Did your safety stirrups actually open??

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Meoldmucka

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I'm thinking of treating myself to some safety stirrups and have narrowed it down to the avacallo alpros or the flexons if I can save a bit more. I've seen lots of posts with reviews which is great but I was wondering how easy they release your foot if you fell? In a video I watched it seemed like the demonstrator was having to pull quite hard to release the flexons. Has anyone any experience of either of them not releasing in a fall? Thanks lovelies
 
I have just had a pair of acavallo alupro stirrups and the release is free moving so should release easily. Obviously there will always be circumstances where any safety stirrup may not release but these seem decent.
 
Flex on safe on's - no

Foot got completely stuck and the arm didn't move at all. If you actually try to get the arm off by hand, it's really hard.

Luckily my horse is a saint and stood there until I was rescued (lay on floor, foot completely stuck in stirrup). If I'd been out hacking I could have been killed. I feel sick when I think about it.

I've warned all my friends who insist on using these stirrups, and everyone continues to use them because they are so popular.
 
Cdjwannabe said:
Flex on safe on's - no

Foot got completely stuck and the arm didn't move at all. If you actually try to get the arm off by hand, it's really hard.

Luckily my horse is a saint and stood there until I was rescued (lay on floor, foot completely stuck in stirrup). If I'd been out hacking I could have been killed. I feel sick when I think about it.

I've warned all my friends who insist on using these stirrups, and everyone continues to use them because they are so popular.
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Sounds really scary! Out of interest what do you use now?
 
Cdjwannabe said:
Flex on safe on's - no

Foot got completely stuck and the arm didn't move at all. If you actually try to get the arm off by hand, it's really hard.

Luckily my horse is a saint and stood there until I was rescued (lay on floor, foot completely stuck in stirrup). If I'd been out hacking I could have been killed. I feel sick when I think about it.

I've warned all my friends who insist on using these stirrups, and everyone continues to use them because they are so popular.
Click to expand...
Oh my goodness, how scary! Glad you were ok. This is exactly what I was afraid of. The demonstration I watched it seemed like the guy had to pull really hard to release the safety arm
 
I’ve had flex on stirrups and now the alu pro for my little pony jockey.

I prefer the alu pro ones, the hinge is quite low down so a slide of the foot will release it where as a couple of other makes have the hinge at the top and I could see the foot almost having to rise up the stirrup to activate them.

the alupro were tested within a week of purchase and looking at the video (which we did repeatedly - I was commenting on how much time we had left on a very expensive arena hire while the child mopped her nose lol) the hinge did release freely. I am very pleased with them.
 
WelshD said:
I’ve had flex on stirrups and now the alu pro for my little pony jockey.

I prefer the alu pro ones, the hinge is quite low down so a slide of the foot will release it where as a couple of other makes have the hinge at the top and I could see the foot almost having to rise up the stirrup to activate them.

the alupro were tested within a week of purchase and looking at the video (which we did repeatedly - I was commenting on how much time we had left on a very expensive arena hire while the child mopped her nose lol) the hinge did release freely. I am very pleased with them.
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I had a look at these but what worries me is the sticky out bit once these have opened. In my mind's eye I can envisage injuries to the horse. Once they released, did the side stay open or did it close itself?
 
OldNag said:
I had a look at these but what worries me is the sticky out bit once these have opened. In my mind's eye I can envisage injuries to the horse. Once they released, did the side stay open or did it close itself?
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it snapped shut straight away - we had to slow the video down the check whether it released as the stirrups were new and I wanted to ensure they’d done their job
 
I use Acavallo now as I just felt they had a better arm release and no grippy footbed. I think the grip didn’t help with the Flex ons and now I keep seeing new grippy stirrups being released like they are the new norm! Scary stuff, so unsafe.
 
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