Side-Saddle or Astride?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 19

Side-Saddle or Astride?

Much-Vexed Problem for Horsewomen

HE organisers of the Internationai Horse Show at Olympia are requiring women riders to forfqjySjyigfl sake the seat astride and to return to the side-saddle. The latest show to demand women to ride solely sidesaddle in parades of hunters and hacks is Royal Richmond. Mrs. Victor Adamson, who has won 28 prizes with the same horse, declares that the astride is too cumbersome and uncomfortable for women who have not the same leg-grip as men, consequently they must develop special muscles and indulge in much practice. On the other hand nothing is more beautiful than a woman riding sidesaddle, which can be easily acquired, is more artistic and safe and less exhausting. Certainly it is more womanly. “How many women, even the best riders, look well astride?” she asked. A West End riding master, Horace Smith, says the tendency to revert to sidesaddle is*rapidly increasing. Nineteen out of 20 pupils are learning side-

saddle, which the leaders of fashion definitely favour. King’s Opinion The “Daily News” says that the King frequently, when visiting horse shows, said he did not like to see women astride, declaring that the sidesaddle was far mor graceful. Colonel McTaggart, an authority on horsemanship, characterises the Richmond restrictions as old-fashioned in these days of emancipation. Side-saddle, he says, is not the proper way to ride a horse. There is no question that there are physical disadvantages in riding astride, but high medical experts do not think that women suffer thereby. Many leading horsewomen consider that the only reasonable and proper way to ride a horse is to sit astride. Far from being cumbersome, sitting astride gives the rider much better control of a horse than sitting sidesaddle. Sidesaddle riding makes harder work for the horse. Another leading huntswoman said, “There is only one waj r to ride a horse, and that is to sit astride.”