Small child safety stirrups

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FridayFinch

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Hello all,

I’m looking for advice re: safety stirrups for my 4 year old daughter.

I need 4” stirrups but all the breakaway options are too wide, plus she’s small for her age and struggles with the chunkier breakaway-style stirrups currently on the saddle that came with her loan pony (they’re also too wide as previous rider is older).

Peacock stirrups make me shudder, quite a few people on here seem have bad stories about the bent ones too from what I can see and I just can’t really fathom how the springy ones work (I’ve been out of the loop for a while!).

So I’m thinking cages? I never rode with them as a child but they seem sensible. Does anyone have any positive or negative experiences of them? Her boots are standard joddy boots, so no laces or anything to get caught in the cage.

Looking at maybe these:

https://western-saddler.co.uk/products/barefoot®-safety-stirrups-with-cage-kids

Thanks in advance for any advice!
 
I can just tell you what we did.

On lead we didn’t worry about safety stirrups, but did worry about child comfort - so from ages 2-4 (ish) we used the plastic stirrups (Compositi) with coloured treads.

Once off lead I tried peacocks and bent leg. We ditched peacocks after my son got dragged (the rubbers designed for them do not release with the tiny weight of a young child) and went for bent leg and wellies over riding boots (foot came out of boot if necessary).

By the time my daughter came off lead I had discovered the art of replacing the rubber band on peacocks with a thin black hair tie. By far and away this was the best option for us. Release was reliable and easy, replacing the hair tie was inexpensive and I could carry several on my wrist for longer rides. When we have sent ponies off on loan, if I sent stirrups I sent peacocks with a hair tie on each and warnings not to use the standard rubber bands.

A friend of mine used the Compositi cages in standard stirrups and her daughter loved them.
 
maya2008 said:
I can just tell you what we did.

On lead we didn’t worry about safety stirrups, but did worry about child comfort - so from ages 2-4 (ish) we used the plastic stirrups (Compositi) with coloured treads.

Once off lead I tried peacocks and bent leg. We ditched peacocks after my son got dragged (the rubbers designed for them do not release with the tiny weight of a young child) and went for bent leg and wellies over riding boots (foot came out of boot if necessary).

By the time my daughter came off lead I had discovered the art of replacing the rubber band on peacocks with a thin black hair tie. By far and away this was the best option for us. Release was reliable and easy, replacing the hair tie was inexpensive and I could carry several on my wrist for longer rides. When we have sent ponies off on loan, if I sent stirrups I sent peacocks with a hair tie on each and warnings not to use the standard rubber bands.

A friend of mine used the Compositi cages in standard stirrups and her daughter loved them.
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That’s interesting re: the hair bands - great find! I’d try this but am still a bit wary re the hook on a peacock. Now looking into the Compositi cages - thank you so much for all the info!
 
Lois Lame said:
How big are the gaps inbeteen the straps on those? It's hard to tell from the photo without your child's jodhpur boot in them.

And I agree with you re peacock stirrups after reading the stories on here on H&H forum about them.
Click to expand...
I was thinking this too - I’m sure they’re not too big as wouldn’t be fit for purpose, but am now a bit worried the leather could stretch maybe.

I do like the 90° though as my daughter is constantly losing her stirrups (she’s still on lead rein so not a huge deal but frustrating for her)
 
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