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> The horse, with its four (not two!) legs is an even more ridiculous comparison. The comparison is, as I understood it, the rider balancing on the horse itsel

> The horse, with its four (not two!) legs is an even more ridiculous comparison. The comparison is, as I understood it, the rider balancing on the horse itself. I've only ever done this myself with saddle and stirrups, so I don't know if this is significantly more difficult without those. I think you're being a little generous with the canoe. Boarding a canoe without a dock (that is, climbing in from the water) is tricky, and requires some thought about where your weight is. (Since the lip of the canoe, in my experience, sits well above the water line, and you're about to pull down on the edge to attempt to board, but that same motion is the motion that moves the edge closer to the water which will flood it.) I've seen plenty of people flip and subsequently flood a canoe after an unsuccessful attempt to board.

JackFr 7y ago
But a canoe floats, as a horse stands. A bicycle simply does not stand up on its own.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Surely it can, it's just a case of finding the balance point? [Ignoring macroscopic effects of the Earth rotating, etc.]
jessaustin 7y ago
Horses can certainly be ridden without stirrups. In fact stirrups weren't invented for over 4000 years after the domestication of the horse. The Roman Empire had no stirrups. The hardest part of riding without stirrups is mounting. It requires some mixture of strength, coordination, and a cooperative animal to mount from the ground without stirrups. Once you're mounted, staying mounted is not much more challenge than staying mounted with stirrups. Yeah in deep water you either have to have somebody on the other side holding that gunwale down, or you have to pull yourself up on one end. Nobody boards that way from the shore, though. You just have it sitting in the water where it will barely touch bottom if you put all your weight in. Then you get in, and it's sitting on the bottom, balanced. Then you push off with a paddle or stick. The whole process is much easier than using a dock.

JackFr 7y ago

But a canoe floats, as a horse stands. A bicycle simply does not stand up on its own.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Surely it can, it's just a case of finding the balance point? [Ignoring macroscopic effects of the Earth rotating, etc.]

jessaustin 7y ago

Horses can certainly be ridden without stirrups. In fact stirrups weren't invented for over 4000 years after the domestication of the horse. The Roman Empire had no stirrups. The hardest part of riding without stirrups is mounting. It requires some mixture of strength, coordination, and a cooperative animal to mount from the ground without stirrups. Once you're mounted, staying mounted is not much more challenge than staying mounted with stirrups. Yeah in deep water you either have to have somebody on the other side holding that gunwale down, or you have to pull yourself up on one end. Nobody boards that way from the shore, though. You just have it sitting in the water where it will barely touch bottom if you put all your weight in. Then you get in, and it's sitting on the bottom, balanced. Then you push off with a paddle or stick. The whole process is much easier than using a dock.