How to approach a lady

{Photo Courtesy of Nico Morgan, all rights reserved}

As I started writing this blog post, I was cracking myself up.  How to approach a lady, now that’s a funny thought.  I don’t mean how to pick someone up, what I want to talk about is how to literally approach a lady who is riding sidesaddle.  Always approach from the off side, this is the side that we have no legs.  If you don’t ride sideways, you’re probably wondering why it matters.  So let me try to explain, and if any of my Sidesaddle Sisters has anything to add, please do so in the comments.

I’m going to go way back and use some quotes from Jinks Bryer.  Who is Jinks you ask, well, she is the daughter of Betty Skelton, the celebrated doyenne of sidesaddle (President of the Sidesaddle Association for 30 years, until her death at 96) and leading sidesaddle trainer of the last century.

You don’t want to look to your near side because it can throw your balance off.  When you sit in your saddle, your body position looks straight from the back as if you a riding astride, but your right shoulder is kinda tilted back, so you don’t spill out the side door.  Let’s use some of Jink’s knowledge to help you understand why these things are important.

Jinks says “So many people teach you right shoulder back keeps you in the tack, but it’s actually left shoulder forward” (I was taught right shoulder back, so I’m cracking up again).  As I’m sitting here, I try it both ways and low and behold my right shoulder goes back when I move my left shoulder forward.  That’s really funny that she would say it that way just to be different.    She would also say  “Remember…Tits and Tiara” which is easy to do, you feel pretty great when you’re on a horse sideways. Stick your chest out, lift your chin up high and smile!  One more bit of advice from Jinks is” If someone comes up to you out hunting and tries to talk to you on the near side, don’t talk to them because they are obviously very ignorant!”  Well, I don’t know about not talking to someone because they come up on your near side, but it is more comfortable to look to the right than to the left.  So the next time you find yourself in the company of someone riding sidesaddle, try to approach from the off side.  Also, to all our Hunting Photographer friends.  Same rules apply, photograph from the off side, please.

I hope that explains a little bit about why you should approach a lady on the off side.  We won’t even get into the fact that there are some, though few, saddles that are backwards and have the horns on the off side…..but, that’s for another day.

Happy Hunting!