|
|
A vehicle in the army, a lumber jack companion or a friend in the family - the riding horse and countryside economics in 20th century Sweden
| The aim of this paper is to discuss possible explanations of the return of the economic importance of the horse in Sweden since the early 1980’s and gender issues connected to the “horse economy”. In the beginning of the 20th century horses were found in four masculine milieus in Sweden: the army, the transport sector, the forestry, and on farms. In the three latter the horse was foremost used in front of ploughs, wagons and other means of transportation. Horse riding was almost only connected to the army or the upper class and to males. By the end of the Second World War there were 600 000 horses in Sweden. As the use of the horse in the army, on the farms, and in the 1950’s and 1960’s also in the forest, decreased the number of horses in Sweden decreased as well to around 60 000 in 1971. However, from the 1980’s onwards horses have become more important for the economy of the society again – not the least by the heavy increase of gambling on horses - and towards the end of the century horse riding and ownership of riding horses have increased. Today there are about 300 000 horses in Sweden - as many as in France even though the Swedish population is much smaller. The immmediate reason is the expansion of horse riding as a sport and recreation activity. Production and recreation possibilities and consumption of recreation services is fastly growing in welfare society, and horse riding has become an important sub branch within this sector. Furthermore, with the growing number of riding schools and riding horse farms in the countryside, the horse is again gaining importance for the economy of agriculture and the countryside. Direct incomes from recreation services is one side of this, spin off effects to farmers producing fodder, alotting pastures, and people providing riding equipment are other sides. There are interesting gender aspects of the development: Women have been are dominating the horse riding boom in Sweden for the last decades, and in a way the gender symbolism of the horse has been converted. This is reflected in the running of horse related enterprises as well. Whereas men still strongly dominates as the principal heads on f agricultural farms, this is not true for horse farms.
|
|
|
|
