared his legions of female fans wouldnāt accept him being gay and singing love songs about women. He said once he came out, he discovered that his female fans did not care one bit.
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I think youāre right, but not for that reason. I think that it would be very difficult to get away with these days due to social media and so forth. But back in the day, when these trainers wanted to attract female sponsors and clients, they would flirt with them and the prospects of their availability as partners helped with that flirtation.
I donāt think it was necessary. Women would probably have preferred authoritative seeming male trainers in any event. Many still do. But the times are changing.
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