Kiba Dachi or Shiko Dachi?

Feet apart, bend your knees and sink your weight down through the legs and connect to the floor pressing the soles of your feet down.

Feet forward, or slightly turned inwards, and you have horse stance, or kiba dachi. Turn the feet out 30 to 45 degrees from the front and you have shiko dachi - straddle stance, or wrestling stance.

I noticed some old footage of Ohtsuka doing his pinan kata almost exclusively in shiko dachi rather than the "usual" kiba dachi. Not only that, there's no mention of the traditional kiba dachi in his book.

Further research suggests that in wado ryu there is no real distinction between the two - both terms apply to the same stance, so it seems kiba dachi/shiko dachi are interchangeable. In all cases the feet-outward approach is used.

So it seems that traditional wado uses only what we usually call shiko dachi, but the term kiba dachi is also used. Certainly the feet-outward stance is more "wado" feeling than feet-forward.

Let's bring in another stance, this time naihanchi-dachi. In many styles naihanchi kata is done from horse stance (look at Shotokan's tekki kata). However the correct approach is to use a higher stance with feet forward (or slightly turned inward - not too much). Naihanchi stance looks more horse-like than kiba dachi. Imagine standing on your horse, knees gripping the horse's flanks while you aim a shot with your bow and arrow, or wield your naginata!

The feet outward stance of shikodachi is preferred because it allows quicker movement, which is in keeping with the wado ethos. Even in naihanchi stance the feet shouldn't be turned too far inward.