Today, women equestrians are fighting a quiet gender battle on the tbourida field in North Africa. Less than 60 women ride among thousands of men in Morocco’s gunpowder games–the dangerous, traditional equestrian sport of tbourida, also known as fantasia. For a brief period between 2005-2010, all-female teams could compete for the national tbourida trophy. The class, however, was abruptly eliminated in 2011. This paper explores women’s participation in traditional sport and the impact of the proposed 2019 addition of tbourida to the UNESCO intangible world heritage list and subsequent acceptance in 2021. I will expand on the debate surrounding the UNESCO designation, the impact it has on gender equality and popular cultural heritage in the future, while also talking about the collaboration and marketing put forward in the proposal. I address how the application for UNESCO designation as intangible world heritage has shaped the fate of women riders in tbourida, and the role of gender in preserving popular cultural heritage. Based on 5 years of fieldwork, this paper discusses the role of intangible cultural heritage on identity formation specifically how the designation may lead to more openness to allowing female riders and reinstituting women’s competition classes in the more structure competitions as well as in the rural, local festivals.