The average woman is not built for cross-saddle riding; her legs from the knee up are too short; her thighs too thick; her hips too big, and she is cushioned too high to enable her to keep close down with the required firmness on the saddle. The side-saddle certainly insures a stronger seat, especially in all cases of pitching forward, as, for instance, with a stumbling horse or a kicking one, or on landing after a jump. With safety skirts and safety stirrups the danger from dragging is obviated and this, the only serious danger in the use of the side-saddle, is more
than offset in my judgment by the great danger of a woman being thrown because of her insecure seat in a man’s saddle. Many claim that the cross-saddle is safer than the side-saddle in case of a rearing horse falling over backward. I do not agree with this, for, in the first place, many good men riders have suffered shocking accidents in this way and, when riding in the cross-saddle, unless the rider succeeds in throwing himself clear from the horse, he is almost sure to have one leg broken. On the other hand, with a side-saddle, if the horse comes down on his off side, there is no danger of a broken leg, and when the horse starts to rear a woman can usually make him fall on the off side by pulling his head to that side with all her strength, so that on this point the ease of clearing oneself from a cross-saddle is more than offset by the ability to throw the horse with safety and make him fall on the off side.
Up to the age of eleven or twelve it is a good plan for a young girl to learn to ride astride and so acquire balance and confidence, but if she is to use the side-saddle eventually she should certainly begin to use it at the age of twelve, and I would advise beginning as early as eleven. If she begins on the cross-saddle and acquires the knack at this early age, it will be easier for her to take it up again on occasion later in life, and, of course, the advantages which come from
learning to ride without a saddle can best be acquired astride, though they may be acquired with a pommel and leaping horn on a surcingle.
Correct Costume for Young Girls Riding Astride
In riding, women are very generally accompanied by men, and there are few occasions when a woman has it in her power to look better—or worse—than when in the saddle. It is only those women who are built like men and very young girls who look at all well astride. A woman with merely a normally developed figure looks both ridiculous and immodest in
this position, and in an English saddle thoroughly ill at ease.
