Side-saddle is sexy
It’s safer and more elegant than riding astride
SIMON BARNEST
hese days there are more than 1,
members of the Side Saddle Associa-
tion. Well, of course there are. People
go to Bisley to shoot muzzle- loaders with
black powder instead of modern rifles with
laser-sights; people prefer Bugattis to brand-
new electric cars. And of course it’s a bit
mad. We mustn’t go around criticising things
just because they’re mad; that would leave us
all terribly vulnerable.
I once rode side-saddle with three mem-
bers of the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artil-
lery. No, seriously. They were all saddlers,
fascinated by this unexplored aspect of their
craft. I joined them at an event hosted by the
SSA, expecting to find it horrible and unnatu-
ral, and it was nothing of the kind.
Because you’re not actually sideways. Your
shoulders are above your hips and square-on
to the horse, just like normal. True, your right
foot is more or less on your left knee, but I
often sit like that. The point is that you can
control your horse. If you can ride, it’s easy.
I’d always thought that a side-saddle was
an instrument of subjugation and that its
revival was like bringing back the chastity
belt. That’s got it precisely upside-down. The
invention of the two-pommel side-saddle in
the 1830s was a liberation: at last a woman
could take control of her horse and gallop
and jump with the best.
It’s not remotely insecure. It’s actually
harder to fall off a side-saddle than a conven-
tional one because your right leg is anchored.
It allowed women to hunt, to compete and to
ride round the countryside without needing
someone to lead the horse. Queen Victoria
was nuts for it when she was young; so was
Florence Nightingale. This was freedom.
Before the invention of the side-saddle,
women just sat sideways, perched awkwardly,
twisted, precariously balanced and unable to
control their mount. The greatest technolog-
ical advance they knew was a little plank –
the planchette — to rest their feet on. With
the side-saddle, women entered the kingdom
of the horse, seized it from men and made it
their own. These days women dominate the
horsey world, to the extent that many people
think riding horses is effeminate — though
best not tell the King’s Troop.
Even when riding astride became accept-
able for women, ladies rode side-saddle. The
Radletts in Nancy Mitford despise LavenderDavis as a rider astride. Side-saddle was never
a lost skill, just mislaid during the second
world war. But the eventual revival was inev-
itable, and the SSA was formed in 1974.
It continues to grow. You can buy new
side-saddles but most riders use an old one:
these change hands for around £2,000. And
there’s a lively market for the clothes, because
there’s no point in riding side-saddle in your
old jods and a Puffa jacket.
It reflects a trend. Horsey girls are going
back to horses in maturity, seeking ways of
enjoying horses in ways that fit in with domes-
tic life, available funds and available courage.
Not everyone wants to go tear-arsing across
country nel mezzo del cammin.No doubt it helps that the side-saddle gear
is great. And sexy. You balance on a horse by
sticking your chest out, and a riding habit is cut
to emphasise this. The skirt must give freedom
of movement to the legs, and the way it hangs
sets off the limbs of both riders and horses.
Check out the 18th-century painting
by Joseph Wright of Mr and Mrs Coltman:
Mrs C side-saddle on her horse, Mr C lean-
ing nonchalantly against her splayed thighs:
a subtly erotic picture that seems to hint that
the two have come to their morning ride after
a particularly good gallop before they got up.
And Clarissa Dawson, side-saddle rider of
the year 1997, looked pretty wonderful as she
sat on her dappled grey in a riding habit, top-
hat, Edwardian cut-away jacket, waistcoat,
high stock and veil. ‘The really difficult thing
is to drink a gin and tonic through the veil,’
she said. ‘The only answer is to sink all pride
and use a straw.’
These days there are women riding side-
saddle at all the best hunts. You need a taste for
excitement and for cutting a dash to get away
with it. But there are less dangerous options at
all levels of competence; the annual National
Side Saddle Show has more than 70 classes.
So yes, it’s about dressing up and elegance
and nostalgia but above all it’s about horses:
because for some people the bloody things are
a necessity. Side-saddle is just one more way
of having fun with a horse, and any way you do
that without harming the horse is OK by me.The invention of the two-pommel
side-saddle was a liberation: at last
a woman could gallop and jumpCabin fodderBritish Airways proposes to stop serving
free meals on long-haul fl ights.
— Although passengers once took it for
granted that on-board food would be free,
airline meals began on a Handley Page
fl ight from London to Paris in 1919, when
a packed lunch of sandwiches and fruit
cost three shillings (just under £8 now).
— Once free meals were the norm, the fi rst
carrier to call a halt was South West
Airlines, founded in the USA in 1967. It
offered free peanuts instead, calling itself
‘the peanut airline’ with ‘peanut fares’.
— Ryanair went one further in cutting
frills, charging €2 for a pack of peanuts.
What’s a Grecian earn?The National Living Wage went up to
£7.50 an hour for over-25s, but Jeremy
Corbyn wants £10 for everyone. What’s the
minimum hourly wage around Europe?
Ireland ................................ €9.15 (£7.62)
Germany ............................ €8.50 (£7.08)
France ............................... €9.66 (£8.04)
Netherlands .................... €9.79 (£8.15)
Spain ................................. €4.17 (£3.47)
Greece .............................. £3.82 (£3.18)
*Paid monthly: fi gures presume 35-hour week
Source: EurWORK
Chemical reactionsHow is the campaign to rid the world of
chemical weapons going?
— The Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says that as
of October 2016, 64,437 tonnes had been
destroyed, amounting to 91 per cent of the
world’s declared stockpile in 1993.
— Nations that still have declared stocks:
Iraq, Libya, Russia, Syria and the USA.
— At the end of 2015, 24 out of 27 Syrian
production facilities were functional.
— Among declared stocks worldwide are
1,656 tonnes of sarin, 1,395 of soman
nerve agent and 2,451 of mustard gas.
Source: OPCW
Scrambled eggsCadbury and the National Trust were
criticised for staging an egg hunt without
the word ‘Easter’. More non-Easter events:
— Spring Eggstravaganza at the Royal
Academy of Arts: ‘get crafty and make
your own spring-themed artworks’.
— Spring Bunny Museum Trail,
Haynes International Motor Museum,
Yeovil, Somerset: ‘eggsplore the museum
to discover all the soft-toy creatures’.
— Spring Egg Hunt, Glencoe Park
District, Chicago: ‘bring your basket and
get ready for an egg hunt’.
— Spring Bunny Hop, London
Children’s Museum, London, Ontario.
BAROMETER