This was a pretty easy prompt for Sepia Saturday this week! It took a few seconds of thinking to remember this photo, another from the collection of my husband’s Dutch family. In the photo are Hilje “Hilda” Dijkema (1914-1997) and her sister, Ellechien Dijkema (1912-1974) on the horse. The back of the photo is labelled, “Ellie en Hillie,” but has no date. The majority of the photos in this album are from the mid to late 1930s, so I’d estimate the date around 1930 or even a hair earlier, maybe even taken around the same time as a photo from another Sepia Saturday post. The girls look to be in their late teens and the photo was most likely taken in northern Holland around Groningen. The girls are riding with no saddles, stirrups or anything, and in heels! As usual, I’m curious as to who took the photo – another sister perhaps? There are only two horses though, so maybe it was taken as they were returning home from a ride. As far as I know the family didn’t own a farm or horses, so they were likely visiting family or friends at the time. Whatever the circumstances, it’s a really lovely photo showing the closeness between these two sisters. They show up in a bunch of photos toether, likely since they were only two years apart in age. And now I’ll let this Sepia Saturday ride off into the sunset, until next week!
The girls must have been pretty good riders to go without saddles or stirrups – especially in heels?!! The name Groningen caught my eye. We have relative/friends living in Groningen.
Great to see horses in a natural environment like this with their bareback riders.
Those two girls were doing well if they weren’t brought up to ride! Good photo for this week’s prompt.
I for one thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Like you, whenever I see an old photograph i can’t help trying to work out the when, the where and the who questions.
I agree — a lovely photo. It is interesting what clues you used to try to learn the when and where of the story.