Female figure on horseback acquires a following - patriot? (4,3)

'patriot?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'female figure on horseback acquires a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'female' could be 'fa' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'fa' is present in the answer.
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'mag' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'following' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?