This volume brings together studies from various disciplines of the social sciences and humanities ( anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history and literary theory) that shed light on the equestrian world as a historically gendered and highly dynamic field of contemporary sport and culture.  From high level international dressage and jumping, polo and the turf, to the rodeo world of the Americas and popular forms of equestrian sport and culture, we are introduced to a range of  issues that  are played out at local and global, national and international levels. Students and scholars of gender, culture and sport  will find much of interest in this original look at contemporary issues such as ¿engendered¿ (women¿s and men¿s) identities/subjectivities as equestrians, representations of girls, horses and the world of adventure in juvenile fiction;  the current ¿feminization¿ of particular equestrian activities (and where boys and men stand in relation to this);  how broad forms of social inequality and stratification play themselves out within gendered equestrian contexts; men and women and their relation to horses within the framework of current discussions on the relation of animals to humans (which may  include not only love and care, but also exploitation and violence), among others.  Singular contributions  show how   equestrian activities contribute to historical and current constructions of embodied ¿femininities¿ and ¿masculinities¿, reflecting a world that has been moving ¿beyond the binaries¿ while continuing to be enmeshed in their persistent and contradictory legacy. ¿

Dr. Miriam Adelman is Professor of Sociology at the Universidade Federal do Paraná (Curitiba, Brazil) where she has taught since 1992. Much of her professional career has been devoted to the implementation and development of gender studies at that institution, where she co-founded the ¿Gender Studies (Research) Nucleus and has worked, together with colleagues, in developing a curriculum in the social sciences and humanities that incorporates a gender lens. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on themes such as feminist theory and contemporary sociology and gendered bodies and subjectivities, including several articles on women in equestrian sports, a subject which she has been researching for more than 10 years (Cf. ADELMAN, M. ¿Women who ride: Constructing Identities and Corporealities Equestrian Sports in Brazil¿. In: Grenier-Torres, Chrystelle. L¿ identité genre au coeur des transformations: Du corps sexué au corps genré. Paris : L¿ Harmattan. 2010; ADELMAN, M. e MORAES, F.A. ¿Breaking their way in: Women Jockeys at the Racetrack in Brazil¿. In: SEGAL, Marcia and DEMOS, Vasilikie. Advanced Studies in Gender Research. No. 12 Bingley (UK) Emerald.2008) . In 2009, she published the book, A voz e a escuta: encontros e desencontros entre a teoria feminista e a sociologia contemporânea [The voice and the listener: feminist theory and contemporary sociology] (São Paulo: Editora Blucher) She is co-editor and contributor to a volume on gender and film, Mulheres, homens, olhares e cenas [Women, men, gazes and scenes] (Curitiba: Editora da UFPR, 2011).

Acknowledgments.- Chapter 1. Introduction. Women, Men and Horses: Looking at the Equestrian World through a ¿Gender Lens¿; Miriam Adelman and Jorge Knijnik.- Chapter 2. Flom Glamour to Drudgery - Changing Gender Patterns in the Equine Sector: A Comparative Study of Sweden and Great Britain in the 20th Century: Susanna Hedenborg and Manon Hedenborg White.- Chapter 3. Beyond the Binary: Gmende Integration in British Equestrian Sport; Katherine L. Dashper.- Chapter 4. Becoming `One of the Lads¿: Women, Horseracing and Gender in the United Kingdom; Deborah Butler.- Chapter 5. Tradition and Transgression: Women Who Ride the Rodeo in Southern Brazil; Miriam Adelman and Gabriela Becker.-Chapter 6. Romancing the Horse: Adventure and Femininity in Juvenile Equine Fiction for Girls; Ellen Singleton.- Chapter 7. Women in Equestrian Polo: Cultural Capital and Sport Trajectories; Michelle Gilbert and James Gillett.- Chapter 8. Cojones and Rejones:  Multiple Ways of Experiencing, Expressing and Interpreting  Gender in the Spanish Mounted Bullfight (rejoneo); Kirrily Thompson.- Chapter 9. We Have to Make Horse Riding More Masculine!: On the Difference between Masculine Needs and Feminine practices in the Context of Swedish Equestrian Sports; Birgitta Plymoth.- Chapter 10. Horse Power: Gender, Work and Wealth in Canadian Show Jumping; Kendra Coulter.- Chapter 11. The Black, the White, the Green: Fluid Masculinities in Brazilian Dressage; Jorge Knijnik.- Chapter 12. Epilogue. A Research Agenda for Putting Gender Through its Paces; Miriam Adelman and Kirrily Thompson.