Romanovs at Play--Entertainments and Hobbies

[carkuczyn]

i know that the custom during victorian times was for women to ride a horse side saddle.  i have always been curious about the side saddle, having never seen one.  how does a person ride ahorse that way without slipping off of it?  it looks like it would be very difficult to ride that way....not to mention the discomfort.  if anyone knows anything about the side saddle.....please enlighten me.  thanks.

[Aine]

Basic description and picture: http://www.damensattel.org/7Reiterin/Sitz/index5e.htm

Description of the side saddle and modern challenges: http://www.newrider.com/Specialisms/Side-saddle/introduction2.html

There are about 1.2 million other similar searches returned in Google  although I have to defer to someone else for anything specific to a particular era of riding.

Aine

[clockworkgirl21]

I believe my mother has a Brownie, which she got after my grandpa died, who was born in 1918, and I think he got it from from HIS dad. It has seen some use in its life, so it's probably not worth much, but it has a lot of sentimental value. I should ask her what number is it.

Thanks for that information!

[Greenowl]

Very interesting! It must have been frightfully uncomfortable! I'm going to try it out myself tomorrow (but with a normal saddle) and I'll report back!!!! (Hope I don't come a cropper).

[Tatyana]

I've ridden sidesaddle quite a bit, and it IS pretty uncomfortable, compared to riding astride. You feel a bit like you're on a perch on top of the horse, because sidesaddles sit quite a bit higher than cross saddles and there's no way to have contact with the horse.
There are 2 curved, padded brackets protruding on the left side of the saddle: one curving up to hook your right leg over, and one curving down to put your left leg under, and one stirrup for your left foot. You can grip your right leg quite well around the upper bracket.  It's pretty hard to fall off: if something really bad happens, the horse and you both fall. Many women got internal injuries from having the upper bracket jammed into their abdomen.
Trotting is very uncomfortable, bumpy if you don't "post" (rise up & down with the strides), but it's hard to "post" sidesaddle because the leg brackets hold you down. Ladies' sidesaddle horses were picked for their smooth gaits. Cantering & galloping is not bad. Jumping fences is pretty awful, kind of a minor whiplash jerk.
Let me know if there are any other questions.

TATYANA

[Robert_Hall]

Thank you Tatyana.  I have wondered as well about side saddle riding. The Empress Elisabeth was famous for her fast and challenging riding- side saddle. Can one do dressage side saddle? And, when did  it fall out of favour? Did women ride to the hunt side saddle?

[Greenowl]

Fascinating! I tried it myself today (with a conventional saddle of course) and did not find it as uncomfortable as I expected, but it is akin to sitting on a sofa as opposed to a saddle and one feels a bit exposed. What I found odd was the fact that my mare veered to the left the whole time...I assume that has something to do with the fact that my weight was no longer "in the centre" but slightly to the left. I had expected the reverse to be the case, due to the absence of leg on the right hand side. I only progressed at a gentle walk, due to the fact that my mare has a most uneven trot and I felt it was too risky to try anything too complicated. However, it is something I might consider in the future.

Yes, women hunted side saddle. With regard to the minor whiplash jerk when jumping fences: I suspect this may have been the case with men as well, as in those days they used that old fashioned "hunting seat" where they actually sat back in the saddle with their legs forward when jumping...Federico Caprilli did not discover the forward seat until around the turn of the last century, and I think it took about 40 years before this style of riding caught on everywhere...thus the old fashioned methods persisted in certain places until about 1950. I've always felt sorry for the horses, as they must have experienced quite a lot of pain when the rider crashed back into the saddle after the jump....I'm surprised they jumped at all under the circumstances, although maybe they were made of sterner stuff than their counterparts of today

[Obezyanka]

There is pics of OTMA riding side saddle.

[CountessKate]

Alexandra also rode side-saddle in her early years as Empress.

[anna11]

I know ice skating was popular amoung the IF in winter. Are there any iceskating photos? Also, what on earth did women wear, you'd think the dresses would get in the way of the skates.

[Amanda_Misha]

In this subject of the forum, the answer number 22, I found a photo of Michael and Natasha, ice skating

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php/topic,61.15.html

(brought to the forum by Angie_H)
Greetings to all
 

[Katia]

Picture of Olga and Anastasia skating:

www.livadia.org/olishka/images/nastasolya.jpg

[Sarushka]

Photos of the children's cameras to compare with the Brownie models listed in reply #2:

[Sarushka]

More:

[Sarushka]

Alexandra's cameras:


 


Incidentally, I don't recall ever seeing a photo of the tsar using a camera himself. Curious.