Zohra Soltanabadi, riding instructor, horse breeder and wife of Kayhan Kalhor

Mounting

Most trainers will argue that a horse should be comfortable with you mounting from either side, though an instructor will likely teach you to always mount from the left. This is actually just tradition stemming from war. Most soldiers were right-handed, so they carried their weapons on the left side as it was easier to pull their swords from their scabbard this way. Mounting from the right would result in the weapon interfering with their mount, or potentially even hurting their horses, so they would always mount from the left.