Here’s your thing of joy for today: the smirk on this rather saucy horse as he carries an American lady sidesaddle through nineteenth-century Japan, as viewed by artist Yoshitori Utagawa in 1860. Japanese women did not ride sidesaddle, so this is an interesting public performance of Western femininity as interpreted by a local. Also, one …
Continue reading “Art & Horseyculture: An American Beauty – and her Horse – in Yokohama, 1860”
In memory of their sister Polly de Blank, Martha Sitwell and Clemmie de Blank will cross Mongolia aside in six weeks next May. A journalist, campaigner and yoga scholar, Polly supported both the mental health charity Mind and Prisoners of Conscience, and her sisters are raising funds for both charities. If you’d like to chip …
Continue reading “Sidesaddle Across Mongolia: An Adventure in Memory of an Adventurous Woman”
I enjoyed talking about the history of sidesaddle on Countryfile – it was my first experience of TV and everyone was incredibly friendly and easygoing. We did a few takes of different parts of the interview and it was hard to know whether to embellish what I’d said each time or to say the same …
Continue reading “A (Not So) Short History of Women Riding Astride”
If you’re in the UK you can see me on Countryfile on BBC1 at 18.30 today. I’m talking about sidesaddle and the Mrs Power O’Donoghues of the world! Roger Philpot, the don of British sidesaddle, plays host and master saddler Laura Dempsey shows presenter Ellie Harrison around a leaping head.
The post below is somewhat out of date. My essay on Selika was published by the Paris Review Daily on 9 February 2018, and can be found here. Here’s a post listing the research undertaken about Selika and giving pointers for further investigation. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– This lady has been Tumblring around the internet lately, and she’d …
I promise I’ll write about something other than sidesaddle soon, but I couldn’t resist these two snippets: 1) The brilliant Italian écuyère Elvira Guerra competed sidesaddle in the “hacks and hunters combined event” (photo of her here) at the 1900 Paris Olympics – a non-Olympic event, to be sure, but it wasn’t until 1952 that …
When I got back from my sidesaddle lesson I was rather overexcited about the fact that I had ridden a PUREBRED! CLASSICALLY TRAINED! LUSITANO! and couldn’t wait to show people the photos that my mum took of the lovely Xis. Some people were a little disappointed, and said, “But he just looks like a pony,” …
Team chasing is an amateur British sport linked to hunting in which bands of four competitors complete a course of country fences at a hunting clip. The Legover Ladies, sponsored by Patey Hats, are a little unusual, as some of them compete side-saddle. Nutters. The team was founded by children’s author and horse breeder, Babette …
My Christmas present this year was an hour’s sidesaddle lesson at the Pine Lodge School of Classical Education in Norfolk, with top teacher and judge Sarah Walker. Aside from actually buying me a pony, this was probably The Best Gift Ever. Not only did I get to try a style of riding I’ve been curious …
Continue reading “First Sidesaddle Lesson: Not Quite “Posed Audaciously Like a Wing””
Delighted to find this sign on the Aylsham–Blickling road in Norfolk – a serendipity after a wrong turning. There was one on each side of the road. I like to think it was doctored as a birthday surprise for someone.
