The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-17
WOMEN ON HORSEBACK
NOR WOMEN RIDING THAN SIX
 FEARS AGO.

Astrids-MOst Women Ride for Their
 Health.
 As things are going now, it may not be long efcre it will take as much cour- age to admit that one doesn't ride a horse as it took six or seven years ago to confess to now owning bicycle.
 The prediction is not inspired by the riding schools for business reasons either. but comes from no less an au- thority than members of the Horse exchange, a man who frequents the park and all the drives radiating from New York the year round, and knows what is going min the horse world if anyone does.
 This is what he says:
 "There are now fully three times as many women riding as there were say six years ago, and twice the number of men-men who snatch time for exer- else early in the morning as well as men Of leisure.
 "As for saddle horses, there were never before so many beauties in town at any one time. A lot of thorough breds has come up from Kentucky i'll the last few weeks, and imagine very few will go back again after the Horse show. They are being bought up by women who ride and who have become expert enough to mange really good mount"
 There are three reasons why riding is becoming so popular. First, that for the time being there is no other out door fad, like the bicycle, for instance, to push it to the wall; second, that it has been proved that there is no better or pleasnter way of taking exercise which will build up impaired health or reduce too abundant adipose tissue; and, lastly, that the sport is 'so Eng fish, you know"
 Americans who travel" the author ity on the subject went on. have found out that nearly all Englishwomen of good social position ride, and ride well, Londoners being in the lead if anything, and they have discovered, too, that the New York woman when compared with women riders of the southern and western states, may as well take back seat. .'...-.
 Everybody knows that with few ex- captions the New York woman rides wonderfully bad. Not long ago visit ing English woman asked me sarcas- tically if I did not think one reason why New York women were taking to riding astride was that they found it impos- sible to sit a side saddle gracefully" 'And what did you say to all that?" someone asked. @ .....f
 "Well I had to confess that although I considered the New York woman the most wonderful creature on earth. I didn't think much of her riding" | It goes without saying that riding school teachers are not. so ready to criticise the Now York woman who rides. They are altogether too gallant, not to say diplomatic, for that. Riding isn't learned In a day" they very truly remark, and they go on well coming the pupils, young, old middle aged, who are pouring into the schools just now.
 As a means to an end each of the leading school employs woman teach CT to illustrate what good seat and a good hand are, with the result that sometimes the very first object lesson sends beginner home tremendously enthusiastic and quite positive that af- ter few trials she will sit horse in precisely the same fashion.
 Probably she never will, but then t4ak |. -4,z.. 41 IN IN Ftion. It proves, though, that the woman teacher is useful-indeed, an almost pensable-adiunct to the up-to- date riding school.
 A reason advanced for the increase of women riders of late is that very many of them are taking it up asahealth me- dium by advice of physicians and oth- CTS. Said one riding master: we have lot, of pupils who don't enjoy riding particularly, but they are sticking to it for purpose. One, for instance who weighs nearly 200 pounds, is riding to reduce herself, and she is succeeding, too. She is now expert enough to go in the park and out on the road, and she rides hard two hours at stretch.
 '"Then there is another, a thin, ner- Vous woman, so tlrnid when she began that almost despaired of ever getting her to ride out of doors, who is riding to get flesh, and really her cheeks are beginning to fill out.
 T never allow her to ride more than one hour at a stretch, and never fas- ter than a gentle trot. But want her tn trOt mOSf af the lime foT her ciT- culation is sluggish, her digestion poor and her nerves shagy, which is the reason she took up riding.
 "No that woman will never have a very good seat, I am afraid, because she is too timid. Fearlessness is the first and most important attribute of good rider, which explains why children are easier to teach than adults.
 Tt explains too, why New York wo- men have been so slow about taking to riding. They have been afraid, and they are afraid now that they wont be able to get the knack of it if they do begin, whereas in reality any woman strong enough to sit up on a horse can learn to ride, and ride well.
 The comparatively few New York women who really ride well and are looked upon as experts, don't all agree as to the best methods for beginners One, for instance, says:
 By all means, let an adult begin out of doorc in a fanced in field gwav from