Till vad fostrar ridsporten? En studie av ridsportens utbildningar med utgångspunkt i begreppen tävlingsfostran, föreningsfostran och omvårdnadsfostran

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the importance and meaning of education within one of the Swedish horse riding organizations – Ridfrämjandet. The organization was formed in 1948, and shortly after its establishment it is clear that it attracted especially young people and children. Ridfrämjandet, as many other sports associations, achieved governmental subsidies for their youth activities and a large amount of their work was devoted to courses. The sociologist Tomas Peterson has used two concepts to characterize the educational strivings within the sports associations: education for competition and education for citizenship. Furthermore he has demonstrated that the courses arranged by the Swedish Football Association soon after their introduction developed competitive characteristics. By contrast, the courses arranged by Ridfrämjandet focused on citizenship education. In order to characterize the educational strivings in Ridfrämjandet, another concept has to be used as well – education for caretaking. It is possible that the caretaking characteristics in the equestrian organization can be connected to the process of feminization.