Anyone else had stirrups falling off Harry Dabbs Saddles

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BarryW44

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I bought my wife, Penny, a new Harry Dabbs GP saddle last November costing £1350. Four times the stirrups have fallen off, first of all, taking advice from books, we did not latch up the safety catches and thought this may have been the problem. However we started turning up the safety catches and last Saturday Penny competed at a local show jumping competition. Before going in we checked the leathers were in their correct position and the catches were up. After clearing 7 jumps, at the 8th as the horse landed the left stirrup fell away and Penny fell off but managed to land on her feet and she did not come to any harm. Previously she had to stop riding for about a month with her injuries as this seems to happen over jumps which is very dangerous. I realised the saddle is definitely faulty so I contacted Harry Dabbs who would not talk to me but referred me to the supplier, Bridlepath of Bury St. Edmunds. They were very helpful and said they would come and adjust the stirrup bar, and if need be send the saddle back for repair. I felt this was not the first time they had experienced this problem.

The problem I now have is that Penny has lost confidence in the saddle and even if repaired may not be able to trust it again, which I can fully understand.Has anyone else experienced this problem and if so was the repair effective? We, or our jumping trainer, have never come across this problem before and it is of great concern from a safety and confidence point of view. In addition the horse may loose confidence in her rider. Please let me have any input you can.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Does this only happen when jumping? Does your wife kick her lower leg back? I went through a phase of doing this, it was me, not the saddle..

ETA Mine wasn't a Harry Dabbs saddle.
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I do not think this is the problem as she does not put her leg back a long way, must be just enough to put backward pressure on the stirrup bars, which are parallel to the ground. I have a Albion K2 and the stirrup bars have a very pronounced angle downwards to prevent this happening. I have just bought a book by Christopher Coldrey 'Horses for Courses' and the front cover has a photo of him jumping with his legs pushing well back. Surely the stirrups are designed to come away if you fall and there is a lot of weight dragging the leathers backwards, not in normal riding.

Thank you all for your responses.
 
BarryW44 said:
The leathers are very loose and will easily slide back and open the catches which does not take much effort
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The leathers should be held fairly firmly in place on the bar when attached correctly. IME, it's often a devil of a job to change leathers on a saddle. If the leathers can slide too freely, then that sounds like a fault with the saddle.
 
Have you tried pulling on the leathers (backwards) to see how easy it is to get the catches to come down if they are in the turned up position? Maybe try this, and compare it with another saddle that does not have the same problem.

Have you looked at another saddle of the same make (in a showroom perhaps) to see if it seems to be the same as yours?

Also have you tried different stirrup leathers? Although it should not be the case, maybe there is some interaction of the buckle shape and the stirrup bar that is causing them to slide along too easily.

All of this may give you evidence that yours is faulty or not fit for purpose.

But if she has lost confidence I would just get another saddle.
 
Could the saddle be too low at the back? You can indeed adjust the bars to bring them in more parallel to the rails to grip the leathers a little more but if the saddle balance is out this will contribute to the leathers sliding off.
 
I had leathers fall off a Harry Dabbs saddle, because they were horrible, cheap, thin dressage leathers with a fabric loop at the top, rather than leather. I haven't had any trouble with better quality leathers (Bates dressage, PFIFF normal).
 
Are bridlepath going to come out and have a look? Was the saddle fitted initially? Has it been checked since you bought it. I would want the fit checked before the bars were adjusted.

(it appears that HD are wool flocked so you would have expected to need some adjustment at the 6ish months point.)
 
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