The long-skirted record breakers
There are some images that remain a source of fascination even 100 years after they were taken. It’s November 1926 and the venue is the Palais des Expositions in Plainpalais, Geneva. Pictured are women riding sidesaddle in long skirts and jumping fences to boot. But they’re not doing it for show. They’re there to compete and to win.
And win is what they do. The first edition of the CHIG featured an event for female riders only, won by a Mrs Maroussia Haecky. Four years later, a Mrs Stoffel cleared two metres in the Puissance event on her mare Primula, a women’s world record that would stand for 20 years, until Pat Smythe jumped 2.10m in Paris in 1951. And Mrs Stoffel did it sidesaddle, thank you very much, at a time when the men were clearing 2.30m riding straddle, using both legs for balance.
The only way to gain an understanding of just how difficult sidesaddle riding is on a technical level is to try it for yourself. Here’s what it involves: both legs positioned on the same side of the saddle, with the right thigh resting against a fixed horn and the left held in place by a leaping horn. When jumping, the weight of the body rests almost entirely on the right thigh. The upper body should tilt forward and follow the movement of the horse, without the weight of the body ever resting on the left stirrup, as this could cause the whole saddle to tip over. The slightest imbalance could lead to a fall, the type of fall the rider is unlikely to emerge unscathed from.
These intrepid female riders grew up on horses and learned to jump sidesaddle long before the idea of them riding straddle became socially acceptable. The equestrian world was very male- and military-oriented in those days. Up to the second world war and beyond, army officers accounted for the vast majority of competitors at the CHIG. Yet in spite of it all, the sidesaddle riders were making waves and enjoyed remarkable progress in the event’s early years. Six female riders took part in it in 1927, a figure that rose to 12 in 1928 and 19 in 1929, with 14 then featuring in a field of 141 riders in 1930.
All this was happening at a time when Europe was in turmoil, thanks to the Wall Street crash of 1929 and its after-effects and the rise of totalitarianism. The CHIG was also scaled back, becoming an event held every two years and then every four. The final edition before WWII, staged in 1938, was dominated by German officers, with the first morning of the competition coinciding with the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria.
The era of the sidesaddle riders in international competition was slowly coming to an end, and before long the great female equestrian stars of modern times would begin to emerge, inspired by those who had opened the way for them.
The CHI Geneva’s choice of a sidesaddle rider for the first edition’s poster was a very deliberate and symbolic one, at a time when all too few of them were competing. It was a powerful gesture that continues to resonate today, so much so that the poster for the event’s centenary is inspired directly by it. One hundred years on, the pioneering sidesaddle rider still commands respect.
Aurore Favre
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