I'm asking this question here because it's bothered me for about 40 years, and there's a lot of experience in different things here, so someone may know.

There was a period of time in the world when women rode sidesaddle. The first time in America that people saw a woman riding astride was in 1852, and everyone thought it scandalous.

When I saw a woman wearing a long riding habit mount a horse wearing a sidesaddle, she used a stepped mounting box to get aboard. She used the same box to dismount.

The question: How does a woman in a long dress mount a horse wearing a sidesaddle with no box, no wagon tongue, no nearby rock of a suitable size, and no man to give her a leg up?

The only way I can visualize it is that she raises her left leg and puts it in the stirrup, jumps up, and somehow swings her right leg either over the saddle or between the horse's ribs and her other leg (that is in the stirrup). Swinging her leg over the saddle doesn't seem likely, as the skirts I've seen looked too narrow for that. And trying to get her right leg between the horse and her left leg while balancing in midair beside the horse would seem like a good way to fall off. And neither way sound very safe if the horse was moving around or fussing at all.

Any ideas?

Sue

I enjoy history. I have seen alot of old photos regarding this era and notice that some women in those days did wear pants. Most of the ones I have seen around horses were standing near them, or riding in a wagon. All were wearing dresses.

I think if a woman was going to ride she would be wearing pants and riding like a "cowboy". I have not even seen a sidesadle at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in OKC. It has been years since I last visited though.

http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/

I'm guessing that proper etiquette for the time period was that well dressed women didn't ride alone. They would probably be driven in horse drawn carriages/buggies by those that could afford them, or ride side saddle when they couldn't. Both purposely required a male driver or escort to be there with her. Like CentralOklahoma said, if they were riding alone they were probably not following proper etiquette and were therefore probably wearing pants instead of a dress.

I always wondered how they didn't fall off more. I mean, I can fall off of those four legged hayburners with two feet in stirrups, both legs squeezing the gas out of both of us, and one hand gripping the horn. Seems to me that a side saddle gives little in the way of balance/support/etc...

Okay, you don't know. Where's Chris?

The world's record for show-jumping with a side saddle is 6.5 ft. I just can't see a woman who can ride like that being 100% dependent on a box or a man.

Maybe there is a sidesaddle forum somewhere...

Sue

WELL! There IS a side saddle discussion board! I posted my question there. Let's see what they say.

Sue

According to my GGM and GM (both long deceased) women who rode horses "in the day" either wore pants or split skirts (e.g. http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/store/000981.php).

As a kid we had horses. We had an old sidesaddle. If the cinch is tight so the saddle can't rotate, they are actually fairly stable. your left foot is in the stirrup, your right leg rests in a "hook shaped" horn. No, I didn't wear a split skirt, only jeans.

"There was a period of time in the world when women rode sidesaddle. The first time in America that people saw a woman riding astride was in 1852, and everyone thought it scandalous."

Is there a source for that?

I suspect that what is getting overlooked here is both the rarity of horses and that there were some fairly rigid class structures.

Throughout much of Europe and the early colonies horses were expensive and extravagances limited to the rich. Oxen or cows were far more common, and practical, for farm work or peasant use. And to make an ox into a conveyance one used a cart or wagon.

Those rich enough to afford a horse were also the most likely to be scandalized if their high bred women rode split-legged. There may have been poor women or girls rode in the normal manner but history is seldom written by or about the poor. History concerning itself with anything but the rich is a new phenomenon.

Which may be why it is assumed all women, or at least all the women who counted, rode side-saddle. If at all. Between the many petty coats, hoops and other female impedimenta riding on a horse was obviously something of a major PITA for women. So likely seldom done. There were plenty of two and four wheeled conveyances available that could be easily harnessed to a horse. Those rich enough to afford horses likely had servants to set up a carriage.

Grandma says no woman from her childhood ever rode a horse any other way than how the men did, which was straddling a saddle or bareback.

I reckon if a woman were to need to mount on her own without a step up aid and wearing a tight unsplit skirt, she'd be compelled to hike that skirt up high enough to get her legs apart so that she could mount the saddle using the left stirrup and throwing her leg over to straddle it temporarily, then curling her leg back up and under the horn proper while adjusting her sitting posture accordingly. When I was a kid we tried to see what riding side saddle would be like using Grandad's high horned spanish saddle (as he referred to it, he liked it for roping as it gave his arthritic hands a little more leeway). Basically you had to mount the saddle same as for regular riding, then swing your right leg back as I described. You could do the same thing bareback long as you could grab a handful of horse's mane and tuck your leg beind that, but then you had to hold onto that mane to keep your leg in place, and you dang sure didn't trot or canter in that position or you'd giggle yourself outta your seat.

We concluded sidesaddle was for women who were more concerned with how they looked than whether they could actually accomplish anything on the back of a horse. Perhaps there is some purpose in it, but no girl I ever met that could ride would ever likely consider it as anything but a novelty.

Okay, I got a response from the side saddle board.

But first, I wanted to clarify that YES, I know that many of the (at least young) women of the day (1800-1900), if they rode at all (and probably farm girls, at that), would probably just ride astride. And I know that the women who did ride side saddle were probably wealthy, esp if the cost of a side saddle was anything comparable to today's price.

The response: "A lady would never have been out riding alone during those times, they were always accompanied and would therefore always have had a helping hand. Being very well used to wearing costume myself, I should think it would be nigh on impossible to get on the horse safely wearing the long skirt. Only attempted in an emergency I should think!!!"

She also said that today's women who ride side saddle wear a split skirt covered by what they call an 'apron', that disguises the outfit and makes it look like they are wearing a dress. They mount as Benjammin describes above, then arrange their outfit as needed.

My reference to the first woman seen riding astride was was from two sources. The first was when I was reading a diary of a woman traveling west in a wagon train in 1852. The second was a reference in (I think) a book by Time/Life on the American West, where I am sure they were referring to passing the same small party that was heading east, and they mentioned that that was the first reference of a woman being SEEN riding astride, IIRC.

The women of the time seemed very careful to always be seen as ladies, or they wouldn't be able to catch a decent husband. But I'm sure that the farm girls wouldn't think anything of jumping on a horse or pony to deliver Pa's lunch to him in the north forty.

I can't remember the Laura Ingalls Wilder books well enough to know if she ever mentioned riding in any form.


"We concluded sidesaddle was for women who were more concerned with how they looked than whether they could actually accomplish anything on the back of a horse."

Side saddles are different than a regular saddle with a high horn (although I'm sure many women of the days used those as a side saddle). The major turning-point was a design of the 1830s that added a second pommel that made all the difference in the world for women's comfort and control of the horse. Of course, no woman was using a side saddle or riding side saddle while roping cows, etc.

One accomplishment of a woman riding the "new" sidesaddle was a woman in England who was participating in show jumping, and cleared a 6'6" fence in 1915. (This is a real feat to me, as I can fall off a horse if they just stop suddenly...)

But when it comes right down to it, if the woman was alone, I guess she could just scamble aboard any way she could, then wiggle around and rearrange her clothing as needed for a decorous return to town.

I just thought there might be a secret to which I was not party.

Sue