Sidesaddle: Not just for the ladies
By Trevor Baratko
Russell Shifflett and Andrew Camp’s love story is both New Age and a throwback — progressive with a nod to history.
At the Marshall farm where the two live and care for their horses, they revel in the quiet, rural life.
Except, despite the calm, country backdrop, their lives aren’t all that quiet. For most of the year, Shifflett is traveling across the country to horse shows to strike partnerships, meet clients and bolster Shifflett Sport Horse, the family business that brokers sport horse sales and offers an array of boarding and training options.
“We buy the horse, and we see this raw material. Once it’s here, the horse tells us what it wants to do,” Shifflett said. “Instead of us trying to make 150 horses into show hunters, you can tell, ‘Oh, he wants to be dressage.’ I don’t push a horse to do the job that I bought it for. I let the horse tell me.”
But there’s one element of the operation that’s expressly unique — both Camp and Shifflett are skilled in sidesaddle, a style typically tied to women riders.
“It really turned an eye when I put Andrew on sidesaddle. People at horse shows would see him. People would just stop at the ring and they would be like, ‘Is that a dude?’”
“To my knowledge, I’m the only guy — well, we’re the only two — really riding aside in the States,” said Camp, who plans to compete in an upcoming sidesaddle race. “There’s a pair of brothers that are doing it in Spain, and there’s a gentleman we know doing it in Ireland.”
The notion that sidesaddle is exclusively for women is off-base, the couple explains. Men have always been involved in sidesaddle, but it was quite literally behind closed doors.
“Growing up, in our barn, the men always got the sidesaddle horses ready and quiet for my mother and grandmother,” Shifflett, 32, said. “For many years, the doors were closed for men in sidesaddle.”
“It’s the untold story,” Camp chimed in. “Men have always been riding aside. I’m really interested in the historical aspect, that whole secretive thing of: Men have always been doing this, but no one kind of knew about it.”
Shifflett and Camp are unabashedly working to shift the gender-specific mindset associated with sidesaddle. They host a clinic in the spring and are quick to educate men and women alike on the style’s appeal.
The 29-year-old Camp explained that men can actually be judged stricter in sidesaddle because they aren’t wearing the aprons required of female riders. Without an apron, observers can see the inner-workings of sidesaddle pose and posture. An apron can cover up flaws.
“People are much more critical because they can see every bit of what I’m doing,” he said. “It all makes me a better rider. It’s very nuanced.”
The form has seen resurgence in recent years, thanks in no small part to “Downton Abbey,” the popular PBS series that regularly features the discipline.
“The best thing for sidesaddle was really ‘Downton Abbey,’” said Shifflett, a Middleburg-area native.
Camp, a Georgia transplant, said he’s always been intrigued by equine culture, but he never had the access or opportunity to ride growing up. Through Shifflett, he got that chance.
The two met in 2013 after Camp moved to the region to work at RdV Vineyards in Delaplane.
“I had an assistant from Georgia that Andrew was talking to,” Shifflett recalled. “She brought him to the barn, and we just hit it off.”
As the relationship evolved and Camp learned more about the horse scene, he expressed an interest in sidesaddle. Shifflett urged him to give it a go.
“It really turned an eye when I put Andrew on sidesaddle,” said Shifflett. “People at horse shows would see him. People would just stop at the ring and they would be like, ‘Is that a dude?’” ML
Shifflett Sport Horse: 540-550-5673 or 703-896-0108.