THERE are few things more annoying, Siren feels, than going out for a day of wholesome countryside sporting activity only to discover one has forgotten one's trousers.
Which is why she sympathised with Laura Renwick and Georgie Strutton, two of the UK's top showjumpers, when a series of unfortunate photos of them wearing full riding gear, but no jodhpurs, appeared in a Sunday paper this weekend. Siren, a keen ho
rserider herself, could only imagine the discomfort of attempting the course with nothing but a pair of sensible white knickers between rider and saddle. What a pair of truly dedicated young women to sacrifice themselves for their sport in such a way, she thought.
Certainly Siren was a bit confused by one picture of the two blonde women lying back on a hay bale together. Had they fallen off simultan-eously because of lack of jodhpur grip while trying to mount? And come to think of it, even in their rush to get to the stable you'd have thought they might have noticed the lack of said jodhpurs while pulling on their knee-length riding boots? And what exactly were they doing with these whips anyway?
A closer reading of the story, however, revealed that the sacrifice the riders had made for their sport was a whole lot more uncomfortable a one than Siren had first imagined.
The women, aged 33 and 21 respectively, had been persuaded to pose without their trousers, as part of an attempt by the British Show Jumping Association (BSJA) to boost the sport's image ahead of a major competition.
Maria Clayton, the BSJA's head of communications, said she hoped it would raise the profile of the sport to that which it had in the 1970s. "Hopefully these photos will prove that the misconception people have about showjumping being 'stuffy' is just that, a misconception," she said.
Unfortunately, the photos say nothing about show-jumping and everything about exploitation. Siren's all for a bit of fun in the hay in the right context, but when it comes to one of the few sports where women and men can compete as equals, it is disturbing to see female competitors treated in such a demeaning way. Unfortunately, whatever the BSJA might have told them, these two young women have most definitely been taken for a ride.
A nose for equalityOn to a more positive note when it comes to equality, Siren is delighted that more women are joining her in an appreciation of fine whisky after it emerged the number of female members of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh is now at an all-time high. Siren was privileged to have spent an evening recently at the Talisker distillery in Skye in the company of Maureen Robinson, a master blender with Diageo who's widely recognised to be the best in the business at distinguishing the complex aromas found in whisky. According to Robinson, she has had no problem with sexism, despite the whisky world's "male image". How refreshing to find an industry where the only body part a woman is judged on is her nose.
A venerated organ?While those good folks at Diageo were more than generous with their wares (Siren was particularly enchanted with the Talisker double-matured Distiller's Edition), they were also keen to stress the importance of "responsible drinking" – something of which Siren approves wholeheartedly while regularly failing to achieve.
Pondering this, while carrying out some on-line browsing, she came across a site www.liverinfo.co.uk, which contains an intriguing little device called "a drinkulator", designed to give an in-depth assessment of one's drinking.
Mercifully, the test showed her prospect of liver disease is still "very low". Unfortunately, it also revealed she has a 50 to 90 per cent likelihood of behaving in a "silly" manner as a result of her drinking – well, why didn't someone tell her that before now?
The full article contains 662 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
