Like most people, I was always taught to mount my horse and lead my horse from the left. I don’t know about you, but when I started riding at 11 years old, I didn’t really think to ask why it was always the left. There were so many other horse related things that had to be done in such a specific way, so this one didn’t really stand out to me.
When I was a teenager I did a trail class at a 4-H show and one of the things that was required was to dismount and then to mount your horse from the right. Woah. Mind blown! I quickly realized that I was not an ambimounter. I felt like Derek Zoolander.
While I did manage to scramble up on my horse from the right, it felt so weird and my horse was so confused. I promptly put this in the back of my mind and filed it as one of those things that would never apply to “real” riding. I mean, you mount from the left, right?
Fast forward several years to when I started trail riding on a more regular basis. As most of you trail riders can attest to, sometimes you need to get off your horse for one reason or another. Sometimes the only way to get back on (especially if you have a tall horse!) is to use whatever rock or root or hill is available at the time and sometimes that requires you to mount from the right. I experienced that a lot with Prophet, my horse of 7 years who was a whopping 17 hands tall! He was always great about it, though it still felt wrong to mount from the right.
Likewise, sometimes when you have dismounted on the trail, you need to lead your horse. When riding in Alberta, Canada a couple of years ago, we rode on some trails that were so steep, we had to dismount and lead the horses down. Were we always able to lead from the left? Nope! In several instances that I recall, the way the land was sloped required you to lead from the right so that you wouldn’t be downslope from your horse. This also felt wrong to me. You lead from the left, after all!
After these experiences, I got to wondering about why everyone (at least everyone that I know!) leads and mounts from the left. It turns out that it goes back to when people used to wear swords on their left hip. Most people are right handed, so they reached across their body to draw their sword, held in their right hand when in use. In order to safely mount and lead without the sword getting in the way or poking your horse, you had to mount and lead from the left. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally ride with a sword.
Just a couple of days ago while out trail riding, one of my friends demonstrated this perfectly. Due to the trail we were on and the terrain, she had to mount her horse from the right while ponying her other horse from the right. As she is an ambimounter and ambileader, it worked out perfectly!
If you are like me and never thought about mounting and leading from the right, I would suggest giving it a try at home before you’re out trail riding and the need arises. That is, unless you are wearing your sword.
Happy trails!
Kerrie
That’s a great story. Love ya Jen!