> French engineer Albert Mathieu-Flavier first proposed a subterranean link between Britain and France in 1802, suggesting the creation of an artificial island in the English Channel for trains to change the horses that would be required to pull the carriages.
I wonder if there are right-hand-riding horses and left-hand-riding horses, i.e. horses that are used to galloping on one particular side of the road.
Yes. When parts of Canada changed from driving on the left side of the road to the right side in the 1920s:
>"Many horses are allowed to more or less 'drive themselves,'" the Saint John Globe warned, "and until the horses become accustomed to the change, drivers will have to exercise exceptional caution or collisions will surely result."
[...]
>"In Lunenburg County, 1923 is still known as The Year of Free Beef; the price of beef dropped precipitously because oxen which had been trained to keep to the left could not be retrained," according to Ivan Smith's History of Nova Scotia.
>"Oxen are notoriously slow-witted and many teamsters had to replace their oxen with new ones trained to keep to the right; the displaced oxen were sent to slaughter."
I wonder if there are right-hand-riding horses and left-hand-riding horses, i.e. horses that are used to galloping on one particular side of the road.