Sorry, I saw your post after I posted that.
I’m very much enjoying these challenges to my thesis, Dopers! And we may not be so far apart, if you look upon this idea of mounting from the left as a specific manifestation of the general dominance of righthandedness in homo sapiens. (By the bye, does anyone know if apes are generally right- or left-handed?) Thus, avoidance of sword-stabs would be synergistic with greater physical ease of mounting off the left foot. Of course, there’s no way to prove which influence – the specific or the general – is more likely correct as the origin of what is now a well-established custom.
I will throw in another argument fof the sword theory, one that I touched on briefly in my original article. That is that horses were initially domesticated primarily for use in war. In earliest times they were used to draw chariots; then (perhaps as they were bred larger than the original pony-sized equines) their use for cavalry – as chargers, carrying scouts, etc. – developed. Horses as general transportation would be a later development; their use in agriculture came later still, since oxen were more efficient at drawing plows and wagons until the horse collar was invented. I’m grossly simplifying here, but the general drift of this argument is that the initial use of the ridden horse for war by sword-wearing men would inevitably influence the choice of side on which to mount.
Speaking of whether apes are handed also reminds me to mention that horses show sidedness, both under saddle and while being worked on from the ground. Why this is so is unproven, although horsepeople love to argue diverse theories, ranging from position in the womb to various forms of human handling and use.
Let’s go back to the idea of “What side does it feel natural to get on a horse?” In surfing, riders usually place the left foot forward. Those odd few like myself who place the right foot forwards are called “goofy foot.” Though I am right handed and I kick with my right foot, I can only get on and off a bicycle from the right side. This makes it awkward for negotiating the kickstand on the left side, but the kickstand is placed on the left side of a bicycle for the convenience of most riders who naturally mount from the left. I suspect most riders have naturally mounted horses from the left, as well.
umm, EddyTeddyFreddy? as a horseperson, i think you’ve, emm…
<< wait for it >>
got the cart before the horse.
as it were.
large animal domestication is most likely to have started long before the concept of major organized warfare involving cavalry. keeping animals for food purposes (milk and meat) is likely to have begun sometime in the Neolithic period. as they became more docile with handling, the concept of this creature carrying burdens no doubt became an appealing notion, particularly when transporting large loads. horses probably weren’t the first domesticated herbivores, but they undisputedly WERE subject to hunting as food back in prehistoric times. sheep, goats and oxen were likely to have been more tractable and easier to handle (not to mention relatively slower and easier to catch and pen up). but once the concept caught on, any non-predatory four-legged creature probably became fair game for transport as well as larder purposes. witness the use of camels, reindeer, and even dogs as carrying or pulling animals, in addition to the (now) more-common cattle and horses.
while even goats have been trained to pull small carts for racing, the chariot, cart and wagon are likely to have come long after first depositing a bundle of goods, then later a human body, on the back of a quadruped.
i mean, really – which is the quickest to envision and implement: inventing the wheeled vehicle and necessary harness for attaching it to an animal, or placing yourself on the animal’s back? if dozens of youngsters and ponies are any indication, riding bareback came long before the actual invention or popular use of a saddle. in either event, the animal has to be trained to accept the notion of either having harness strapped to its body, or bearing weight on its back. (the bridle or some form of directing the head would be a given for either instance.) guess which one adventurous youth is likely to try first?
really, if you think about it logically: how would you know an animal like a horse can be used to pull a vehicle, unless you’ve previously determined that it can be induced to safely accept smaller burdens? and it’s not unknown for cattle (like oxen) to be ridden by their owners in other cultures, even if their major duties are served by pulling a cart or plow.
so i strongly dispute your notion that war chariots preceded any form of riding, whether in war or peace. while the animals themselves may have only been pony-sized, the people were on a shorter scale also. and if you think a large person would stop at the thought of riding a short-statured equine, you’ve obviously never seen a picture of native populations riding donkeys and asses.
errrr, end of hijack.
An extension of mounting your horse from the left hand side is that you would ride your horse along the left hand side of the road - you wouldn’t want to be standing in the middle of the street trying to swing your leg over your horse now, would you?
So, that’s why Brits ride on the left, and now drive on the left. I think the driving on the right malarky that you foreigners get up to had something to do with Napolean didn’t it?
lachesis, you’ve caught me out in an oversimplification. :o (I did say I was grossly simplifying.) I’ve found a good description of what is known and speculated about domestication of the horse here.
Apparently, my teachers and references in the history of riding predate the research noted in that article to this effect:
I hreby renounce my previous cart-before-horse belief, based on this updated information. 
That horses would be ridden before being harnessed – yes, I accept your correction on that point, in terms of herding, as the article points out. But I continue to believe that horses were first used in organized warfare for pulling chariots rather than as ridden cavalry. Consider this quote from that same source:
Can’t go further into your arguments right now as I’m at work. More later, I hope, tonight.
Certainly the cultural evidence is all in favor of the war chariot coming before cavalry. There are no cavalry in Homer, and I don’t recall any in Egyptian art. Even in later times, after new developments in tactics had rendered the war chariot obsolete, the Romans made little use of cavalry during the classical era, and employed foreign auxiliaries for what little cavalry they had. A few nations (notably the Parthians) who lived on broad plains developed effective mounted archers, but it was only with the late-classical invention of the stirrup and the introduction of heavy lancers that cavalry became an important part of most nations’ armies.
It’s a philosophical discussion, putting Descartes before Horace…
And I’m taking a firm position – can’t call me a Percheron the fence.
are audible groaning posts permitted?
:rolleyes:
Only from postilions on straight-shouldered nags. 
Hay, hay, now.
Aw, all these puns are getting kinda Hackneyed.
Most right handed folks who are not full of ‘puns’ use the right foot for control naturally.
Learning to water ski, most instinctively drop the right ski and place the right foot to the rear to control the ski. They afre taught to try lifting each skki and seeing which way they are more comfortable. Usuaslly the right side ski is droped.
Most ball room dancing has the leader, usually the male, start with the left foot first so the right can do the control thang.
While in England, I drove from the right, but the throttle pedal was still on the right. Hmmmm.
Horses can be trained either way or both as can people, but when you make them go in panic mode or without any training, it seems most right handed folks lead with the left foot and control with the right.
Of course, the exceptions are the rule or something like that… YMMV 