Side Saddle NewZ
The New Zealand Side Saddle Association
A Short History of Side Saddle
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While women throughout the ages have always ridden astride as and when necessary, there is evidence from the decorations on ancient Greek vases and on Celtic monuments of the first millenium AD that women sometimes rode sitting sideways. This first version of the side saddle was a small padded seat, based on a pack saddle. It is not clear when it was first used, but by the 9th century AD, the foot-board or planchette had already been added to it, together with a padded back rest to prevent the rider overbalancing and tipping off backwards. This is the type of side saddle said to have been introduced into England in the 14th century by Richard II’s queen, Anne of Bohemia. By the 15th century, the simple padded seat had developed a central horn or pommel at the front, and the beginnings of a cantle behind, but still retained the planchette for the rider’s feet to rest on. No doubt it was possible for an active woman rider to manage her own horse while seated sideways on a saddle of the planchette type, especially since the horses favoured by ladies of the time were much smaller, around 13 to 14 hands in height. Many ladies however, were not so independent and relied upon a male companion or servant to lead the horse along. It is thought to be Catherine De Medici in the 16th century, who encouraged the next round of improvements. She was a keen horsewoman and throughout her life she loved hunting, continuing to ride to hounds until her sixtieth year. According to the Abbe de Brantome, she was a very good and bold rider “sitting with ease and being the first to put the leg around the pommel”. Catherine De Medici is also credited with the invention of the second or offside pommel, thus creating a type of side saddle which remained more or less unchanged for almost two hundred years. |
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With the development of the second pommel, an active rider with her right leg thrown around the central horn and her thigh wedged against the offside pommel had a much more secure seat and could face forward as a modern side saddle rider does. The biggest problem with the type of side saddle used by Catherine De Medici was keeping it in place on the horse’s back. This was largely overcome by the invention of the balance strap in the 17th century. This strap, fitted to the rear of the saddle on the offside and coming down to join the girth, helped solve this problem. Even so, it was never routinely fitted to side saddles until the 20th century, but seems to have been added only when required or by personal whim of the rider. Most of the evidence we have today of the use of the side saddle comes from the portraits we see of various ladies of the nobility, who are almost invariably shown riding aside. Documentary evidence from the 16th and 17th centuries, however, suggests that many women routinely rode astride as well as aside~ which style was chosen depended no doubt upon social position as well as the need of the moment. Towards the end of the 18th century
roads were improving and social etiquette was changing, demanding more
propriety from lady riders. Among
the nobility and gentry, then, most women who rode used the side saddle
and riding astride came to be viewed as “unladylike”.
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The real hey-day of the side saddle was the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. During that period of perhaps 150 years, from the late 18th century through to the 1930’s, almost all women rode aside. For much of that period it was thought that their “rounded thighs and fleshier posterior” prevented them from riding securely astride, an idea which can be attributed to the publication in 1803 of Frederigo Mazzuchelli’s book Scula Equeste, which he grandiosely claimed to be the first to outline the principles of riding aside. In fact, he was 25 years behind the first known book on the subject, which was published in 1770 by a French riding master, Francois de Garsault, who first emphasised the modern principles of sitting facing square to the front of the horse and balanced in the saddle. This was perhaps also coincidental with the
development of larger, stronger and more agile horses, bred to go across
country with speed and stamina. Certainly
a small woman who is skilled in riding aside has a stronger seat and
therefore a greater degree of control over a big “strong” horse than
she might have if riding the same animal astride. |
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The next major development took place in the second or third decade of the 19th century. This was the invention of the leaping head, the mobile pommel placed lower down on the near side of the side saddle. Some sources attribute this invention to Thomas Oldaker, huntsman to the Earl of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, England, during the years 1788~1820. After breaking his leg, he tried hunting side saddle and found that he could not jump fences safely without the extra grip for his left leg. The addition of the leaping head is also credited to a French riding master, Jules Charles Pellier, who emphatically claimed to have invented it in Paris in 1830. Regardless of its origin, however, the leaping head revolutionised side-saddle riding~ this was the device which allowed women riding side saddle to hunt and jump across country as boldly and securely as their male counterparts, and in some cases more so. Once the leaping head came fully into use, it was found that the offside pommel was no longer so critical to the security of the rider’s seat. Consequently, it gradually dwindled away, becoming no more than a slight bump on the offside of the saddle by the third quarter of the 19th century. |
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At about this time (1875~80), the cut back head was first introduced, though it didn't really catch on until the beginning of the 20th century. Up to that time, side saddles had been built on a solid tree, which was heavy, and sat higher over the horse’s wither, forcing an upward slope to the rider’s right thigh. This was often accentuated by a noticeably dipped seat, sometimes described as a “soup plate” because of its generous curvature. From about 1875 onwards however we see the return of the flat-seated side saddle in more or less the form we know it today. Some side saddles up until the beginning of the 20th century were still made on the old solid trees, but even these tended to be flat-seated, as far as the shape of the tree would allow. This one clearly shows the Y-shaped balance strap common throughout the 19th century. With the introduction of the cut back head, which allowed the side saddle to sit much closer and flatter over the wither, the remains of the third pommel finally disappeared from the offside, leaving the modern sleek shape familiar today. Many modern side saddles have doeskin lined seats and pommels, like the ones on this Martin & Martin and the Champion & Wilton shown below. These are designed to give the rider more “stickability”.
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