SIDE-SADDLES FOR CHILDREN. 65 



shying with her, she may be dragged and killed. I 

 therefore cannot too strongly recommend all mothers 

 to see that their daughters' saddles are provided with 

 reliable safety bars, and of course that the children 

 are provided with safety skirts, for a safety bar is 

 useless if the rider's skirt catches on the upper crutch 

 and holds her suspended. In July 1897 a young 

 daughter of a well-known nobleman was dragged by 

 her stirrup and killed while exercising her pony in a 

 paddock. As the stirrup was of a one-sided pattern, it 

 must have been negligently placed the wrong way (Fig. 

 31) on the foot of the poor girl, who was only fifteen 

 years old. I heard that rider, saddle, and pony were 

 all buried on the same day. I would not be inclined 

 to blame the groom if he were inexperienced, as many 

 are, in the one-sidedness of so-called safety stirrups. 

 Another equally terrible accident occurred in Sep- 

 tember 1893, when a young lady was dragged by her 

 stirrup and killed while hacking along a road at 

 Kilhendre, near Ellesmere, with her groom in attend- 

 ance. As far as I could gather from the newspaper 

 report of this sad accident, a butcher's cart driven 

 rapidly round a corner caused the lady's pony to shy 

 suddenly and unseat her, with the result that she was 

 dragged by her stirrup and killed. At the inquest 

 which was held on the body of this poor girl, the jury- 

 men devoted their entire attention to the character of 

 the animal she was riding, and as the father of the 

 young lady, who had bred the pony himself, was able 

 to show that it was a staunch and reliable animal, the 



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