Today’s cowgirls ride as the cowboys do with their feet on each side of the saddle but it wasn’t always that way for women. Women from earliest times rode horses as we do but in the middle ages the idea of a “proper” woman riding style was born.
The first “sidesaddles” had the woman sitting at a right angle to the horse with her feet on a platform called a planchette. They had no control of the horse so needed a groom to lead them. The design evolved over the centuries with a pommel (raised area at the front of the saddle) added to provide something to hook a knee around. Over time they found ways to slowly rotate more towards the front of the horse so they could use reins to control it.
From Wikipedia “In the 1830s, Jules Pellier invented a sidesaddle design with a second, lower pommel to the sidesaddle. In this design, still in use today, one pommel is nearly vertical, mounted approximately 10 degrees left of top dead center and curved gently to the right and up. The rider’s right leg goes around the top, or fixed pommel, which supports the right thigh of the rider when it is lying across the top center of the saddle. The lower right leg rests along the shoulder of the left (near) side of the horse and up against the second pommel (called the leaping head or leaping horn.) which lies below the first on the left of the saddle. It is mounted about 20 degrees off the top of the saddle. This pommel is curved gently downward in order to curve over the top of the rider’s left thigh, and is attached in a manner so that it could pivot slightly, to adjust to the individual rider. The rider places her left leg beneath this pommel, with the top of the thigh close or lightly touching it, and places her left foot in a single stirrup on that side. The impact of the second pommel was revolutionary; the additional horn gave women both increased security and additional freedom of movement when riding sidesaddle, which allowed them to stay on at a gallop and even to jump”.
Today there are English riding competitions requiring a sidesaddle and cowgirls ride that way for fun but most women prefer either a traditional English or Western saddle for the feeling of security.
For more information check out Jan Parsons interesting article HERE