Equestrian tourism: from transgression to social diffusion? Horse riding is today the third most popular sport in France, and at the top of the list for women. In 2023, the French Equestrian Federation (FFE) reported 675186 members, of whom 85% were women. The FFE has been innovative in offering its members a speciality: equestrian tourism. In 2023, 10.6% of the total audience belonged to this group. This means that tourism has become a significant category within equestrian leisure and sport. It also invites us to examine the definition of “equestrian tourism”. For such purposes, we go back to its history, asking whether equestrian tourism was created as a counterculture, transgressing the habitus of the milieu and posing a challenge to academic equestrian traditions. We go on to reflect upon the sector’s capacity to promote a social diffusion of horses and riding. We employ mixed methods, combining quantitative analysis of FFE statistics and interpretative in-depth interviews of 22 people specialised in equestrian culture – and more specifically, equestrian tourism – carried out between 2016 and 2024.

Equestrian tourism: from transgression to social diffusion? Horse riding is today the third most popular sport in France, and at the top of the list for women. In 2023, the French Equestrian Federation (FFE) reported 675186 members, of whom 85% were women. The FFE has been innovative in offering its members a speciality: equestrian tourism. In 2023, 10.6% of the total audience belonged to this group. This means that tourism has become a significant category within equestrian leisure and sport. It also invites us to examine the definition of “equestrian tourism”. For such purposes, we go back to its history, asking whether equestrian tourism was created as a counterculture, transgressing the habitus of the milieu and posing a challenge to academic equestrian traditions. We go on to reflect upon the sector’s capacity to promote a social diffusion of horses and riding. We employ mixed methods, combining quantitative analysis of FFE statistics and interpretative in-depth interviews of 22 people specialised in equestrian culture – and more specifically, equestrian tourism – carried out between 2016 and 2024.