> From which side of a bicycle do you get on?
> a. left
> b. right
> c. either one

This made me think about all sorts of things.

I get on a bicycle from the left side (ie, putting my right leg over the bicyle). I think I would instinctively do this for any other similar thing, too -- motorbike, horse, jetski, whatever.

This led me to consider how horses are always mounted from their left side. I understand this was because most people are right-handed, and therefore would wear a sword on the left side of their waist. When mounting a horse, in the days when horse-riding and sword-wearing went together, you would therefore mount with your left foot in the stirrup and putting your right leg across, otherwise you get tangled up in your sword.

So I have a question for Leen (or anybody else who knows about horses). Since sword use isn't the reason anymore, why does everybody still do it that way -- just because it's a holdover standard practice? Are horses *trained* to be mounted from the left? Or don't you have to train horses for that, and people just mount from the left because that's the side most people prefer anyway? If somebody preferred mounting from the right, would it freak out the horse, or wouldn't it care?

Brunnen-"since I've ridden horses who freaked out at seeing a brick lying beside the road which hadn't been there the previous day, I can guess the answer"G