Bent leg Stirrup Irons - Safe or Dangerous?

Pikachu

Pikachu

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Just wondering your opinion on this, do you personally think that the bent leg stirrups are safe or dangerous?

See i always thought safe, as they are called safety stirrups but after buying some and using them, my instructor kept calling them dangerous. On questioning this her reasoning behind this was that your foot slipped out too easily and she had a couple of clients who started to lose balance and kept falling off for no reason when they were normally ok and good riders etc and the only thing they had changed were their stirrups.

So as an experiment as i had been having big balance issues (including falling off!) i put my old normal ones back on and have felt much more secure and my lower leg doesn't feel like its swinging so much (still needs work though). Coincidence and all in my head, maybe!

So was just wondering what you thought and what type of stirrups you used...random really!

Jeni
 
I use them and I don't have any problems.
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I have used bent legs stirrups for years with no problem and personally would rather have my foot fall out easily then be caught.

To be honest when I swop to conventional stirrup I notice no difference in my balance or ability to come a cropper.
 
You have got me thinking now. I use them on my horse and often feel like my leg is insecure and loose my stirrups, my legs always feel slightly wobbly. I dont fall off though. I always thought it was my saddle or something.

But I do my BHS at a riding school and ride other peoples horses at the yard where I keep my horse and never have this problem on other horses. I am going to try some normal stirrups on Baron and see if I notice the difference.
 
I don't like them and wouldn't use them - the only two people I've seen dragged in the past five years have been using bent leg stirrups.

I'm a fan of the old-fashioned peacock stirrups.
 
Well, I like mie as they have a wide tread of them but I have to say occassionally they do sit on my foot wierdly and this doesn't happen with my flexi stirrups. I do feel safer in them though, just in case of a fall.
 
I rode in bent leg stirrups for around 5 yrs and i never once had a problem with them. No wobbly legs or funny positions and certainly easier to get ur foot out when u do fall. I now ride in the new range of plastic stirrups and i can honestly they are the comfiest things i have ever ridden in. Theres no turning back!!!
 
I've got them on my dressage saddle, don't like them for jumping as if you lose a stirrup you can't kick it back in very easily. Got my foot caught & broke my ankle really badly in April in "normal" stirrups, so now have Mountain Horse safety stirrups on my jumping saddle, but definately don't notice any loss of balance in the bent leg irons.
 
Tis interesting to see that most of you have no issues with them. Might experiment further when i've been doing a lot more (had over a year off due to injured horse) and my legs are back up and working a bit better by putting them back on and seeing what happens.
 
Would be very interested to know how you get on it may be nothing to do with the type of stirrups but my instructors comments got me thinking.

I used to always think that my legs were really moving but people on the ground would say that they were still....so maybe it is all in my head after all
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i ride in them and have never had a problem with them. I bought them as i have a pony who delights in putting me on the floor as often as physicaly possibe (bucking). I even have a patch of grass on a ride that is called my patch as every time we go over it i endup on my arse. I'd rather endup on the floor then end up being dragged.
 
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