When I was a kid (way too many years ago) learning about horses, I wanted to know all the correct terminology. I read and was probably told that the left side is “near” and the right side if “off” and real horse people always used those terms.
It just occurred to me that I probably hear right and left now at least as much as near and off. And I seem to be using left-right more as well. I was wondering if it is just my experience or have others noticed this too.
Ankles, feet, and I’m sure there’s others that aren’t the “correct” terminology that everyone I talk to uses on the regular. Probably would have mortified beginner junior me that wanted to do everything right.
I have a book published in 1640 that uses all the same terminology and naming of parts that I was first taught as a child - with the exception of “ham” rather than “hock”, and one can see where that comes from. Horsemanship has a long and valuable history of a precise technical language, a jargon, often passed down by word of mouth.
If someone refers to ‘ankles’ or ‘waist’ or ‘right-hand side’, I assume that horse knowledge is sparse, possibly even missing, in that person. I tend to listen to them with only half an ear unless I am certain that they really do know their onions.
I have a friend old enough for SSI who was mystified just last night when “off side” came up in conversation.
Which made me wonder about the braiding convention I was taught back in the 50s:
Even number for stallion or gelding.
Odd number for mares.
Even back then I was insulted females were considered “odd”.
And broke neck horses behind the vertical and behind the leg are “collected”. Who knew.
Ah hah, another cultural variation. In the UK we don’t have a set number of plaits/braid because it depends on conformation and length of neck but it is deemed “correct” to have an odd number, excluding the forelock.
Anything based in medical language including farrier talk influenced by rads, uses left and right. And the terms distal, medial, proximal, and lateral.
Actually I haven’t heard anyone say off and near ever, know it from books.
I also don’t think anyone ever used it for schooling in an arena. That’s always been right rein or left rein.
I wonder if off and near came out of driving in harness?
My mother still comments on this every time I braid. When you get past 50 braids in the neck no one is counting.
My farrier and I talk about “his back right ankle” and he’s one of the most educated horse people I know. I think the only time I’ve heard “near” and “off” in conversation was in a 4H conformation judging workshop. Just like in daily life, it helps to have a vocabulary that can adjust to any situation!
I use near and off between myself and others I will guess know it (ie PC background, hunter/jumper/eventer/dressage) and “his/her” right and left with others who might not (4H up here, western disciplines, non-horsey friends). I emphasize “his/her” when talking about the horse for left/right, because I still find that people, when facing anything straight on, if you say left/right they will for some reason think it’s their left/right and not the left/right of the object. I mostly run into it at work, I have someone get out and point out that yes, your driver’s side headlight is indeed out, I’m not lying, and before they leave they without fail say “the right headlight.” No. Not the right. But it has happened enough with horses that I make sure I mean the horse’s left/right. This is why I think near and off is better.
Other things I don’t hear much anymore and was actually thinking about the other day: the loop of extra rein that we flop down the off side of the neck actually has a name, I remember learning it, but it is gone from my brain. I run into common vernacular issues with lessons here after riding most of my life on the east coast and inland regions on that side of the country and I hate that it makes me sound ignorant when I explain that I don’t understand the terminology the instructor is using. And no, of course I can’t come up with example right now 
Bight of rein. That one is drilled into my heard from an old equitation instructor. She made us use correct terminology and tested us on it often. I didn’t appreciate it then, but I do now.
[quote="Scribbler, post:7, topic:758104,
I also don’t think anyone ever used it for schooling in an arena. That’s always been right rein or left rein.
[/quote]
But inside or outside aids are different depending if one is on the right or left rein.
The only time I’ve ever, in-person, heard someone use near/off is sidesaddle, usually when people are talking about an “off-side” saddle.
Otherwise, I’ve always just heard left and right.
I still remember the blank look I got when taking the car in for a new tire, seems off hind is not a car term:rofl:
According to OED, it is because horses are mounted and (they and other animals such as cows) led from the left. The first quotation is from 1559.
Soldiers wore their swords on their left hip typically as they could draw it with the right hand. Mounting from the left or near side meant that they didn’t need to swing the sword or other weaponry over the horse.
I have told my mechanic that my car’s right hind has a slow leak!
Anyone else absolutely unable to to straddle anything, a bike, a saddle on a saddle buck in a shop by throwing their left leg over? I just can’t.
I make sure my horses can be mounted from the left or right side, and do practice it. Part of basic manners and a great convenience if you dismount on a trail and have a sharp drop off to the horse’s left.
Guilty as charged
I do not know anyone that uses the terms “near” and “off”. This includes Pony Club A graduates, veterinarians and experience farriers. Just like people, horses have a left side and a right side. I may get confused but I also get confused as to which of my hands is left so I’m not really a good example. No one else gets confused because it’s pretty straight forward. Near and off, to me, is not - like near you…what if you are on the right side of the horse, is that now your near side? Or was that your near side before?
As far as reins, same thing - the left rein is in your left hand.
I have heard “outside” and “inside” used when directing which way to turn (ie - make your circle towards the inside of the arena) and for younger students that do not yet have a decent grasp on left and right (and possibly me…).
I can also straddle anything from either direction but that’s something I work on with riding also. My mare also can be led from either side because all of that is just tradition dating back to the knights.
As far as cars go, I do use driver and passenger side because people seem to get confused. I think it is more because cars aren’t living creatures so people do not consider them to have innate sides like people and animals.
Well, I now feel about a thousand years old 
Wonder what horsey term will disappear from general use next… 
Really? The more I frequent these boards the more I
realize how traditional / old fashioned the horse culture must be in my area.
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