68 THE AMERICAN HORSEWOMAN. 



saddle, on which by means of the reins and by 

 bracing her feet against a board, called a " plan- 

 chette," which was fastened to the front of the 

 saddle, the rider managed to keep her seat. 

 Such was the English horsewoman of the seven- 

 teenth century, in the time of Charles II., 

 " the height of fashion and the cream of style." 



To the much quoted " vanity of the fair sex " 

 do we owe the invention of the side-saddle of 

 our grandmothers. About the middle of the 

 sixteenth century Catherine de Medici, wife of 

 Henry II. of France, having a very symmetri- 

 cal figure which she wished to display to advan- 

 tage, invented the second pommel of the saddle, 

 and thus, while gratifying her own vanity, was 

 unconsciously the means of greatly benefiting 

 her sex by enabling them to ride with more 

 ease and freedom. To this saddle there was 

 added, about 1830, a third pommel, the inven- 

 tion of which is due to the late M. Pellier, Sr., 

 an eminent riding teacher in Paris, France. 

 This three-pommeled saddle is now called the 

 English saddle, and is the one generally used 

 by the best lady riders of the present day. 



This so-called " English saddle " was promptly 

 appreciated, and wherever introduced soon sup- 

 planted the old-fashioned one with only two 

 pommels. (Fig. 7.) 



