Horse riding as a hijabi

Assalamu aleykum,

niqabi with a horse in a beautiful landscape

so this will be my first text in english because I have promised you to do so. First of all I want to apologize for my mistakes in the english language - hope you can understand me ;-) 
My blog is usually in German language but I hope you will take advantage from it at least trough the pictures. To give you a few information about this blog, I will tell you something about me and this blog... First of all, I am a German muslim woman and I own my own horse since childhood alhamdullilah. I am married and horse riding is my biggest passion in life. 
When I converted to islam and started wearing hijab as a teenager, I realized that it was not that easy anymore do ride horses with a headscarf and a skirt ... So I began testing more and more outfits and hair styles to find out whats the most comfortable! To share my ideas and experiences as a hijabi horse rider, I made this blog.

Maybe you will mostly see men who are riding in the arab world, but this should not stop you from riding horses as a woman too.

In the beginning its a little bit difficult to ride as a hijabi or a niqabi, but you will soon get used to, in shaa Allah. First of all you need a special riding skirt, which posesses a slit on the frontside and on the backside so it can hang down on the left and right side of the horse back while you are sitting in the saddle. If you wear a normal skirt or an abaya, you will soon realize that this is very uncomfortable, because you will be sitting on your skirt instead of the saddle. Also parts of your legs will show off. We dont want that. So a riding skirt or very wide trousers with a long shirt will be a better choice.
Under the riding skirt you can wear your normal riding trousers of course.

The hairstyling ist also one of the most important things. If you have short or medium / shoulder length hair, you will not face a lot of problems with fixing it. Just wear a pony tail or a bun and it will be fine. If you have long hair, you will fight a real battle in the horse back while riding. Shall I tell you why? First of all, if your hair is not fixed, it will get loose and hanging out of the headscarf or under your shirt so people can see it. Secondly, your headscarf if its the wrong one, the wind will blow it away and you will end up with a messy birds nest on your head, and it will take hours to undo the knot of hair, scarf and shirt. And all this with the risk that people may see your hair and face and neck.... So, as you can see, the correct riding dress is as much as important as the right saddle. 

As a headscarf I prefer a so called amira hijab, the one or two piece hijab that does not need to be fixed with any needles. For my hair, I prefer a fixed braid or a very well fixed bun at least held by two or three scrunchies at the lower part of the back of ones head. You can also braid the hair before making a bun.

For more details about this please look at the pictures in the following articles: 

https://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2017/11/reitbekleidung-fur-muslimas.html

https://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2017/11/die-passende-frisur-und-kopfbedeckung.html

https://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2018/03/hijab-frisuren-oder-wie-bekomme-ich.html

https://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2018/05/ankundigung-reitrock-kaufen-reiten-mit.html

http://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2018/07/es-ist-so-weit-reitrockverkauf.html

http://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2018/10/reitrock-made-in-tunisia.html


http://reitenmithijab.blogspot.com/2018/12/kleidung-fur-die-stallarbeit-was-tragt.html

This kind of headscarf is not the best choice for riding horses, because it will blow away if you do not fix it.

There is another interesting part of the life of a hijabi rider. It will never get boring! So much people will look at you with surprised, shocked or angry faces when they see you in a niqab or hijab on a horse, because they are not used to it. And some people also do not WANT to see you like this. They want to see the opressed women which is beaten from her husband and locked up in in the kitchen all the day where she has to cook for his big family. 
They do not want to see a happy smiling pretty muslim woman in hijab who is riding a big horse and looking down to them. So, but thats the reality, deal with it, haters! 

We muslim women are not opressed, we have chosen to worship ALLAH the one and only lord and we are very happy with this job! And some of us love horses as non muslims do, and we love horse riding. So there is nothing wrong with it, we are normal human beings. We are slaves of ALLAH, not the slaves of the society! 

For those of you who are confused, whether its allowed for muslim women to ride horses or not, I can ease your minds: There is nothing wrong with it, because there is nothing that forbids it. I also have heard the permission to ride horses as a woman from some sunni scholars. Everthing is fine - as long as you are wearing your hijab, of course. If you are riding your horse in your house, you dont need a hijab. But I dont think anybody will do so;-) 

woman riding her white horse while beeing full-covered. 

Feel free to surfe around on my blog and look at the pictures and the articles. And if there is any demand for translating some articles, please tell me. 

For contacting me, write a comment below the article or write me an email : reitenmithijab@gmail.com

I would also be very interested in receiving some emails from my sisters who love hijab and horse riding from America, the UK, Australia or wherever you are! Tell me why you love horses, which clothes do you wear for riding, how often do you ride etc... :-) 

Wish you all a nice day and have fun with your horses! 

Salam, 

Layla 

feeling the wind in your HIJAB