The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-01-20
DANGER OF THE s1DE-sADDLE.

DANGER OF THE SIDE-SADDLE.
An Ohio health society has recently
taken strong ground against the use
of the side saddle. 1t expresses the
view that the side saddle is uncom-
Portable alike for rider and horse, and
unsafe; that the natural way for wo-
men as we'll as for men to ride is to
bestride the horse and urges that
hereafter women shall ride in that
manner, wearing the ordinary riding
trousers and the divided skirts.
This is certainly good doctrine,
says Forest and St, cam, and we wish
the Ohio health society all success in
its effort to bring about this reform.
The side-saddle is uncomfortable for
the horse and for the rider. Hardly
any woman in ten can sit straight on
it, and the result is that the saddle
drags off to one side and is very like
ly to gall the horses withers.
Far more important than this, how
ever, is the danger to which every
woman is exposed when she mounts
her horse. However skillful horse
woman she may be, her seat and her
safety depend absolutely on the integ-
rity of the saddle-girths. If these
break, fall is inevitable for her, and
halnpered as she is by the skirts, she
can do nothing to save herself. IT
she is not good horsewoman, if she
depends on her reins or on her stirrup
to hold her in the saddle, her case is
Just so much the worse. For if the
stirrup breaks, and she becomes
frightened or losses control of the
horse, it takes but little while for
her to be shaken out of the saddle.
Most girls and women are not at
home on horses back, and boiling
or shying horse is likely to unseat
them. If unseated they have not the
chance afforded to every man who is
thrown from his horse, that Of simply
rolling out of the saddle and striking
the ground. Instead of that q woman
skirt and may be dragged about and
shockingly mutilated by the horses
hoofs, where simple fall from the
horse would have given her no more
than jar. Cases of this sort occur
with such frequence that it appears
singular that no one has as yet preach
ed the abolition of the side-saddle as
reform whose importance would
| justify a crusade.
The natural way to ride horse is
astride the animal. 1t is in this way
that men ride everywhere the wo-
men, too, among savage or semi
civilized people, and children of both
sexes everywhere. The little girl,
when she gets her first pony, be-
strides its bareback, as her brother
does, and gains confidence in herself
while riding in this position. The
young woman on the distant prairie,
who is obliged to ride ten miles into
town for her mail, rides in this way
until she reaches the very outskirts
of the town, when she changes her
position and uses the horn of the
mans saddle for a pommel. In pro-
portion to its use we believe the side
saddle to be responsible for more
deaths and accidents than any other
implement which is employed in con-
nection with outdoor life. Its use
should be abandoned, and no doubt
will be before long, for this is an age
of progress in outdoor matters, and
women are eliminating from their lives
many of the antique conventionalities
which have nothing to recommend
them, except long established custom.
There are today many young women
who, during their travels and their
hunting trips in the West, never think
of using de-saddles, and there is
thus, in some of the larger Eastern
towns, a nucleus of women who un-
derstand that the man S saddle means
freedom from fetters that they have
always borne, and from limitations
which are not only irksome but posi-
lively dangerous.
No woman who has ever ridden a
bicycle need be ashamed to mount a
horse astride, and it may be hoped
that the day is not far distant when
nine-tenths of the women seen on
horseback will be riding in the natural
and safe way. In support of our con-
temporary's contention we may quote
the views of La Belle el Derido, of the
Paris Nauveau Cirque, who rides with
divided skirts. She says:
"The side-saddle is ridiculous it
is unsafe and frightfully ugly. No
woman has any hold over her horse
except by the use of whip, whereas
a man can easily control it by the
force of his knees. Do you for one
minute mean to tell me that the pres
ent way in which lady mounts is
elegant? She rides astride on one
side of the horse, that is all, instead
of on its back.
"I,et me say at once that I detest
anything that is unwomanly, and,
even against my conviction, never
dream of riding in the Bois save with
the side-saddle. But what differ
ence that bowling down to the rules Of
society makes You have no longer
that complete control of the horse.
You do not ride it /; it pulls you along.
Frankly, am at loss to understand
why a lady who rides in knicker-
bockers on bicycle bushes at the
idea of mounting horse astride.
"Oh, never, never The dress
should be loose and flowing so loose,
in point of fact, that, once off the
horse, no one should even notice that
the skirt was divided. Anything