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The earliest depictions of women riding with both legs on the same side of the horse can be seen in Greek vases, sculptures, and Celtic stones. Medieval depictions show women seated aside with the horse being led by a man, or seated on a small padded seat (a pillion) behind a male rider.
The sidesaddle did not become practical for everyday riding until the 16th-century development of the pommel horn that allowed a woman to hook her leg around the saddle and hence use the reins to control her own horse. Even then, sidesaddle riding remained a precarious activity until the invention of the second, "leaping horn" in the 19th century.
Japan's Chihiro Akami, an example of a female jockey. The place of women in equestrianism has undergone significant societal evolution. Until the 20th century, in most Eurasian and North African countries, and later in North and South America, the horse was primarily a symbol of military and masculine prowess, associated with men for both warfare and daily labor.
Mounting blocks were especially useful for women riding sidesaddle or pillion, that is 'riding double', [2] allowing a horse to be mounted or dismounted without a loss of modesty. Women would often ride behind their husbands and servants who were on foot. [3] They were also used to assist ladies and men into and out of carts. [4]
In France in the 17th century, women who rode wore an outfit called a devantiere. [1] The skirt of the devantiere was split up the back to enable astride riding. [2] By the early 19th century, in addition to describing the whole costume, a devantiere could describe any part of the riding habit, be it the skirt, [2] the apron, [3] or the riding ...
Lady Godiva by John Collier, c. 1897, in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry. Lady Godiva: Edmund Blair Leighton depicts her moment of decision (1892). Lady Godiva (/ ɡ ə ˈ d aɪ v ə /; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English Godgifu, was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and ...
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Women of different classes performed different activities: rich urban women could be merchants like their husbands or even became money lenders; middle-class women worked in the textile, inn-keeping, shop-keeping, and brewing industries; while poorer women often peddled and huckstered foods and other merchandise in the market places, or worked ...