Thinking of taking away my stirrups.

[SEL]

I would stick with your saddle tbh rather than a bareback pad. If you're worried about your balance on transitions a neck strap might help.

I'm from the generation where having your stirrups (& reins) taken away was usual. It does help your balance but I'm conscious I would want to make sure someone isn't going to be thumping up and down on a pony's back before recommending it these days

 

[Clairlyagenius]

As a beginner I was not allowed to use stirrups at all. I can't say it helped much with riding with stirrups. When I was eventually allowed to use them the learning started all over again.

I think saddles are designed to be used with stirrups and shouldn't be used without. But I fully support the idea of riding bareback or with a pad.

Oh okay this is interesting! Did you find that you had to learn to rebalance, or did the balance transfer over at all? I'm interested because everything I've read so far is "stirrupless will improve your balance loads", and it's not that I have bad balance at all, but my logic is like, it can always get better, right?

 

[Clairlyagenius]

I'm going to disagree with most people here and say just do it.

I used to ride for a living and would spend days riding without stirrups on multiple horses. I rode bareback loads too and still do, and have a wonderful seat, can sit pretty much anything, can jump bareback easily.

The spanish riding school have their pupils ride stirrupless for years.

BUT

I will caveat this to say, if you are overweight and unfit then you will really struggle. My baseline fitness when I started doing loads of tackless riding was really good, I trained in gymnastics and dance as well as horse riding and was very light. You need really decent stamina and good core control to do it well, so if you don't have this already then I'd work on these areas off the horse as well as on.

But nothing will be a substitute for just getting on with it and giving it a go. But use a neck strap, aim for 'relaxed' limbs and perfect posture and if fatigue kicks in then stop.

Its difficult to advise if this is truly a good next step for you without seeing you ride.

See I'd love to get to the stage where I can jump bareback too, I just love the idea of being more connected to my horse like that.

I'm not overweight, pretty average and I'm not a skinny minny either, but there is certainly room for improvement with regards to fitness (Off topic, but if you know of any free programs to follow online that specifically are good for riding fitness, I'd love recommendations. My biggest thing about working out is having a program I can follow). I can comfortably trot and canter without stirrups for probably 10-15 minutes (again, the transition back to trot I sometimes bounce a bit, but I can sit it without hanging out of her mouth or swinging from a neck strap).

 

[Clairlyagenius]

You can work on your balance off a horse just as easily as on, without putting extra miles on the horse. It's a quality that will carry over to all your activities. Look at pilates/yoga, improving proprioception and core stability. Can you stand on one leg with your eyes closed - it's a basic indicator of reasonable balance? Very basic things like this will help. If your issue was when jumping I would interrogate your jumping position thoroughly. Look at recent photos/videos, ask yourself what needs to improve - do you tend to stand in your stirrups or get ahead of the movement? Are your stirrups short enough?

Is there a good yoga program you know of to follow? I did try get into it before, but it was one of those free apps of like 10 minutes a day, and I fell out of it because I honestly didn't feel like it was actually doing anything - All the stuff was stupid easy.

I just tried there, and it's harder than I thought! I can do it, but I'm wobbly, so clearly my balance needs work.

Yes after I fell I asked my instructor where I went wrong, and he said it was my fourth stage, landing, and I just didn't pull myself back up in time. He was happy with my approach and position over the jump though. I did used to stand in the stirrups, I've worked to try and stop that, but I must record myself again to see where I'm at, as I haven't analysed it closely in a while. and I've actually raised my stirrups since then anyway, because they WERE too long!

 

[Arzada]

(Off topic, but if you know of any free programs to follow online that specifically are good for riding fitness, I'd love recommendations.

https://www.riderpilatesclub.com/ sign up for the next free 5 day Ride Straighter, Deeper, Taller Challenge

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