RIDING ASTRIDE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8, 30 April 1914, Page 3

RIDING ASTRIDE.

MEDICAL VIEWS ON THE RISKS OF INJURY. In the rouse of an article on '"I lin Supposed Dangers of Riding Astrido," the Lancet discusses the view expressed by a medical correspondent of The Timet;.that the seat is dangerous for women for anatomical reasons. The journal, while admitting that there are two sides to the question, holds that the clanger to health is exnggcr-, utcd, but opposes riding astride on the ground that for the average horsewoman it increases the risk of being tin-own. The correspondent of The Times asserts, says the Lancet, that any woman who habitually rules astride endangers her health and courts disaster. He further maintains that the strain accompanying the new seat tends to displace certain vital organs, or at least to render their supports insecure. In its opinion, however, these dangers are exaggerated, as they are largely counteracted with stirrups of the proper length and a proper seat, and, further, by the contraction of the muscles in gripping the saddle Any danger of injury to the organs when riding astride must be associated, it declares, with the greater insecurity of the seat and the increased risk oi being thrown, and not with the position per se, which, the Lancet coneludes, is, in the case of a healthy woman, not likely to have any injurious effect at all. The journal believes, further, that the liability to be dragged in case of a fall from a side-sad-dle is minimised by the modern safety skirt and safety stirrup.