Good morning, Nancy! Good for you getting all that garden work done! I planted the remaining potted shrubs on Tuesday after school. We had a couple really marvelous warm days, so it was a perfect time to get out there! No bulbs this year, though. Maybe next fall. Today is cold, but sunny. I will be running errands and cleaning. Have dear friends coming for brunch tomorrow-she is scheduled for breast cancer surgery on Tuesday morning. Apparently not as simple as they first suspected, so we will just have a relaxing (I hope) and fun time being together. We always have lots of laughs, so will be hoping to take her mind off the situation a little...or let her talk..whatever she wants.

I think I know this one.

Cynthia

Good morning to you, Nancy. I wish it was sunny and dry here rather than cloudy and snowy. Luckily, I have only one garden chore left -- putting wire screen around our one grape vine to protect it from the rabbits. I have put off getting the snow shovels out, but dang it, I think I will need to actually shovel the front porch and back deck. Can't quite believe it.

So ... mounting horses from the left. I've done it, but I don't really know why. Did it start back in days of yore?

TM

Ah, in days of yore, for a very good reason, but the reason no longer remains. Hmmmm......

Nancy.

Ahhhh, discrimination, discrimination, discrimination is raising it's ugly head again LOL.

Annette

Hey Annette - discrimination? Hmmm....I'll have to figure out where that fits in.....lol.
Oh, it's going to be a long winter. Apparently Pita was up to her old tricks yesterday while I was out, preying on poor Lily, picking on her. You could say it's because she is twice Lily size, but she's done this since she was a wee kitten. Very aggressive.

Nancy.

Would Sir Lancelot have needed to mount from the left?

TM

Nancy, discrimination yes, I'm left handed LOL.

Annette

Maybe not so much here, but if you are a member of the Queen's horse guard, could still be important! :)

Cynthia, who doesn't feel like cleaning, but needs to get something done-ugh

It's ruddy freezing outside, kind of put the kibosh on fall cleanup for awhile :(. Cyn, important yes, there could be serious damage done to both man and beast.

Annette

Think I also know this one if being a warrior had anything to do with it.

Here is what my garden looks like today and snow is falling. Outdoor gardening is done until spring. Time for a good cleaning and organizing inside.

I kinda feel like your garden, Bobbie!! lol. I'm just in to warm up - wowser, I forgot how cold 1C is, and the sun went away. Well, the front garden is put to bed, got everything cut down/back, dug the dahlias there - now to tackle the back. It will be less work, but my energy is waning. I also forgot I don't have the stamina I used too.
Annette, I suffer the same prejudice - the world was not made for us, sadly.

I think most have kenned the reason why, originally. Yes, TM, Sir Lancelot would have mounted from the left. Interestingly, the ancient Greek general Xenophon (c.430-c.355 B.C.), in his treatise The Art of Horsemanship, gives a step-by-step description--literally--of mounting a horse. Odd that the practice continues, or perhaps not. The world was not made for horses either.....

Nancy.

I'm picturing a right-handed knight with a sword hanging on his left side trying to swing his leg over a horse. Swinging his right leg, unencumbered by the sword, would be a lot easier than trying to get the left leg with the sword across Dobbin's back.

I hope I'm on the right track here.

TM

PS - Bobbie, your garden looks a lot like mine right now.

This post was edited by thinman on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 18:30

I agree with TM's answer.

This is the only grass that I left for fall/winter interest as it is thicker and stands up in the snow better than the others. Another 2 inches of snow today.

Edited to add: The tracks in the snow are from rabbits and squirrels of which we have plenty. An albino squirrel has shown up a few times (easier to see before the snow. ;-) It has a very bushy tail.

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 22:57

Well, I believe you have all figured it out - it was to allow the knight/warrior to easily mount his steed. I got the info from a web site called The Straight Dope, which is very cleverly written. I will copy right from them, as I like the way it is written.

The fact is that most people don't mount a horse from the left side. Most people call a cab. Those having some acquaintance with horsemanship, however, know that the left side is the horse's "near" side while the right side is the "off" side. This is often explained in terms of swords, but we're then obliged to acknowledge obvious fact #2: While a fair number of people still ride horses, you're living in one tough neighborhood if you need to do so while wearing a sword.

About those swords. I'm afraid you've gotten the explanation a little scrambled. As you've observed, swords are traditionally worn on the left, since that makes it easier for a right-handed swordsman to pull the sword from its scabbard. If you're wearing a sword on the left, you'll want to mount your horse on its left, since otherwise the sword will get in the way. The practice goes way back before the medieval heyday of knights. In fact, it most likely originated when sword-toting warriors first began riding horses into battle.
Let's start with a fundamental fact, essential to understanding equines: The horse isn't a predator--it's prey. Even after millennia of domestication, the horse is physically and mentally hardwired to detect and elude attackers. Its eyes are set on the sides of its head, giving it almost 360 degrees of vision. It sees two monocular fields at once, one through each eye. The binocular vision we human predators take for granted, the horse has in only a small area directly ahead of it. So what it "knows" on one side, it doesn't "know" on the other, until it's been shown. The horse's instincts dispose it to be suspicious of anything new in its environment. The thing behind that rock that wasn't there yesterday could be a lion!

What does this have to do with mounting from the left? It means that a horse who's been taught to accept being mounted only from one side may be perfectly docile when the rider clambers aboard on that side, yet spook and refuse to stand still if approached from the unfamiliar direction. That's why authorities on horse training (including our old friend Xenophon) recommend teaching horses to be mounted from the off side, so that they'll stand still for it if circumstances demand that the rider get on from that side

But why prefer the left side when swords are no longer a problem? Partly it's the inertia of tradition--horses and humans are both creatures of habit. But it's also common sense to have a standard approach. If you didn't know which side a particular horse had learned to be mounted from, you could get a nasty surprise if you tried to get on from the "wrong" side.

There you have it - tradition again, with a little common sense thrown in. I believe everyone got, though perhaps not the monocular bit - lol, I'll let that pass!!

So, for everyone:

Thanks for playing, and see you all next week!

Nancy.

Very interesting, especially the monocular bit. Not having any formal horse riding training I grew up mounting horses from the right side. We would put a bale twine around my friend's horse's neck out in the pasture and hop on, ride to the barn and replace the twine with a bridle. Can't remember if we added a saddle. Then we would chase down the second horse which wasn't so obliging.

My new sister-in-law has raised and shown horses. She has invited me to ride next time I am in the area. Hope I remember about mounting on the left.

Thanks for the stars and info, Nancy. Makes sense to have a standard practice.

Thanks for the fun and stars, Nancy. Lots of great extra info too!

As kids my brother and I had a horse, which, happily for all, survived being owned by a couple of ignoramuses. One of my fond memories of Amigo was when he would be extra frisky and jump and buck around all by himself, releasing huge farts that reduced my brother and I to helpless tears of laughter.

Ahh, good times.

TM