这些女人想重拾侧鞍，可行吗？

Tracey Cover, Cathi Grove and Maureen Britell race sidesaddle in an exhibition at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., on April 12. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

The day’s two highly anticipated sidesaddle races (one with jumping, one without) were fleeting events for the equestriennes — just over half a mile and blur of pounding hoofbeats. But they went over big. After crossing the finish line, the riders turned their horses back to walk a victory lap, waving at the fans who cheered from lawn chairs and picnic blankets.

“I love it!” one spectator shouted, raising her glass of wine.

Hayley Rees, 6, demonstrates sidesaddle technique on a pony named Scarlett. Hayley and her grandmother came to the races hoping to encourage other girls to try sidesaddle racing. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Sarah O’Halloran navigates her horse Patrick over a jump. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Johnston and her race co-organizer, Devon Zebrovious, have called the sidesaddle race a “revival” of a long-forgotten art. But a “reappropriation” might be more on point. The reasons to ride aside nowadays (it’s fun; it’s graceful; it’s a challenge) are different than the reasons of yesteryear (one must carry oneself in modest fashion; one must keep one’s lady parts intact).

The earliest sidesaddles were mostly a means to transport female passengers — such as Princess Anne of Bohemia, who rode aside while traveling across Europe to marry England’s King Richard II in 1382. She is often credited with popularizing the style in England. But when most people think of riding sidesaddle, they conjure images from the Victorian or Edwardian eras: “Downton’s” Lady Mary Crawley, with her waist tightly corseted, her dark hair fixed beneath a veiled top hat, and her long skirts cascading below the belly of her steed.

Before women were granted equal rights, sidesaddle was generally the only horse-riding option available to them: It was unacceptable for a lady to spread her legs to straddle a saddle. Sidesaddles evolved to position a woman’s body entirely to the left side of her horse, with her left foot in a single stirrup and both legs secured by two stabilizing pommels.

Historically, the practice placed more value in a woman’s appearance than her autonomy or safety; more than a few fallen riders wound up dragged to their deaths by petticoats tangled in stirrups and saddle straps.

Maureen Britell, second from left, and other sidesaddle competitors laugh as they cheer other riders. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Zebrovious, 35, co-organizer of the sidesaddle race at Oatlands, said she knows some people wish sidesaddle would vanish forever. And she’s aware of the efforts of the suffragettes, some of whom burned their sidesaddles after the passage of the 19th Amendment.

“We’ve run into people who say, ‘We finally got rid of this 80, 90 years ago — what are you doing?’ And they have such fallacies. They think women were forced to do it and that as soon as they had the opportunity, everyone abandoned it, and that it’s horrible for the horse.”

(Is it bad for the horse? Despite the sidesaddle’s inherent lopsidedness, equine veterinary experts at Leesburg’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center pointed to a 2006 Austrian study that found no evidence that a sidesaddle would harm a horse with a healthy back.)

Zebrovious noted that plenty of women enjoyed riding sidesaddle and that it’s possible to celebrate the skill without condoning its historical political context.

“I think people have sort of gotten beyond the feeling that we have to be against what was done in the past,” she said. “Especially in this country, because we are so much newer than Europe, we were a little more in the mind-set that we needed to always be new. That’s why we’re about 10 years behind Europe with this.”

The sidesaddle riders race to the finish line on April 12. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

After the sidesaddle races were over, the riders gathered under the trees behind the Oatlands mansion, grinning and gushing. (“That wasso much fun.”) They sat tall in their saddles, posing for pictures before they dismounted.

Just up the hill, a much smaller sidesaddle rider was also smiling for cameras. Six-year-old Hayley Rees had been circulating in the crowd all morning atop Scarlett, a feisty pony who seemed intent on headbutting her handler — Hayley’s grandmother Donna Poe.

They were there acting as ambassadors of sorts, Poe said, in the hope that other little girls might see Hayley riding aside and decide to try it, too. Hayley first asked to try the style last year, Poe said.

“Because she saw all the pretty pictures of the ladies, right, Hayley?”

Hayley nodded shyly.

“We’ve just been greeting everyone and letting everyone see what sidesaddles look like, and learn what they’re all about,” Poe said.

She smiled at her granddaughter. “Hopefully, in 10 years, she’ll be in a sidesaddle race,” she said. “This is our future.”

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