*A word of explanation: I was recently asked to write an article about riding safely in skirts. This is the result. I hope it is encouraging!
We girls were out with Daddy for our annual Christmas shopping trip - which is really just a nice opportunity to go out for the day with him since we don't usually buy much. We headed into Barnes & Noble to get some coffee and stood near the front door, enjoying our special treat, when an older, sloppily-dressed lady came up to us. "I just wanted to say that I like the way your girls dress," she began in a forceful tone. She looked from Daddy to each of us.
"Well, thank you," Daddy said.
"I don't dress that way because I ride horses and it just ain't safe to ride in a skirt, but I like the way you dress."
All my sisters - except Anna Frances, who was distracted - looked at me. I smiled and said, "Actually, I have horses too and ride in a skirt all the time."
"Well, you can do that, but I ain't gonna be caught dead in a skirt! It ain't safe!" she said.
This lady held to a common misconception. All of us who wear skirts have probably heard it at some point or other and many ladies who prefer to dress modestly feel that wearing skirts or dresses would restrict them from riding. This simply is not true, though. Riding in a skirt can be done safely - but it does take a certain amount of thought and preparation. For the purpose of this article, explaining how to ride safely in a skirt, I'm going to skip all the wonderful reasons to wear skirts. Those of you who are reading this are probably already familiar with these reasons and the Biblical basis for them.
I have been riding in skirts for eight years or so and have never had a skirt-related accident yet. Not to say I never will have one, but I haven't to date. I have also done a lot of other things in skirts, including climbing trees (a lot), swimming, hiking, bicycle riding, climbing rocks, canoeing, dog training, and working around the house and farm.
This is what many people think of when they hear of riding horses in skirts.
But this is what it often looks like for me. That's right: farmgirl classic - barefoot, bareback, fast ride.
When I ride my horses, I don't like to take a peaceful little walk or jog. Nothing against walking or trotting, but that's just not my style. My preferred gait is a full-blown gallop. I hope to learn to jump, barrel race, pole bend, cut cattle, etc, though at this point I don't really have time for all that. I ride Western or bareback - not English or sidesaddle, though I have occasionally ridden in an English saddle. You do not have to ride sidesaddle to ride in a skirt. I would love to own and use a sidesaddle, but I can think of a lot more important things to spend money on than a single-purpose saddle, so that hasn't happened yet.
The type of skirt has a lot to do with whether it is safe to ride in or not. An extremely wide, long, bulky skirt is obviously not as safe or comfortable to ride in, but a too-narrow skirt is just as bad. In my experience there are three types of skirts which are excellent for riding. The common argument put forth against riding in skirts, especially in a Western saddle, which has a horn on the pommel, is that the extra bulk of the skirt can get hung up if the rider falls off, leading to a potential for very serious injury. It is true that there is more possibility of this when riding in a skirt vs. riding in pants, but that possibility is pretty slender if you choose the right skirt.
Narrow or wide?
Skirts that work well for riding need to be wide, especially at the bottom. Lots of bulk at the top is uncomfortable for the rider and is more likely to get hung on a saddle horn. By wide, I mean 180" around or more. One of my favorite riding skirts (#3) is approximately 216" around - about 18'. It's actually not nearly as heavy as it sounds, though, because it tapers to my exact waist measurement at the top, reducing bulk.
I hate riding in a skirt that is too narrow and in my opinion, this is much less safe. Narrowish skirts, which for my size would be anything 96" or less, restrict movement of the legs when on horseback, if mounted astride. This forces me to grip the horse unnaturally, if I don't want my skirt to hike up, and leads to confusing leg cues to the horse. In turn, these confusing cues can irritate the horse (especially a spirited one like mine) and lead to problems while riding, such as getting bucked off, for instance.
A narrow skirt also hugs the legs tightly (if you can keep it from hiking up) and this pretty much defeats the purpose of wearing a skirt at all.
In the event of a fall, a reasonably wide skirt will be looser and more likely to simply slide over the saddle horn without getting caught, but a skirt that is barely wide enough will possibly catch and tighten before it has an opportunity to slip off. But a hugely wide skirt - a ball gown, for instance - will have enough bulk to wrap around the horn multiple times before it can slide off, thus leading to a greater likelihood of serious accidents.
What skirts work well for riding? Here are my three favorites.
#1: Circle skirt
My top pick is a circle skirt, which is simply a circle of fabric with a waist opening in the center. When worn, the edges of the circle hang down, toward the floor. When spread out flat, it forms a full circle with the waist in the center. This type of skirt is not too bulky at the waist or on the legs, but it opens wide enough to easily accommodate the horse and saddle.
#2: Tiered Skirt
The tiered skirt ranks almost exactly on the same level with the circle skirt. It is made of progressively wider tiers so that it tapers from fitted waist to extremely wide lower layer. The tiered skirt I sell, which I have designed specifically for riding, almost doubles in width with every tier so that it is both loose and fitted. In addition, I think it looks really nice. :)
#3: Paneled Skirt
The paneled skirt is most tailored to the rider's size. The original pattern has 16 panels, but I prefer my own version, with 18, since I like to spread my skirt over the horse's rump.
If you just can't bring yourself to wear a regular skirt when riding, but desperately want to ride modestly (in this sense, not in pants) consider a split skirt.
Not the greatest picture and this split skirt is *ahem* almost too small - but it is a very safe, super comfortable option for those who want to ride modestly but are uncomfortable in traditional skirts. Having a saddle helps too.
Riding in a skirt can be both safe and fun. It's also much more visually appealing, at least, in my opinion. The same basic principles for riding safely apply and will help keep you safe in a skirt, just as in pants.
By the way, for those of you who are interested, here is a video of me working my dogs from horseback - in a skirt. I made this for my dog website, so the focus is not on the skirt; it's on the dogs, but it may give an idea of what everyday riding looks like in a skirt.
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