DefinitelyDressage.com

I was listening to "the horse first" podcast. I haven't gotten very far but like it so far. There was one thing she says though that I would like to discuss. She says a horse should not feel sided. They do not have a dominant side because they are quadrupeds and should be symmetrical. This implies that if you feel sidedness in your horse there is an underlying soundness issue at work.

So do you agree? Do you think horses have a dominant
side that you might appreciate under saddle? Or is what we feel a physical issue of some kind? I mean appreciate like you can feel it not like you're thankful for it lol.

I have a horse with a very strong sidedness (more than normal) that has been decreasing with training. I've had him for 16 years. I think it's pretty clear with him where it originates. But first I'll describe the presentation of it. When he was young it was bad enough that he was very uneven in the contact. That was fixed with training but then his right lead canter was always more difficult up until really a year ago when I figured out how to ride it and worked on strengthening it. His left to right flying change has been an issue and although it's much better we're still working on straightness more on that change.

He has been seen by very good lameness vets over the years. He's a very hardy little horse and just got his first hock injections last year at the end of his 19th year. I think that's pretty good for a horse working full time in upper levels. I am pretty sure his sidedness originates from a confirmation defect. It's really subtle but his left front pastern meets the top of his hoof just a bit to the inside. I think that slight asymmetry causes his back musculature to be asymmetrical and gives him a weaker right hind leg. If I had picked up on it when he was young I think the farrier might have been able to correct it. Now I don't want to mess with it that much since he's not lame and is 20 years old.

But I don't know, am I the only one with a horse who has less than perfect symmetry? The podcast seems to state that horses are symmetrical and should not feel sided. My horse is probably a bit of an extreme case but I find it hard to believe that other horses are popped out with perfect symmetry. Should we be calling the vet every time we get on a horse and feel it has a stiffer side? Or did I miss the point in the podcast?

I think that is a nonsense statement. What is the reasoning for thinking that quadrupeds will not have a dominant side? Dogs have 4 legs, and often have a haunch they prefer to sit on, which can lead to asymmetry. Even parrots have a preferred foot to sleep on or handle food/toys with.

I agree it's silly to think a horse won't have sidedness--every horse I've known has a stronger side.

I think with good training/riding that will dimmenish, but that's because we are working to make the weak side stronger, the stiff side more limber.

MM naturally is stiff left/hollow right with a weaker right hind. These days, I barely feel the difference between her two sides, but we worked hard to get here.

What malarkey. Why? Because of the horse’s conformation leads to sidedness. They are narrower in the shoulders than hips and only through proper training with lateral work to make them straighter will they become less likely to be crooked.

I agree that it's BS. If you watch foals closely you can often determine their dominant side prior to any real handling having been done. Now having said that I do think that it (one sidedness) can develop from or into a soundness issue depending on how far it's allowed to go and/or the injury that occurred. That doesn't negate that from birth horses have a preferred/dominant side. It's true for other quadruped species as well.

I think horses, like humans, have dominant sides. Some are more pronounced than others.

When we got him as an un-started 2-year-old, mom's Appy was very one sided. He never cantered on the left lead in the pasture. Even on the lunge or in a round pen we couldn't get him to pick up the left lead. It took me 3 months of regular work to get him picking up the left lead immediately when asked.

Every horse favors a side. I don't get this logic of the presenter. Every single horse I have ridden has a better and not better side. Yeah, I am sure the riders bring things to the table but even green horses never ridden have a favorite canter lead or prefer a certain bend.

There is a reason true straightness doesn't show up till third level/collection.

If 99% of my work is to fix this "sideness" in me and the horse, I guess if this isn't true and horses are 100% symmetrical..... I'm doing something wrong

You'd have to have a pretty wide definition of "unsound" to capture all the reasons why horses prefer one side to another, including things like strength and pasture/grazing habits. And at that point, your definition of "unsound" would be so wide as to be not helpful. I'd like to see the green horses that would pass that level of scrutiny, but I wouldn't want to have to pay for them. That's a rare beast indeed.