I am, &c.
Campesina.
San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, U.S.A.
P.S.—I would not like you to imagine that I intend to slight such an admirable authority as Mrs. Power O'Donoghue, but I should be much obliged to any of your correspondents for the design of an improved saddle, suitable alike for riding a young nervous horse and for journey purposes. I have a design for such a saddle, but I do not know how far it may be practicable. I think if ladies would give their ideas upon this subject through the medium of your columns, some real improvement might be arrived at.
C.
Sir,—In your issue of the 27th November my letter appeared, recommending that the use of side-saddles should be discontinued. Your correspondent, "Jack Spur," mentions, in a letter published on the 13th November, that in some works concerning the Sandwich Islands, in the Northern Pacific Ocean, and the Rocky Mountains, North America, the authoress, Miss Isabella L. Bird, states that she was accustomed, while there, to ride on horseback astride.
A few extracts from her above-mentioned writings will probably interest your readers. When in Hawaii, or Owyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, the authoress referred to accompanied some friends on horseback to the Anuenue Falls on the Wailuku river (a river which forms a boundary between two great volcanoes), and on that occasion used a side-saddle, but was afterwards advised by one of the party to follow the native fashion of riding astride. Having acted upon this advice, she was well satisfied with the result of the trial, and continued to adopt that style while in the Sandwich Islands, and also in the Rocky Mountains, where she remained nearly four months. The following extract from a letter written by her about the 28th of January, from Hilo, Hawaii, and published in The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, 1875, page 66, gives further particulars of her visit to the Anuenue Falls, above referred to:—
"Everything was new and interesting, but the ride was spoiled by my insecure seat in my saddle, and the increased pain in my spine which riding produced. Once, in crossing a stream, the horses had to make a sort of downward jump from a rock, and I slipped round my horse's neck; indeed, on the way back I felt that on the ground of health I must give up the volcano, as I would never consent to be carried to it, like Lady Franklin, in a litter. When we returned, Mr. Severance suggested that it would be much better for me to follow the Hawaiian fashion, and ride astride, and put his saddle on the horse. It was only my strong desire to see the volcano which made me consent to a mode of riding against which I have so strong a prejudice; but the result of the experiment is that I shall visit Kilanea thus or not at all. The native women all ride astride on ordinary occasions in the full sacks, or holukus, and on gala days in the pan, the gay winged dress which I described in writing from Honolulu. A great many of the foreign ladies in Hawaii have adopted the Mexican saddle also" (this means that they ride astride) "for greater security to themselves and ease to their horses on the steep and perilous bridle-tracks, but they wear full Turkish trousers, and jauntily-made dresses reaching to the ankles."
After leaving the Sandwich Islands she went to the Rocky Mountains, and in a letter dated the 23rd of October, and published in A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, 1879, she writes from the Colorado District, North America:—