THE HORSEWOMAN 



IT may, in these days, be thought to savour of 

 inpertinence for a mere man to presume to 

 say a few words about ladies on horseback, 

 though I doubt not that some of my lady friends 

 would have told me I was very rude if I had 

 passed them over altogether. And, after all, 

 there is perhaps less of presumption in a * mere 

 man * giving the results of his experience than 

 in one who is himself a bad horseman taking 

 upon himself to give ladies practical lessons 

 in horsemanship, of which more anon. 



To the lady who is beginning to ride, I would 

 say, without hesitation, ride on a side saddle 

 and not on a cross saddle. On the question 

 of appearance I would not presume to dictate, 

 but I would merely remark in passing that a lady 

 never looks better than in a riding habit and 

 sitting ' square ' on a well-made side saddle. 

 The crux of the question is, which is the safest 

 seat for a lady, the side saddle or the cross saddle ? 

 On this subject let us hear what a lady has to 

 say. This lady, were I to give her name, would 

 at once be recognised as one of the finest horse- 

 women of her time, as her father is one of the 



finest horsemen, or perhaps I ought to say 



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