With “Amazones”, Jean-Louis Gouraud writes about horse riding for women

Warriors, knights, huntresses or sovereigns, they had to overcome the conventions of their time, which reserved the practice of horse riding for men. These daring “horsewomen” had to demonstrate not only intrepidity, but also independence of spirit to be able to indulge their passion.

Jean-Louis Gouraud took the somewhat crazy gamble of trying to establish an inventory of all these pioneers. 

Among them, we are exclusively revealing the portrait of Caroline Godin, Responsible for training at Cense and Recognized horsewoman

GODIN Caroline
(1986-)

The riders who perform a Grand Prix level test in a rope halter on a barefoot mare are not legion... Caroline Godin has created with Querida an explosive and unique couple in the world of dressage. And this time, there is a story of men... Inspired by the example of a father and a brother who were riders (and born in the same town as Kevin Staut), Caroline began riding a pony and quickly became addict. While she is heading to Saumur, she is advised to go and see what is happening at the Haras de la Cense (Yvelines). She won't leave again. Listen to what the horse has to say, learn to talk to it to cooperate better; what she discovers there is an upheaval. Understanding between humans and horses is at the heart of everything. It was also there that she met Manuel Godin. Two boys later, she and he are at the helm of La Cense, which has become the reference place for ethological horse riding. Caroline is responsible for training, which produces around fifteen future professionals from the equestrian world every year.

Today, competing at the highest level with Querida, Caroline must still use the obligatory attributes of the discipline: bridles, spurs. Because the rules, particularly in terms of harness, are still strict, but for Caroline it doesn't matter, education and understanding of the horse come first, the rest is only material. While waiting for the judges' criteria to evolve and the rules to change, she continues to progress with Querida following her method. She hopes to reach the highest level, the Olympic Games perhaps, to show everyone, riders or not, that horses and men, when they listen to each other, can overcome many divisions.

Sybille d'Orgeval

Discover the rest of the portraits of Jean-Louis Gouraud in “Amazones”, 

available in the La Cense bookstore: