How many people ride horses in France?

Riding is an activity that brings together enthusiasts all over the world. In France, it has become one of the favourite pastimes of a certain section of the population, among whom you will readily find specialists and professionals in various disciplines. The question we ask ourselves is: how many people ride horses in France? That is what this article is about.

How many people ride horses in France?

The most reliable figure is the number of licences: as of 31 August 2025, the French Equestrian Federation had 625,422 licence holders and 9,574 member establishments. FFE, 2025 general meeting. For the year 2024, the IFCE recorded 648,254 licences (286,162 "horse", 293,101 "pony" and 68,991 in trail riding), down 4% year on year, making riding the fourth largest national sport by number of licence holders. IFCE, ÉCUS 2025 yearbook.

Licences do not tell the whole story: plenty of riders ride outside a club, out hacking, at a private yard or on trail riding holidays. National surveys of sporting participation put the number of occasional riders well above the number of licence holders, but their methods change from one edition to the next and the totals cannot be compared from year to year.

What is stable is the structure: most supervised riding takes place through 5,444 clubs offering riding lessons, out of a total of 9,682 equestrian establishments belonging to the federation in 2024, a figure that has held steady nationally.

The underlying trend since 2019 is a slow erosion in licence numbers, with variations between regions; the federation has made adult riding and member retention a priority.

An unusual rider profile

The profile of riders remains strongly female. The last major survey on this point, carried out in 2016, found that 67% of riders were women, with an estimated 39% among women aged 30 to 49. The breakdowns that follow come from that same survey and have not been updated since.

Young women aged 15 to 29 account for 44% of the female contingent, and 17% of that figure goes to those over 50.

Logically enough, 7% of riders are retired, and at the other end of the age pyramid 20% are students and secondary school pupils. 60% of riders in France are in work.

When those 60% are set against a three-tier social scale, 39% of riders come from working-class backgrounds, compared with 35% from middle-income groups and 26% from the upper social category. 45% of riders do not hold the baccalauréat.

That said, the large proportion of school and sixth-form pupils shapes these figures. 36% of riders hold a higher education qualification.

Finally, it is worth noting that 70% of riders in France say their parents are sporty.