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Blackadder vocabulary
4 horse related terms (carriages, anatomy, breeds, tack)
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side-saddle
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tags: [equestrian]
► definition
Definition:a form of equestrianism that uses a type of saddle which allows a rider (usually female) to sit aside rather than astride an equine. Sitting aside dates back to antiquity and developed in European countries in the Middle Ages as a way for women in skirts to ride a horse in a modest fashion while also wearing fine clothing. It has retained a specialty niche even in the modern world.[...]In Europe, the sidesaddle developed in part because of cultural norms which considered it unbecoming for a woman to straddle a horse while riding. Further, long skirts were the usual fashion and riding astride in such attire was often impractical, awkward, and could be viewed as immodest. However, women did ride horses and needed to be able to control their own horses, so there was a need for a saddle designed to allow control of the horse and modesty for the rider.text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike
image: by Gray Parker,CC0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Horsemanship_for_Women_111.pngphoto: by Sandpiper, CC0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ElizabethIItroopingcolour.jpg
► uses
Uses:
Darya Alexandrovna sent him a letter, asking him for a side-saddle for Kitty’s use. “I’m told you have a side-saddle,” she wrote to him; “I hope you will bring it over yourself.”
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She had no side-saddle, and it was very apparent that a firm seat upon the smooth leather beneath her was unattainable sideways. Springing to her accustomed perpendicular like a bowed sapling, and satisfying herself that nobody was in sight, she seated herself in the manner demanded by the saddle, though hardly expected of the woman, and trotted off in the direction of Tewnell Mill. Thomas Hardy. Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
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Baldrick: I mean just like the Earle of Doncaster.
Blackadder: That great radish? That steaming great left-footer? The Earl of Doncaster, Baldrick, has been riding side-saddle since he was seventeen.
BBC. Blackadder, season 1: The Queen of Spain's Beard
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