One-hundred and fourteen years ago

[figbat]

Question for horse experts like @KnittyNorah

Is horse riding equipment "handed"? For example are saddles specially shaped so it's easier to get on them from the left? That sort of thing. Do left-handers grumble when introduced to horse riding that it's the wrong way round? And would a horse be a bit disgruntled if you decided to mount from the "other" side, the one that it's not used to?

For general purpose tack no, it’s ambidextrous. Side saddle has been mentioned but this is not very common. Horses can have a sided preference though and will often perform better when going one way around an arena than the other, although some of this can also be attributed to the rider (often unconsciously) and perhaps even to whomever first trained the horse when it was first ridden.

Polo is right-hand only though - you are not allowed to hold the mallet in the left hand.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Some day I'm going to build a bike with the drive train on the left, just to see if anyone notices. Will have to be fixed wheel. The pedals will potentially unscrew as the cranks will need to be used on the wrong sides.

I've seen one in the wild…

 

[classic33]

I've seen one in the wild…

The last of its kind, or a chance sighting.

 

[Profpointy]

Happy to. When I get round to it ...

Very good !

 

[Sharky]

Will have to be fixed wheel. The pedals will potentially unscrew as the cranks will need to be used on the wrong sides.

Will still have a problem with fixed wheel, as pedal rotation will try and unscrew it and it will just hit against the lock ring. So it depends if the lock ring thread is stronger than the sprocket thread.

You can get LH crank spiders (with chain rings) for tandems, but not sure what would happen if you tried using a LH crank on the RH.

 

[tyred]

Will still have a problem with fixed wheel, as pedal rotation will try and unscrew it and it will just hit against the lock ring. So it depends if the lock ring thread is stronger than the sprocket thread.

You can get LH crank spiders (with chain rings) for tandems, but not sure what would happen if you tried using a LH crank on the RH.

I think the really strong thread would probably do it. Or a an old steel hub with a spot of weld or braze on it to keep it in place. I wouldn't be spending money on new parts to do these things, just whatever I find lying around.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Question for horse experts like @KnittyNorah

Is horse riding equipment "handed"? For example are saddles specially shaped so it's easier to get on them from the left? That sort of thing. Do left-handers grumble when introduced to horse riding that it's the wrong way round? And would a horse be a bit disgruntled if you decided to mount from the "other" side, the one that it's not used to?

Generally what @figbat said already. Saddles - other than sidesaddles - aren't 'handed' (with an exception as mentoned below) and sidesaddles can be/were made for the 'other' side too so that people (ladies or others with lower limb/hip issues) could ride on the 'other' side if necessary.
A horse trained for 'normal' sidesaddle would then need some degree of training/accustomisation for the 'other' side.
Horses are as 'handed' as any other animal, including ourselves, and of course strongly influenced by the handedness of their early (and continuing) trainers and handlers.
A horse might be a bit puzzled or upset - depending on its general level of 'quietness', trust, desensitisation or whatever you want to think of it as - by being handled, saddled, mounted etc from what is often thought of as the 'wrong' side. I've always trained my horses to accept stuff - at least occasionally - from both sides although it can be really really difficult for the human to do some things from the 'wrong' side! I'm fairly ambidextrous so things aren't as difficult for me as they would be for many people, even so, having learnt to mount from the left hand side of the horse since I was about two years old, I never did master conventional mounting (foot in stirrup etc) from the right hand side, although vaulting on in my gymkhana days, and in my more mature years climbing a gate, a wall or a mounting block, to get on from whichever side was most convenient, was a doddle.
A really cheap 'felt saddle' such as might be used on a donkey or a quiet pony would often have the adjustable girth buckle only on the left-hand side; the other side would be sewn on.

A conventional bridle will usually have adjustment buckles on both sides for the cheek pieces, but the throatlatch will have only one buckle - on the left hand side - and most nosebands will also have their buckles only on the left hand side - one for adjusting the length/height of the noseband and one for adjusting its tightness round the horse's 'face'. HOWEVER the fastenings on a harness horse's bridle are different to those on a riding horse' bridle and there are more points of adjustment, usually all pieces are adjustable on both sides.

There are many more styles than the 'conventional' nowadays, though, and Western-style bridles are very different, sometimes with an earpiece serving to replace both throatlatch and browband, and adjustments of different types used, and both riding tack and driving harness made of many of the synthetic materials now available is sometimes different in style and fitting details.

 

[figbat]

Legend has it that Native Americans trained their horses to be mounted from the right (and to react negatively to being mounted ‘conventionally’), as a way of helping prevent their theft.

 

[CharleyFarley]

This may have come up in the past, but why is the drive train of all bikes on the right - ?
Is there a techno reason for it, or is it simply someone's early idea that no-one ever questioned - ?

One reason I remember for having it on the right side is that the freewheel has a right hand thread and will tighten as the bike is pedaled. On the left it would loosen so it would have be a left hand thread. I don't know if cutting left hand threads was any more difficult than cutting right hand threads.

 

[figbat]

Generally what @figbat said already. Saddles - other than sidesaddles - aren't 'handed' (with an exception as mentoned below) and sidesaddles can be/were made for the 'other' side too so that people (ladies or others with lower limb/hip issues) could ride on the 'other' side if necessary.
A horse trained for 'normal' sidesaddle would then need some degree of training/accustomisation for the 'other' side.
Horses are as 'handed' as any other animal, including ourselves, and of course strongly influenced by the handedness of their early (and continuing) trainers and handlers.
A horse might be a bit puzzled or upset - depending on its general level of 'quietness', trust, desensitisation or whatever you want to think of it as - by being handled, saddled, mounted etc from what is often thought of as the 'wrong' side. I've always trained my horses to accept stuff - at least occasionally - from both sides although it can be really really difficult for the human to do some things from the 'wrong' side! I'm fairly ambidextrous so things aren't as difficult for me as they would be for many people, even so, having learnt to mount from the left hand side of the horse since I was about two years old, I never did master conventional mounting (foot in stirrup etc) from the right hand side, although vaulting on in my gymkhana days, and in my more mature years climbing a gate, a wall or a mounting block, to get on from whichever side was most convenient, was a doddle.
A really cheap 'felt saddle' such as might be used on a donkey or a quiet pony would often have the adjustable girth buckle only on the left-hand side; the other side would be sewn on.

A conventional bridle will usually have adjustment buckles on both sides for the cheek pieces, but the throatlatch will have only one buckle - on the left hand side - and most nosebands will also have their buckles only on the left hand side - one for adjusting the length/height of the noseband and one for adjusting its tightness round the horse's 'face'. HOWEVER the fastenings on a harness horse's bridle are different to those on a riding horse' bridle and there are more points of adjustment, usually all pieces are adjustable on both sides.

There are many more styles than the 'conventional' nowadays, though, and Western-style bridles are very different, sometimes with an earpiece serving to replace both throatlatch and browband, and adjustments of different types used, and both riding tack and driving harness made of many of the synthetic materials now available is sometimes different in style and fitting details.

Ooh, good point on the bridle fastenings. Some girths are asymmetric too, with one end elasticated and intended to be on the left side. You might also argue that their manes are sided too!

 

[KnittyNorah]

Ooh, good point on the bridle fastenings. Some girths are asymmetric too, with one end elasticated and intended to be on the left side. You might also argue that their manes are sided too!

I always think of their manes as like 'natural' partings in human hair ... can be 'styled' with lots of 'product'. But I've always had either Arabs, natives or mules, so the conventional 'rules' about manes and their correct styling have always been so much nonsense to me.

The elasticated girths can be used 'the wrong way round' (although is best and easiest to fasten the way it was designed) - but a folded leather one can't, or at least it can but then the fold will catch up loads of mud and muck. Do they even make folded leather girths anymore?
Some (most?) cruppers for riding horse use have a buckle fastening on one side only, although ones that are part of driving harness have them on both sides.
I always assume the fastenings and adjustments on both sides for harness horses is largely because if a horse is in pair harness, you can only safely do adjustments on the off-side horse's harness from its off-side unless you want to be crushed against the pole or swingletree or squashed and dragged under the carriage while tangled up in traces and chains ...