Pony Tails and Biking Trails

There is an undeniable link between girls and horses.  Lots of girls love horses.  Not as many get to ride horses as they are an expensive pastime.  I was lucky enough to be able to find a cheap place to take lessons in high school and I talked my parents into letting me go to college for Equine Science.  Yes, I have a Bachelor's Degree in training horses.  I always liked riding bikes too, I rode them long before I rode my first horse, and often they were a means of transportation to get to the horse farms.  I also explored the woods on my bike when I didn't have a horse to do so.

Riding my amazing Quarter Horse, Brigadoon, at a Horse Trials in 1997.

As I get more involved in the mountain biking community I meet more and more women who have horses in their past or who enjoy both sports together.  I am not sure what the link between the two is, but I think if we can find it maybe we can get more women on bikes!  I mean, have you ever been to a horse show?  The female to male ratio is just about opposite what it is at a bike race.  Maybe bike guys looking for a lady who loves the outdoors and doesn't fret about spending weekends doing expensive hobbies should attend more horse shows, and vice versa.

Riding my amazing bike, Dragon, at a Super D this spring.

I decided to reach out to some of the ladies I have met in my bike adventuring to see what their thoughts were on the horse-bike connection.  This is the first of what could be many installments on girls and their tails to trails conversions.

RILEY WEIDMAN  is a nursing student at Penn State and was the Pony Club Nationals Champion in 2007.   "I would say the correlation that I love between MTB and horses is the speed, jumping, and the personal challenge.  I love the feeling of accomplishment when you tackle a jump (on horse or bike) that only recently looked impossible to you. I always make the comparison of how looking ahead of where you are going is so important in both sports (still something I'm mastering) and how when jumping a good reliable horse you can trust them to save your butt if you make a mistake, but in downhill you're on your own. On the other hand, a bike generally has more reliable brakes."

Riley on the LoPan Drop at Seven Springs Bike Park.

"I rode dh for the first time when my family took a vacation to seven springs and tried out their bike park and I completely fell in love with it. I knew nothing about bikes but knew I wanted to get into the sport. There weren't any bike parks that I knew of near my hometown at that time, but I would always ask my parents to go back to seven springs sometime (which was a 5 hr drive). At this time I was still a pretty focused three day event rider and didn't really have the time. When I finally made it back in 2012, I was pretty down on my luck horse-wise, and was getting discouraged that I could never replicate the success and partnership I had with my first horse (in the picture). It was on this day that I met my boyfriend Ben who happens to be a pretty amazing dh rider. Even though we lived so far apart we kept talking and he would eventually teach me everything I would need to know about downhill for someone with absolutely no experience. When I learned there was racing, I knew I had found my new sport. It is the closest thing to cross country on a horse (my favorite thing ever)."

Riley riding Cross Country on her horse Tayla at the Bucks County Horse Park in PA.

ROBYN EMBREY: "I started riding horses at the age of 3 and was totally horse crazy for years after that. Mountain bikes were something that my dad started getting into when I was about 10 or 11, doing a couple of races a year. I thought it sounded like fun and something different, not having to dress up in fancy (and really warm) clothes at summer horse shows. Since I've been into racing downhill I get the same excitement of flying over jumps but without the unpredictability of the four-legged beast. If you crash the bike it's going to be your fault..." http://therobynator.blogspot.com/2014/04/remembering-peaches-wonder-pony.html

Robyn at the 2013 ProGRT at Bootleg Canyon.

Robyn competed on her horse Peaches in 4H competition from when she was 9 until she got out of high school.

SUSAN THOMAS is a local NC lady who is an amazing multi-tasker and adventurer.  She runs a horse farm, takes care of her family, and still finds time to promote local trail initiatives (check out her latest baby--a pumptrack for Greensboro) and go on amazing bike adventures.  She began riding bikes with her son when he took up riding to cross train for motocross.  She used to train horses and riders for the show circuit and now she takes new local lady mountain bikers out for fun trail adventures. 

"I've often described "attack" position on a mountain bike as "2 point" to girls that ride horses...they knew exactly what to do!"

Susan conquers a super technical skinny feature in Boone, NC

Susan puts her retired dressage horse, Checkers, through his paces.

I think what it comes down to is that there are those of us who are adventurers at heart.  We yearn to explore and go beyond the known.  We like to challenge our mind and body along the way too, so we need more than the simple act of hiking.  We like to have some company in our challenge, but not necessarily another person, and as such we enjoy the camraderie of our horse or our bike.  Oh, and we seem to enjoy jumping things.