This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

This essay is a survey and a gender-theoretical study of Western Riders Association of Sweden(from here on: Wras) between 1982-2006. The purpose of the study is to contribute to equestrian historical research as well as gender historical research by examining Wras from a gender theoretical perspective. The aim is broken down to two research questions: • What did the organization, as well as collaboration with other organizations and authorities,look like in Wras between 1982-2006, and can this be connected to the gender structures within the association? • What was the gender structure in leading positions within Wras and in competitions held by the association between 1982 and 2006, and how did this change over time? The material in this paper consists of various documents from Wras, including documents from board meetings, results from competitions, magazines and letters. The study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative method, as both were considered necessary to fulfil the purpose of the essay. In the qualitative study texts has been interpreted and analyzed. The quantitative study has collected the number of men and women in charts and based on these figures interpreted the result.The results of the study have been compared to Hirdman's theory of gender regarding gender segregation.The survey shows that when Wras was formed in 1982, the association was male-dominated.The association invested in educating the Swedish western riders. During the 1990s, Wras cooperated with several other organizations and authorities, which in some cases led to competition and some fragmentation between western riders.During the 1990s, more women became members in Wras, having leading positions and competed. The study shows that several competition classes were feminized and became female dominated when more and more women started to compete. This mainly applied to classes that within the rodeo was gender coded as feminine, or classes where assessment was on appearance and therefor required a well-groomed horse. The classes associated with the rough work on the ranches were given a male gender coding. In America, this division between classes and gender distinction had already taken place in the western riding and rodeo, and Sweden took notice. The result shows that Hirdman's theory of gender segregation can be applied to western riding where men and women are divided according to the characteristics they are considered to have.