Hi Susan,
I've only stumbled across this post by accident while deleting this
thread... (not much of a rider being deathly allergic to animals)...
Anyway, I've seen an extant 16th c. English sidesaddle (Shakespeare's
Birthplace Museum) so I know they existed before 1800, and it is one
of the oddest looking things I've seen. I wasn't allowed to take
photos there and there weren't any postcards of it (unfortunately)
but if memory serves me it was sea-green leather thing (however, I
could be misremembering and it might have been more blue than that)
with silver braid in chevron-pattern or stripes. It was basically
perfectly flat, oval shape on top with the pommel sticking up like a
monolith at the center front. There wasn't much else too it, beside
a rather normal looking saddle understructure - it was like instead
of having a normal saddle seat they filled that area in and stuck a
plate on top of it. It looked incredibly uncomfortable to sit on,
and I would imagine it would cut of the circulation to your legs in
no time at all.
IIRC, there is a drawing of a woman using a contraption to sit
sideways on a horse in Ruth Matilda Anderson's "Hispanic Costume:
1480 - 1530" as well.
I found it interesting that Queen Elizabeth's saddle at Warwick
Castle is a normal "astride" saddle, if rather ornamented.
Cheers,
Danielle
At 10:33 AM 3/8/2006, you wrote:
Thanks, Melusine.
From what I've learned, so far, riding clothes were not very
different from regular clothes until rather recently. Sidesaddles
are also a recent invention. I've heard that sidesaddles, as we
understand the term, did not exist prior to about 1800. I don't
know if that is true.
<snip>
Susan
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