Since Xenophon, every riding master, expert trainer, and thinking rider recognizes that essentially every horse starts with a more difficult side, one side more concave and the other more convex. Most remain this way for their entire lives. They exist within the context of the "Crooked Horse Syndrome". These inherent aspects create the biomechanics of movement of the "natural horse". Such biomechanics serve the horse well in its natural wild/feral state, but are antagonistic to those required of the ridden horse. Because of this dichotomy, many techniques are utilized to "straighten" the horse. The essence and purpose of all the techniques, then and now, is to minimize limb dominance and develop the biomechanics necessary for riding horses. In essence, the goal is to make them more ambidextrous. Failure to achieve ambidexterity, balance and straightness creates problems in performance, a shorter useful life and eventually leads to unsoundness. (...)