The American Horsewoman

by Elizabeth Karr

Fig. 21.—Crooked Position in Saddle.
Miss X.

Take Miss X. and Mrs. Y., for examples. These ladies have the reputation of being fine and fearless horsewomen, and certainly do ride with that dash and confidence which long practice in the saddle is sure to give, but we regret to say that we can bestow no further praise upon them. Miss X. has taken a position that is almost universal with American horsewomen, and is exactly the one which a rider nearly always assumes when seated sideways on a horse without a saddle. Instead of sitting squarely, with the entire front of her body facing in the direction toward which the horse is going, she sits crosswise. It will be seen by looking at [Fig. 21], that the central vertical line of her back, instead of being directly in the centre of the saddle, is placed toward the right corner of it, and that her shoulders are out of line, the left one being thrown back, and the right one advanced forward. This position makes it impossible for her to keep in unison with her horse when he is moving straight forward at an easy pace. When he changes his gait to a canter the rider will, for a short distance, appear to be more in harmony with him, because he is now turning himself slightly to the left and leading with his right fore-leg, a position which is more in unison with that of his rider. But, after a short time, the horse gets tired of this canter, turns to the right, and leads with his left fore-leg. This change entirely destroys the apparent harmony which had before existed between the two.

The lady, knowing nothing about the position of a horse when galloping or cantering, is ignorant of the fact that he always turns a little to the right or left according to the leg with which he leads, and that she ought to place her body in a corresponding position. She has but one position in the saddle,—the crooked one already described,—and this she maintains immovably through all the changes of her horse's gaits.

Fig. 22.—Crooked Position in Saddle.
Mrs. Y.

Let us now turn to Mrs. Y., who is even a more faulty rider than her companion. She has likewise taken a crosswise position in the saddle; but having given a peculiar twist to her body so that, by turning her right shoulder backward, she can look to the right, she seems to imagine that by these means she has placed herself squarely upon the saddle. ([Fig. 22.]) As she is riding a racking horse and seated on a two-pommeled saddle, she holds the reins firmly in her left hand and by a steady pull on them she balances herself and keeps her horse up to his gait. But this steady pull will soon ruin the tenderness and sensitiveness of any horse's mouth, and this is the reason why racking horses generally have very hard mouths, many of them requiring to be well held up or supported in their rack by the reins. As this pulling upon the reins also gives considerable support to the rider, many ladies prefer a racking horse. Now notice Mrs. Y., who is attempting to turn her hard-mouthed racker. Instead of doing this by an almost imperceptible movement of the hand, her left hand and arm can be distinctly seen to move, and to fairly pull the animal around. Her right hand—probably acting in sympathy with the left, so tightly clasped over the reins—holds the whip as if it were in a vise intended to crush it. In odd contrast with the rigidly held hands is the body with its utter lack of firmness.

It can be seen at a glance why the lady will only ride an easy racker, for it is well known that on a good racker or pacer the body of a rider in a faulty position is not jolted so much as in other gaits. For this reason also the rack and pace are the favorite gaits of most American horsewomen.

Nearly every lady who rides has an ambition to be considered a finished horsewoman, but this she can never be until she is able to ride properly the trot and gallop, can keep herself in unison with her horse, whether he leads with the left or right fore-leg, and has hands that will "give and take" with the horse's movements and bring him up to his best gait. From this point of view, Miss X. and Mrs. Y., then, are by no means the "splendid riders" that their friends suppose them, but having all the confidence of ignorance they ride fast and boldly and with a certain abandon that is pleasing; but by those who understand what good riding is, they must always be regarded as very faulty riders.