Though he is a professional coach in both archery and equestrian, when it comes to competitions, Carey Norland, a 26-year-old athlete from Eugene, Ore., will participate in only one of the sports: horseback riding.

That is because as an archer, Norland, who is nonbinary and uses both they/them and male pronouns, may only compete in the same category he was assigned to at birth: female. On horseback, the rules allow him to compete against a mixed group of riders of all genders. In fact, equestrian is the only recognized Olympic sport where male and female competitors compete against each other.

As such, many riding disciplines, like show jumping, dressage and eventing, where riders also jump solid obstacles, have emerged as refuges in a sporting world grappling with questions of whether and how transgender athletes should compete. The debate has led to a slew of new legislation, an executive order and policy debates among other sports governing bodies.