Many modern people must have paid attention to the fact that in the old days the fair sex from the noble classes rode horses only sideways. At the same time, each person was definitely interested in what caused such a very specific manner to stay in the saddle. It is quite clear that the traditional riding position, as practiced by men at all times, is better and more comfortable. Did they just want to make fun of the girls?
In fact, the answer to this question is extremely simple. The secret of the specific "feminine" manner in the saddle lies in the special saddle. It differs from the usual, "male" one by the presence of a special bow on the left side - two protruding "horns", which are needed to throw legs on them. In fact, the first ladies' saddles were quite different from those used in the 19th century. In particular, the first saddles for women had special attitudes that helped them climb on a horse. Later they were abandoned.
It is difficult to say exactly when the first ladies' saddle appeared. It is reliably known that they already existed in the XIV century. In particular, the wife of Richard II, Anna Bohemian, had such a saddle. We can safely assume that in reality such saddles have existed for at least a century before this glorious moment, and maybe longer. Much more important is something else: why is it needed at all. In order to understand the question completely, you will have to plunge into the wonderful world of the Middle Ages. Although we will start at all from the end of antiquity.
Riding in the saddle, especially in stirrups, is a harsh business. Anyone who has ridden a saddle for a really long time at least once knows that it chafes. Don't believe me? Try it yourself, or at least ride a mountain bike for an hour or two. From the latter, the fifth point will hurt for three more days. The saddle is able to erase the ass to bloody blisters, even with the use of special clothing. And many have probably already guessed what it all boils down to.
No, not at all to the anatomical differences between men and women. A perineum rubbed into blood can equally undermine both male and female health. It's all about the clothes. The Huns, who came to Europe from Asia at the turn of the epochs, brought with them not only stirrups, but also special clothes for riding in the saddle - stockings. It is these two things that determined the development of fashion and military affairs in Europe for many centuries to come. Without stirrups and stockings, it would have been impossible to create heavy knightly cavalry.
In the end, it all boiled down to the fact that stockings became one of the main attributes of masculinity. Stockings distinguished a noble man fighting in the saddle, from a peasant working in the field, and a noble man, whose business is war, from a noble woman, whose business is the continuation of the family. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, all this was superimposed on the gradual disintegration of the tribal society among the "barbarian" peoples of Europe and guests from Asia. Therefore, the traditional idea of a man - a hunter and a war, and a woman - a parent and guardian of the hearth for a long time was fixed in European culture.
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Dressing a woman in stockings in the Middle Ages was as strange and wild for the people of that time as dressing a man in a lady's dress today. And this went on for many centuries. However, noble ladies very often had to accompany their husbands. And since the horse was essentially a "furry car", we had to make a special saddle that would allow beautiful ladies to ride without stockings and, moreover, in long dresses.
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Everything changed only in the XX century. Not without real feminists who really defended the rights of the beautiful half of humanity. It is worth recalling that, unlike today, the position of women in the 19th and early 20th centuries was indeed oppressed in rights and freedoms. The development of urban culture, as well as the two world wars, contributed to the final breakdown of traditional barriers. The lady was allowed to wear stockings, which means that it became possible to use the usual “male” saddle.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why in medieval Europe they wore strange shoes with very long noses.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/270520/54674/