stirrup question, moving up from child to adult

nicolenlolly

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I know that these sorts of questions are a little tedious and I am sorry but I need some advice please.

Currently, DD1 rides in free jump children's stirrups but due to her spending her time on the muck heap, she seems to have grown into a veritable giant and will shortly outgrow them, she is rising 10 and a shoe size 5!! DD2 is just about to come off the lead rein so I thought it would make sense to give the free jumps to her (poor child always gets the hand me downs) and get some new stirrups for the lanky one.

She loves the grippiness (is that a word?) of the free jumps and finds especially xc that they help her to keep her lower leg position however I have heard rave things about the sprenger bow balance but they don't look like they would hold the foot as much. For pony club, they are not allowed "cheese grater" tread on a stirrup so please could you let me know what you recommend and I can no doubt empty my bank account on the next bit of kit!!
 

MouseInLux

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I had sprenger stirrups and switched to freejump recently. The difference in grip is like night and day for me. I love the grip on my freejumps.
 

Shay

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I've seen too many freejumps break to be comfortable putting my child in them. There have been quite a few high profile ones which have made the news recently - but they were very popular in BS juniors when they first came out and we saw so many break that I would just never buy a pair. In fairness it is a bit luck of the draw as some people seem to have had one pair for ages without problems others would have them break almost immediately.

My daughter has Sprenger bow balance - they don't actually come with the cheese grater tread you have to buy that separately. But we have never had any problem competing PC with cheese graters. Certainly wasn't an issue at Area Finals last week, not at Nat Champs last year. Might that be a branch thing? You can't use the type which actually fixes the boot to the stirrup - I think Mountain horse produce those - but cheesegrater treads are fine.

Not having ever used a freejump I can't compare the two. But the Bow Balance has made a massive difference to the amount of knee pain my daughter was experiencing following a long day hunting.
 
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