THE LADIES' SADDLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 66, 15 September 1906, Page 11

THE LADIES' SADDLE.

o There has been a certain amount of interest and surprise evinced of late (says the Field) at the spectacle of a few young girls riding side-saddle on the off side in the park. Half a oentury ago the practice was far from uncommon in Midland country lanos. It was based upon principles of anatomical development in growing children, and was devised to counteract any risk of onesided growth — one shoulder higher than the other, or contorted spines — arising from long spalls in the saddle in one position at a tender age, and especiallyj in weak subjects. A child who is nervous, and has not a strong seat on a pony, is more likely, by riding with too short a stirrup and not sitting upright, to stimulate some uneven growth of bono and muscle than a sturdy lass with a similar seat. Hence it was the practice to construct (in the old two-pommel days) girls' sidesaddles with movable pommels, capable of being reversed to eeat tho equestrienne on either side. The family coachmnn, whose duty it was to attend the children when riding, with or without leading rein, was instructed to arrange tho saddle for alternate sides on alternate days. In later years tho suppression of Mrs. Grundy ns to the long trailing riding-habit which was de rigueur in early Victorian days, and the toleration of more masculine undergarments and shorter okirts for equestrian' ladies, has had some effect for good in the ridiiig-fleat of small girls. It is now not uncommon to see even a girl well into her "teens" riding astride to hounds. This seat simplifies the problem of the alternating pommel, at all events during most of the years of early prowth, and obviates any risk of hunched back or high flhouldfr t