Pau Riders, Traditions, Places to See

In 1875, vibrant writer Isabella Bird, wrote with awe about her arrival to the “Sandwich Islands.” She was curiously impressed with the Hawaiians’ love of horses, particularly the women.

“Every now and then a flower-wreathed Hawaiian woman, in her full radiant garment, sprang on one of these animals astride, and dashed along the road at full gallop, sitting on her horse as square and easy as a hussar…The women seemed perfectly at home in their gay, brass-bossed, high peaked saddles, flying along astride, barefooted, with their orange and scarlet riding dresses streaming on each side beyond their horses’ tails, a bright kaleidoscopic flash of bright eyes, white teeth, shining hair, garlands of flowers and many-coloured dresses…Sometimes a troop of twenty of these free-and-easy female riders went by at a time, a graceful and exciting spectacle, with a running accompaniment of vociferation and laughter…Many of the women were in flowing riding-dresses of pure white, over which their unbound hair, and wreaths of carmine-tinted flowers fell most picturesquely.”

This is one of the best early descriptions of the beautiful tradition of pau riding, carried on today in pageants and parades throughout the state. Yards and yards of brilliant fabric, usually of an island’s particular color, go into long skirts and saddle decorations. And, thousands of flower blossoms are strung and woven into lei for horses as well as riders.

But how did such an elaborate custom begin?

From the beginning, Hawaiian people loved horses, and the women had no interest in riding side-saddle, in spite of the missionaries’ disapproval. The wahine hitched up their long dresses from the back, tucked them in around their legs and rode “astride,” letting their skirts pau flag out behind as they paraded through town in their finery. If they had to travel any distance, they might wrap a long sheet of muslin around themselves to keep dust and mud off their good clothes. Special occasions of course demanded special costumes and lei, for horse as well as rider.

Like a kind of “hula on horseback” the pau riding unit grew into an essential element of parades and other festive gatherings. From 1965-1983, “Auntie Anna” Lindsey Perry-Fiske hosted fully scripted and choreographed Hawaiian history pageants in her Waimea front yard. The “Old Hawaii on Horseback” celebration was one of the social events of the season, always led by Anna herself as queen for the day, draped in the finest pau fabrics and lei. Her notorious skill and style as a pau rider took her all the way to the Calgary Stampede and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.

Today you’ll see pau riders during Aloha Festivals and other island parades, with beautiful women wrapped in a rainbow of satiny yardage, draped with fabulous lei on their shoulders and hats, and on their horses’ necks and hooves. Usually a pau queen leads the procession, dressed in red, followed the islands’ princesses, ladies in waiting and paniolo “outrider” adorned in the colors and flowers particular to each island, eight in all. Red with ohia lehua represents the island of Hawaii; pink with lokelani for Maui, gray or blue with hina hina for Kahoolawe; orange with kaunaoa for Lanai green with kukui for Molokai, yellow with ilima for Oahu, , purple with mokihana for Kauai and white or brown with pupu o Niihau for the tiny Island of Niihau.