CROSS-SADDLE RIDING FOR LADIES.
The question periodically arises as to whether women should adopt men's
saddles in preference to their own. I have studied the art of riding
astride in an ordinary man's saddle, and would give a negative answer to
that query. The fact that by the adoption of the cross saddle, about
seven pounds in weight would be saved, and the work for the horse would
be somewhat easier, ought not to outweigh the enormous disadvantages on
the other side. Whenever a lady is dragged by skirt or stirrup and
killed--an accident which, happily, occurs but rarely nowadays, for we
wisely adopt the best safety appliances to prevent it--up crops that
evergreen question of cross-saddle riding, as if men never come to
grief! Statistics would, I think, show that, considering the large
number of women who hunt, the proportion of fatal accidents to them in
the hunting field is extremely small as compared with the male record.
Then, again, the question of sore backs from side-saddles may be urged;
but with a well-fitting saddle which is properly girthed up, this
trouble can be averted. Besides, sore backs are not confined to side
saddles, for every hunting man, at some period or other, has had a
sore-backed horse in his stable. My argument against the adoption of
men's saddles is, in the first place, that such saddles afford us far
less security of seat than we obtain in our own; for I do not think that
men could ride, as we can, over fences without the aid of the reins.
This statement is borne out, not only by the attempts which many good
horsemen have made to do so, while my husband drove animals over
obstacles with the long reins, but also by the fact that all men like a
horse that goes well up to the bridle for cross-country work. Then,
again, a woman's limbs are unsuited to cross-saddle riding, which
requires length from hip to knee, flat muscles, and a slight inclination
to "bow legs." I practised my cross-saddle riding in a school well
supplied with large mirrors in which I could see my figure as I passed.
It was anything but graceful, for the rotundity, which even in some men
is very ugly on horseback, was far too much _en evidence_, and caused an
outburst of laughter from the ladies who were watching my performance. I
at first found it rather difficult to preserve my balance well in
cantering on a circle, but that came to me far more quickly than ability
to ride properly over a fence in a plain flapped saddle, such as I
presume ladies would want to use if they adopted that style of riding.
The directions given me were to lean back and grip with my knees; but,
as in side-saddle riding, I left the reins quite loose, instead of
hanging on to them as most men do, I lost the aid which they might have
afforded me in my efforts to stick on. Besides, my grip was all wrong,
and seemed to be obtainable only at the thigh, which, my husband tells
me, ought, for riding purposes, to be flat and not round. My experience
of this kind of riding appears to have been borne out by another lady
who tried it, for "Rapier," in the _Sporting and Dramatic News_, Nov.
26th, 1892, says: "A few weeks ago my correspondent 'Ion,' who is, I
believe, an excellent horsewoman, told me how she made an essay at
riding on a man's saddle, with the result that she had a very bad fall."
I believe both of us would have done better if we had had no previous
experience of riding, and had acquired the art of hanging on to the
reins. A lady who is well known with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds
asked my husband's advice about a suitable saddle, as she desired to
ride astride, and he helped her to procure one with large knee pads,
made on the principle of Australian buck-jumping saddles, which appears
to have answered her purpose very well; but I do not know how she would
get on in Leicestershire. Mrs. Tweedie rode astride in a Mexican saddle,
which, like those used by natives in India, are something after the
pattern of an easy-chair. William Stokes, in an old work on riding which
was published at Oxford, tells us that in Mexico "the _pisana_, or
country lady, is often seen mounted before her _cavaliero_, who, seated
behind his fair one, supports her with his arm thrown round her waist."
This was much more gallant than the old English method, for the lady,
after being seated sideways on the horse's croup, had to run the risk of
being knocked off by her cavalier, who vaulted into the saddle in front
of her. The plate illustrating this nice performance shows that the man
had to stand with his left leg in the stirrup and put his weight on the
saddle with his hands, while he raised his right leg over the lady's
head. Having lived in the East, I am aware that Oriental women ride
astride, but I have not seen any of them voluntarily go out of a walk.
It is not difficult to trot and canter in a man's plain hunting saddle,
but I think our conformation requires the assistance of knee rolls for
jumping. We may see even fair horsemen thrown by a horse suddenly
stopping dead at a fence, an accident that rarely occurs to a woman in a
side saddle, as the grip afforded by her crutches gives her greater
security of seat.
A large number of men's saddles have recently been purchased in London
for the use of American ladies who desire to adopt cross-saddle riding.
They intend wearing frock coats and breeches made exactly like men's
hunting breeches, and top boots; but as the frock coats are
tight-fitting and follow the contour of the figure, I do not think that
the costume will enhance the elegance of the wearer. In the Tiergarten
at Berlin I saw a German lady riding astride in a kind of divided skirt,
and as she was rather portly, her palfrey appeared to be fully
caparisoned. If the cross-saddle were to be generally adopted by women,
it would be but a revival of an ancient custom which was in use before
the side-saddle with a leaping head rendered it possible for women to
ride across country. According to Audry, English ladies discarded
cross-saddle riding, and began to ride with the right leg over the
crutch, about the middle of the seventeenth century, which style the
Countess of Newcastle is said to have been the first to adopt. In the
_Encyclopaedia Londinensis_ we read that Queen Elizabeth "seems to have
been the first who set the ladies the more modest fashion of riding
sideways," but I think the honour of its introduction is due to Ann of
Bohemia, the consort of Richard the Second. Garsault tells us that
during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, ladies of the
French Court usually rode astride on donkeys. Whatever may be said in
favour of cross-saddle riding, we must bear in mind that it was not
until the introduction in 1830 of the leaping head that women were able
to ride over fences, and it would be a most reactionary measure to try
to dispense with this valuable improvement on the ancient and
incompetent order of things.