One sidedness in horses can be due to the one sidedness of the rider, if you have read my training guide on rider crookedness, you should be aware of how your own crookedness can affect the horse in many ways.

This article is drawn more towards the one side dominant rider, the one who isn’t aware that the left leg is loose and hanging, while the right leg is tight and holding, or the rider who doesn’t seem to hold the reins equally etc

Throughout training the horse, we are always striving to equal the horse out, encourage flexibility and suppleness equally to both reins, but how can the horse achieve this if we are blocking him or giving him contradicting signals through our own lack of ambidexterity?

“But I am not ambidextrous, I am right (or left) handed” I hear you say, how can I be ambidextrous? Is it even possible to become ambidextrous?

The answer is yes you can, it takes some work, but do we not realise that the work we put into our horses takes work too? If we are willing to train the horse and work at it, why should we not work on ourselves and be as equal as possible?

Very few people are born naturally ambidextrous, but it happens, my own son James is predominantly left handed, however when he was young, he would be drawing or writing and I would often catch him using his right hand, “why are you using that hand?” I would ask, “because my left hand is tired” he would say. So from a young age, he was actually writing, drawing and colouring in with both hands. Nowadays at 12yrs old, he does use his left hand more, but is still capable of writing, with the same neatness, with his right hand.

This can always be useful should he ever, heaven forbid, have an accident and his left (dominant) hand is injured, he has use of the right one as back up!

How does this impact on your riding? Well, take the right handed rider who has the horse beautifully balanced to the right rein, yet the left rein in weak and the horse falls in or out, swings his quarters in etc. On the right rein the rider is communicating through the seat bones and hip which help control the horse, as she changes the rein, the left seat bone may be lighter so not connected, the hip is perhaps not allowing the thigh to hang and therefore the riders leg is not as effective as perhaps it needs to be, also the riders weight will be heading towards the right side of the horse. The overall effect is the horse has difficulty staying underneath the rider so has trouble maintaining his own balance.

It is sometimes a case that you may have been injured in the past, therefore when riding, your mind subconsciously protects the previously injured area, which can also affect your one sidedness, equally, the way the horse moves can affect you too.

So how do you become more equal and ambidextrous?

First you have to analyse where your problem stems from, is it a weak posture, is it protection of an old injury, is it the way the horse moves?

As we are looking at ambidexterity, we are going to look at ways in which you can help yourself, and not necessarily how you would expect!

Some things which can add to your ambidexterity is to begin using your “weak or wrong hand” for things instead of always relying on your “strong hand”.

Ask your trainer to or friend to video you riding your usual horse and in your usual way, review the video, then note down the effects of your dominant side compared to your less dominant side, do you notice any difference? This is your starting point.

Now you are ready to address your ambidexterity.

Try some of the following exercises when not on the horse:

• Carry your shopping or buckets in the “wrong” hand
• Carry your shoulder bag on the “wrong” shoulder
• When mucking out, use the “wrong” hand
• Practise writing your name with the “wrong” hand
• Brush your teeth and hair with the “wrong” hand
• Tack up/ rug up from the “wrong” side

Try these exercises on the horse:

• Work without stirrups is great for balance but equally helps us recognise our weaknesses, especially on circles, as the gravity “pulls” you to the outside of the circle, on your weaker side you may find it much harder to stay central
• Lunge lessons
• Carry the whip in your weak hand for longer, ensuring it is correctly positioned
• Mount from the “wrong side”
• Dismount from the “wrong side”
• Make a conscious effort to “work” the weaker side more when following the horses movement

All these ideas seem strange when first attempted, but as with everything, practise makes perfect, so give them a go, after a while the unnatural feel will become just as normal as your “stronger” hand/side.

These exercises are just a suggestion for things you can do, but whenever you can, use your “wrong” hand/side for everyday tasks, you may be surprised at the results in your riding.

After a few weeks of practising using your “wrong” hand/side, ask to be filmed again, then compare your “before” and “after” rides. By this point you should see a notable difference, however just as training your horse never ends, your own ambidexterity should continue to be worked on.

Recently I have been looking at bedding materials, as there is now a vast range on offer.

Rocky tends to be quite wet, so choosing the correct bedding for him was my priority.

I wanted absorbency, ease of use, cost effective, muck heap kept to a minimum, storage and something which didn’t stick to the horse or rugs when they roll. Well I believe all the above is on the wanted list for most horse owners!

I asked a few people, posted questions to our facebook page, used our twitter page, I made enquiries via emails and phone calls. Finally after sifting through the responses, it seemed there was a bedding which is made of wood pellets, something you don’t always associate with horses, but it had great reviews, “ticked all the boxes” and the bonus point, it was local too!

On the 22^nd November the new bedding was delivered, the lady who supplies the bedding, Deborah Goldsworthy, is based in Stockbridge, Hants. Debbie brought 12 bags, yes bags not bales as we horse owners are used to, in the back of her truck, and when she opened up the truck, my initial reaction was “that’s nowhere near enough”, well let’s just say for now, I was very wrong!

The bags weigh just 15kg and are simple to work with, easy to transport, something which bales are not, and don’t require much storage space.

I had emptied a stable, so we had a bare floor, which Debbie proceeded to place 10 bags on the floor and slit them open, but didn’t empty them, “strange I thought, why not just tip them out?” Well here is where the magic happens, the bags are then coated in water and left, we used approx 80 gallons of water, split between all 10 bags.

Here is a picture of the bags laid out:

The “magic” is quite mesmerising, the pellets, which look like sugar beet, break down, which swells up and it almost resembles popcorn, it starts to literally climb out the bags!

After an hour, yes a fair while to begin, it is all broken down, has created a “sand like” appearance, and is ready to make a bed out of.

You treat this part just like you would any other bedding, banks, bed etc. I always use banks, so the 10 bags were perfect.

Here is what the new bed looked like:

You can use this bedding on any surface, so if you use rubber matting, this can be extremely useful, equally, you could just deep litter it, top it with a surface of your choice, or use it on its own as I do.

As with any new product, I am always sceptical until I have used it myself, so the following morning I went to muck out with trepidation, what would I find? Well, it is fairly safe to say, I was not expecting what I found!

The bed was hardly disturbed, for Rocky, that was a miracle, the droppings were all kept intact, and the wet spots were easy to see and remove. I usually got approx 2 barrows of muck out his stable, which includes sweepings up.

This was the end result of mucking him out after mucking the other stable out which is underneath! :

As you can see, the result is no bedding wasted, the droppings sifted out, a bit of wet and a very happy me!!

If you are worried about using the pellets thinking your horse will eat them, thinking they are nuts, don’t be, as when they have been soaked, as you see from the other picture, they break right down, and continue to do so, and as Rocky is only a baby and eats everything, he is testament to that!

Also if the soaking time is an issue for you, the initial set up may be time consuming, but the end result is well worth it, if you don't have time to soak the bag when you need to add more (which I haven't as yet), you can place an unsoaked bag underneath your original bed. Or you can leave the bag soaking all day and add to the bed before bringing in at night.

I have now used the bedding for 5 days, and can only praise this bedding, I can’t see me changing back to any other type.

One final point, I did a complete muck out, to see what underneath was looking like, I have to admit, I have never seen such a dry floor! The biggest plus side, I am not sure how this happens but on putting the bed back down, there was so much excess that I had enough spare to lay a new bed in the stable next door! Now you wouldn't get that with other bedding! So for the cost of the initial set up I have 2 stables now bedded down with 5* Bedding. £65.00 for 2 stables is my kind of cost efficiancy :)

Should you wish to have a look at the website for this bedding, here is the link: http://www.fivestarbedding.co.uk/

Debbie who delivered it has a facebook page, click here to go to it: http://www.facebook.com/#!/ConserveAnimalBedding?fref=ts

Oh and by the way, for those of you who have cats, it also makes fantastic cat litter!!!