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How much of horseriding's low participation rate is due to the clothing, and how much due to the fact that if you want to get into it, you need to sink at least

How much of horseriding's low participation rate is due to the clothing, and how much due to the fact that if you want to get into it, you need to sink at least five figures but probably over six to get a horse and supporting infrastructure/services? It's a wealthy person's game. Here in Australia, male horse fashion (outside of equestrian competition) is more along the lines of the cattleman/bushman: https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.615%2C$multiply_0.7252%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_28/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/72f4306fea22fb7488f8b1be454f149a42c391a8 https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.615%2C$multiply_0.7252%... And yet it still has low participation rates, because you need land for a horse, and the money to support the practice.

motohagiography 4y ago
Indeed, Australia has a cattlemen culture, and stock horses and riding there is bigger. In North America, we have western/reining, which is equivalent. In Europe, it is dominated by UK and German sport culture which both lack dimorphism. It's not something if you just gave people free money they would suddeny switch to doing though, and it's not net low participation rates I'd be addressing. Very few men want to become like the men who are riding today because the riders aren't exemplars. Part of that is because the sport uniform came to represent being pretentious and affected instead of competent.