In Western life you are on and off your horse at the change of a thought.
Your horse is not an animate exercise-maker that John brings around for a
couple of hours each morning; he is your companion, and shares the
vicissitudes of your life. You even consult him on occasion, especially
on matters relating to the road. Therefore your costume must look equally
well on and off the horse. In meeting this requirement, my woes were
many. I struggled valiantly with everything in the market, and finally,
from five varieties of divided skirts and bloomers, the following
practical and becoming habit was evolved.

I speak thus modestly, as there is now a trail of patterns of this habit
from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Wherever it goes, it makes
converts, especially among the wives of army officers at the various
Western posts where we have been--for the majority of women in the West,
and I nearly said all the sensible ones, now ride astride.

When off the horse, there is nothing about this habit to distinguish it
from any trim golf suit, with the stitching up the left front which is
now so popular. When on the horse, it looks, as some one phrased it, as
though one were riding side saddle on both sides. This is accomplished by
having the fronts of the skirt double, free nearly to the waist, and,
when off the horse, fastened by patent hooks. The back seam is also open,
faced for several inches, stitched and closed by patent fasteners. Snug
bloomers of the same material are worn underneath. The simplicity of
this habit is its chief charm; there is no superfluous material to sit
upon--oh, the torture of wrinkled cloth in the divided skirt!--and it
does not fly up even in a strong wind, if one knows how to ride. The
skirt is four inches from the ground--it should not bell much on the
sides--and about three and a half yards at the bottom, which is finished
with a five-inch stitched hem.