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Dorothea Graham Jensen
a book bubble about
A Buss from Lafayette
Teens
Author Insight
Aha! Laura Rode "Aside"!
I just finished reading PRAIRIE FIRES: THE AMERICAN DREAMS OF LAURA INGALLS WILDER, by Caroline Fraser. I have read several biographies of Wilder, and I think this is the best, most even-handed account of her life. But that is not what I am writing about here. It is simply where I learned that soon after their 1885 wedding, Almanzo bought a side-saddle for Laura and taught her how to ride on it. Here's what the book says: Always confident with horses, he told her, "Don’t let me hear any more about your father not letting you learn to ride".. . Almanzo showed her how to ride side-saddle, setting her to learn on plowed ground, a soft landing if she fell" -Fraser, Caroline. Prairie Fires What I find most interesting about this is that Almanzo thought Laura didn't know how to ride, but we know from Laura's books that she and her cousin Lena rode ponies (probably bareback) at a run across the prairie. The fact that she didn't tell Almanzo about this might just indicate that riding astride was still "improper" for girls sixty years after Clara was told this!
Book Excerpt
A Buss from Lafayette
“That’s another thing. Now that you are fourteen, you are too old to wear Joss’s clothes anymore,” she said.
“Not even to ride astride?”
“Especially not to ride astride. You are not to do so any more.”
“Wear the breeches or ride astride?”
“Both.”
“But . . .”
Father spoke up. “No ‘buts,’ my girl, you heard your mama. She knows how young ladies must behave. If she says you must ride sidesaddle from now on, that is what you must do.”
“Sidesaddle? But that is so silly!” I protested. “I cannot hold on properly with only one knee around the horse. It is like riding half a horse!”
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