oss-saddle riding, as if men never come to
grief! Statistics would, I think, show that, considering the large
number of women who hunt, the proportion of fatal accidents to them in
the hunting field is extremely small as compared with the male record.
Then, again, the question of sore backs from side-saddles may be urged;
but with a well-fitting saddle which is properly girthed up, this
trouble can be averted. Besides, sore backs are not confined to side
saddles, for every hunting man, at some period or other, has had a
sore-backed horse in his stable. My argument against the adoption of
men's saddles is, in the first place, that such saddles afford us far
less security of seat than we obtain in our own; for I do not think that
men could ride, as we can, over fences without the aid of the reins.
This statement is borne out, not only by the attempts which many good
horsemen have made to do so, while my husband drove animals over
obstacles with the long reins, but also by the fact that all men like a
horse that goes well up to the bridle for cross-country work. Then,
again, a woman's limbs are unsuited to cross-saddle riding, which
requires length from hip to knee, flat muscles, and a slight inclination
to "bow legs." I practised my cross-saddle riding in a school well
supplied with large mirrors in which I could see my figure as I passed.
It was anything but graceful, for the rotundity, which even in some men
is very ugly on horseback, was far too much _en evidence_, and caused an
outburst of laughter from the ladies who were watching my performance. I
at first found it rather difficult to preserve my balance well in
cantering on a circle, but that came to me far more quickly than ability
to ride properly over a fence in a plain flapped saddle, such as I
presume ladies would want to use if they adopted that style of riding.
The directions given me were to lean back and grip with my knees; but,
as in side-saddle riding, I left the reins quite loose, instead of
hanging on to them as most men do, I lost the aid which they might have
afforded me in my efforts to stick on. Besides, my grip was all wrong,
and seemed to be obtainable only at the thigh, which, my husband tells
me, ought, for riding purposes, to be flat and not round. My experience
of this kind of riding appears to have been borne out by another lady
who tried it, for "Rapier," in the _Sporting and Dramatic News_, Nov.
26th, 1892, says: "A few weeks ago my correspo