Alice M. Hayes

Born in the early 1860s and active in the late Victorian and Edwardian period, Alice M. Hayes was a British horse trainer and writer with a strong reputation for skillful riding and handling difficult horses. She became especially known for The Horsewoman, a practical guide to side-saddle riding that grew out of real experience rather than theory.

Hayes also wrote My Leper Friends, drawn from personal work among people with leprosy in India, showing a very different side of her life and interests. Together, her books suggest an author who was both technically knowledgeable and closely engaged with the people and places she encountered.

She died in 1913, but her writing has remained in circulation through public-domain editions and digital libraries. Today she is remembered for combining clear instruction, unusual firsthand experience, and a voice that still feels direct and useful.