Are you left/right handed and what is your horse?

Which is your dominant hand and your horse's rein?

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Jackson

Jackson

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That probably should be what 'rein' is your horse/which way can it bend easier, but you get the idea I was just wondering if people's prefered hand was reflected in their horses :)

I write with my left hand but can do so with either, if I'm painting or sculpting, I swap over however if drawing with pencil I don't have the control to do so... Jack goes best on the right rein but it does vary :o

:D
 
I'm right handed, but Meg bends and rounds down easier on left rein. Saying that she is more supple in terms of paces on right rein, she's much easier to canter and jump.
 
We just did a research assignment on this at uni where we measured horses stride lengths on left and right rein in canter and then noted which leg the horse first stepped forward with.
We found most horses prefered the right rein as their stride was shorter- more weight being carried on their leading leg so not in the air for as long. compared to on the left rein their stride was longer as they could carry their weight on their trailing leg giving their leading leg more freedom to reach forward.
We used 8 horses and 5 were significantly stronger on the right, 2 were ambedextrous and 1 was stronger on the left.

My 2 youngsters both prefer the right as they are straighter on this rein. Lola is really bum high so on the right rein she really struggles in the canter as all her weight is on her inside leading leg so ends up getting slower and slower as she digs a hole in front lol.
 
I am left handed, and so is my horse, the person who owned her before me, backed her and rode her till she was 8 is also left handed, we are the only people who have ridden her regularly so we have always wondered if we have made her that way, or if she is naturally like that, interesting to hear what others think
 
rowy said:
We just did a research assignment on this at uni where we measured horses stride lengths on left and right rein in canter and then noted which leg the horse first stepped forward with.
We found most horses prefered the right rein as their stride was shorter- more weight being carried on their leading leg so not in the air for as long. compared to on the left rein their stride was longer as they could carry their weight on their trailing leg giving their leading leg more freedom to reach forward.
We used 8 horses and 5 were significantly stronger on the right, 2 were ambedextrous and 1 was stronger on the left.

My 2 youngsters both prefer the right as they are straighter on this rein. Lola is really bum high so on the right rein she really struggles in the canter as all her weight is on her inside leading leg so ends up getting slower and slower as she digs a hole in front lol.
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Ooh, that's interesting. Do you think that that could have been caused by most people (and therefore riders) being right handed and passing it down to the horse? :D
 
Thats what we were thinking as we used older riding school horses.
Though we looked through some studies and found research in young horses and it showed that some horses are born one sided which gets worse as they age but some horses dont show any side preference.
 
rowy said:
Thats what we were thinking as we used older riding school horses.
Though we looked through some studies and found research in young horses and it showed that some horses are born one sided which gets worse as they age but some horses dont show any side preference.
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Thanks, you say about your youngsters.. are you right handed? It would be interesting to hear from people who are the sole riders of their horse/or have been for a long time.
And the ambidexterous folks need to speak up too!
 
The other thing to consider though, is that the outside rein is more influential most of the time, so a left handed rider would have a stronger influence riding on the right rein. (in theory anyway, hopefully it would be picked up on & corrected). Plus the fact not all right handed people favour their right leg, & same for left handed people. And that would mean (in theory) the horse is also influenced into a better side by which leg you favour. Plus the fact the horse can favour one side anyway.
For me, I'm almost ambidex
 
if you are right handed then you are more likely to be heavy handed on your left rein - ie more fixed as you don't have the precision with it to do the tiny feels. thus when on the left rein the left flexion would be more difficult as you can't do the refined "flex left" and i think you're more likely to be more forgiving with your right hand as it has greater feel so not as holding.
then you have to take the one sided (or not) legs into consideration as littlelegs said.
I was always of the belief that most horses preferred left rein (unless a physical issue causing other one-sidedness) as most people will lead youngsters with their right (strong/feeling) hand so will be walking on the horse's left. This means the horse is encouraged to flex slightly left when being lead. Maybe people are becoming more aware of this when it comes to youngsters looking at the poll results so far ??
 
Phone decided I was done! I'm almost ambidexterous. I write with my right hand as I was forced to at primary, previously used either, but can write with my left, just slower through lack of practice. Otherwise I use either, same with my legs. My 23yr old has mainly been ridden by me, & never schooled by anyone else. She used to favour the right rein when younger but evened up with a bit of work. I've ridden lots of others too, sometimes exclusively from backing, or ridden regularly over long periods & for me, I've found some naturally favour one side, the odd youngster doesn't have one, & some already schooled level like mine.
 
I am right handed but pony is better to left at the moment. I backed him 3yrs ago and am the only one to have ridden him. But I am not entirely straight through my body and take more weight in my right seatbone, making him fall in in the right rein. When I manage to even myself up and straighten out my shoulders he is just as good on both reins.
 
I'm right handed, although i use my left hand naturally for many tasks, and my boy is left reined without a doubt. I'm also right legged due to an injury that weakened my left.
 
I'm left handed and right better on the right rein as outside hand is the left on that rein
I have been thinking about the other rein when in riding it more and it's getting better!
I find right rein is much better especially in canter we get a nice collected canter whereas on the left it's much more difficult to control!
 
I am right handed but find it easier to ride on the left rein on all horses. But I always ensure I do equal amounts on each rein.
 
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