Riding for Ladies

by W. A. Kerr

Nor did the lady blush vermillion

Dancing on the lady's pillion."

The attitude of the "Pisana" fashion, though in some cases vastly agreeable, is not highly picturesque, so there must have been some valid reason why the side-saddle, then in general use in Spain, fell out of favour. In long rides, it, as at that time constructed, tired the rider, and caused severe pain in the spine. Nowadays in Mexico and on the Plate River there are magnificent horsewomen who can ride almost anything short of an Australian buckjumper, and who never tire in the saddle, but then they one and all patronize the cross-saddle, riding à la cavalière or à la Duchesse de Berri. Their riding garb, and a very becoming one it is, consists of a loose kind of Norfolk jacket or tunic secured at the waist by a belt, loose Turkish pyjamas thrust into riding boots of soft yellow leather, a huge pair of Mexican spurs, and the ladies' "sombrero." Their favourite and, in fact, only pace is a continuous hand-gallop.

Some thirty years ago I remember seeing the ex-Queen of Naples superbly mounted, riding à la cavalière. Her Majesty was then even more beautiful than her Imperial sister the Empress of Austria, and quite as finished a horsewoman. She wore a high and pointed-crowned felt hat, a long white cloak, something like the Algerian bournouse, patent-leather jack-boots, and gilt spurs. Her seat was perfect, as was her management of her fiery Arab or Barb, the effect charming, and there was nothing to raise the faintest suspicion of a blush on the cheeks of the most modest. There is no doubt that the Duchess de Berri mode of sitting on a horse is much less fatiguing to the rider, gives her more power over the half-broken animals that in foreign countries do duty for ladies' horses, and, in a very great measure, does away with the chance of establishing a raw on the back. In support of the claims of this, to us, novel manner of placing the rider on her horse's back, I quote from Miss Isabella Bird's "Hawaiian Archipelago." Describing her visit to the Anuenue Falls, that lady writes: "The ride was spoiled by my insecure seat in my saddle, and the increased pain in my side 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 a strong prejudice; but the result of the experiment is that I shall visit Kilauea thus or not at all. The native women all ride astride on ordinary occasions in the full sacks, or kolukus, 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 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." Writing later from the Colorado district of the Rockies, Miss Bird adds: "I rode sidewise till I was well out of the town, long enough to produce a severe pain in my spine, which was not relieved for some time till after I had changed my position."

Mrs. Power O'Donoghue runs a tilt with all her might against the idea of any of her sex riding like men. But there are so many manly maidens about now who excel in all open-air pastimes requiring pluck, energy, physical activity, and strength, and who attire themselves suitably in a sort of semi-masculine style, that is not asking too much of them to try the virtues of the cross-saddle. Their costumes are not so much negligé as studiedly, so far as is possible without exactly "wearing the breeches" in public, of the man, manly. One of our Princesses has the credit of being an adept with the foils; our cricket and golf fields are invaded by petticoats of various lengths; we see polo played by ladies on clever blood ponies; they take kindly to billiards and lawn-tennis; and it is whispered of a few that they can put on the "mittens" and take and give punishment. It is not so much the prudery about sitting like men that excites the wrathful indignation of the opponents of cross-saddle riding as the apparent difficulty of deciding upon the thoroughly neat and workwoman-like costume.

No. 1. No. 2. No. 3.

The three different costumes represented in these sketches do not differ very greatly in propriety. Shorten No. 3, the Eilitto Muddy-Weather costume—who says there's nothing in a name?—just a trifle and encase the wearer's lower limbs in a pair of Messes E. Tautz and Son's gaiters or leggings, and we have the costume sported the winter before last by a well known lady. It certainly looked, on a wearer of advanced years, a trifle eccentric, but any pretty girl, in her première jeunesse, blessed with a good figure and gait, would have been the admired of all admirers. This costume with the funny name is much patronized by lawn-tennis players, golfers, and skaters. Nos. 1 and 2 are as like as "two Dromios," and in no very material degree differ from the short-skirted walking-dress. They have been brought out with an eye to riding à la cavalière, and being strong and yet neat are intended for prairie-riding in the far West, for the rough-and-ready work of the Australian or New Zealand bush, and for scouring over the veldt of South Africa, or for the hundred and one out-of-the-way places of the earth, whither our English girls venture, from necessity, for adventure, or some more potent attraction. Of the two I prefer No. 1, which is the smarter. It is nothing more or less than a short habit made in the shape of a frock-coat, and is buttoned the whole way down to the knees. The long boots, which, by the way, show off a pretty well-turned ankle and foot to perfection, are certainly a trifle more in evidence than is the case when the lady wears the regular habit and is desirous of showing as little "leg" as possible—a desire, when the foot is threes or narrow fours, and the instep well sprung, not too often indulged. No 2 has a divided skirt.

I do not ask ladies of mature age, or even those whose seat is formed, to don one or other of these costumes, though, after the experience of Miss Bird and others, they might, under similar circumstances, adopt both the costume, and the cross-saddle with advantage. In the backwoods and jungles a wide latitude in dress may be permitted without assailing the strictest modesty.

The fashion of riding in the cross-saddle, if it is to be introduced, as it ought to be, must emanate from the rising generation. The luxury of having both feet in the stirrups, of being able to vary the length of the leather, of having a leg down either side of the horse, and a distribution of the bearing equally on each foot, is surely worthy of consideration when many hours have to be spent in the saddle and long weary distances travelled. If agreeable to the rider, how much more so to the horse? We men know what a relief it is on a long journey to vary the monotonous walk or the wearying trot with an occasioned hard gallop "up in the stirrups," or how it eases one to draw the feet out of the stirrups and let the legs hang free. I have already hazarded the opinion that a lady's seat on a side-saddle is a very firm one, but when she is called upon to ride half-broken horses and to be on their backs for hours at a time, traversing all sorts of country, she undoubtedly is heavily handicapped as compared with a man.