Daily News Reports »
Side Saddle Repressed Women Athletes
by Susan Allen, click here for bio
Program: Open Range
Date: February 25, 10
Click on the play button to listen to report.
Download Report: 022510 side saddle.mp3
A bohemian is considered a non-conformist sort but the root of the word used in context with riding restricted women equestrians for generations. I’m Susan Allen stay tuned for Open Range. We call non-conformists Bohemians when in reality they caused women to remain second class equestrians for hundreds of years. It started with a very misguided effort to protect the virginity of royalty. Princess Anne of Bohemia was the first bride to ride side saddle in 1382 across Europe to wed Richard II. Thanks to Ms. Bohemia, females would be physically and socially repressed forced to ride side saddle well into the late 19th century. Riding is all about being balanced, it’s amazing that women not only rode with both legs and a long dress on one side but they even jumped competitively straddling a pommel. Eventually a second horn was added and in the 19th century a third horn called the “leaping head” designed for more saddle security. That didn’t equate to safety, unlike the small jumping saddle men used that freed a falling rider, in a cumbersome sidesaddle women fox hunters could easily become trapped under the horse many becoming invalids by breaking their backs. Horses also suffered dearly under side saddles because of the misbalanced riders weight . You can’t keep women off horses and as we’ll discover tomorrow we have the vaqueros to thank for equality in the saddle and... split skirts.
Recent Reports from Open Range
- Catch and Release....Bears
- Steer-A-Year
- No Not EHV-1 Again!
- Yahoo, How Utterly Out Of Touch Are They!
- The Demise Of Brand Inspectors
Click here to see Archived Reports
On 09-Jun-11 01:41 AM Marylada Wrote:
Hey, sulbte must be your middle name. Great post!