WOMEN AS DROVERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 944, 19 February 1917, Page 4

WOMEN AS DROVERS.

The Australian bush girl has pro bably no peer in the world as a horsewoman. The side-saddle has quite disappeared now, uot only in the bush, but in the cities and towns. By consent, the custom has quite excused the change. When women began to straddle the horse as a .man there were pruderies who saw seriouß inroads upon modesty, and even parsons were moved to sermonise about it. All that sort of twaddle lias entirely disappeared, and the side-saddle now is so scarce as to be almost a rarity. Indeed, one feels that the rider of it is taking risks, for there can be no question as to which is the safer system of the two. In the bush the Australian girl on horseback is extremely useful. She is even more so as the war has drained so many of our sons. Drover Stuart, of South Australia, has been ably assisted for years by his daughters. They are declared to be as expert, as any males doing that class of work. No horse is too wild, and no country too rough to stop them. Averaging 10 and 12 hours a day in the sadclle, they assist to take mobs from remote inland districts down to the Adelaide market, and have been at the game for years. They are well educated, too, and are not afraid of any ordinary sen ietv.