New Horse Owner Series - Determine Your Correct Stirrup Length
Posted: Sunday, January 15, 2012
by The Old Gray Mare
www.DressYourHorse.com
You have riding lessons every Saturday at a popular Riding Stable. Sometimes you ride alone and sometimes your lesson is with others.
Regardless of the timing of your lessons, the instructors are always fiddling with the stirrups, getting them to the correct length for you. There have been occasions when one of the stirrups didn’t feel right to you. You’ve even thought that one stirrup felt shorter than the other because you were lopsided. Indeed, when you finally spoke up about feeling uneven and the instructor checked each stirrup, the lengths were the same. You’d shift the saddle, yet the feel did not improve.
Some of the stirrups had rubber inserts, other times you used a pair of safety stirrups, and still other times the saddle had stirrups with no rubber inserts.
Here is a solution that worked for me all those years ago when I was taking instructions, learning the finer points of riding and beginning to show, even before I ever owned my own horse or horse tack. Purchase a pair of stirrups – both stirrup leather AND stirrups. They are not expensive and the time you save for the instructor, effort in constantly adjusting and riding with different stirrup lengths and comfort of your own stirrups is worth every penny. You will go to your riding lessons with stirrups in hand, tack up the horse and when it’s time to ride, remove the saddle’s stirrups and affix your own. Presto! You are ready
to ride. No more adjusting, no fiddling and consistency. Then, after your ride, remove your personal stirrups, put on the saddle’s stirrups, and bring yours home to saddle soap and keep in great tip-top shape.Now then, lets talk a bit about measuring for correct stirrup length. This is important for safety and control of the horse, not to mention staying in proper, balanced position. After you are mounted and before you start your lesson, align your body properly – head up, ear and shoulder and hip and heel on each side of your body should be in alignment.
If you are a beginning rider, you may require a shorter stirrup. In addition, stirrup length may also depend on your riding discipline. You body type may come into play just as your horse’s barrel (is he round barreled, narrow). Your riding instructor will guide you in these finer points.
Pix above: Adorable young rider, great stirrup length, rider position
As you sit still on your horse, prior to starting you lesson, permit your legs to hang down without stirrups. Now closely monitor your position and ask yourself a couple of questions: When stirrups are too short: Have you experienced pinching from the leathers; is it necessary to lengthen your legs (reach) or drop your heels to properly place your knees? When stirrups are too long: Do you have to put feet too far forward; does one of your feet or both slip out of the stirrup easily?
The following methods are what many trainers use to judge stirrup length. Try one or all of them to determine yours.
Your riding instructor will probably use one of these two methods to manually adjust your stirrups. Both work well to start. Then you’ll fine-tune the length with some of the suggestions already mentioned. The “feel” has to be right.
Armpit: While standing beside your horse, you will use your forearm to measure your personal stirrup length. Here’s how: Put your hand at the point where the stirrup attaches to the saddle (stirrup bar). Extend the length of leather AND stirrup bottom until they reach your armpit. Pix on right: Way too forward, long
Ankle: While mounted, standing, have your instructorwork with you on this. Drop your legs straight down on each side of the horse, both at once. The bottom of the stirrup should be exactly beside the point of your anklebone.
You may wish to make another adjustment based on your riding style and saddle type. Both English Saddleseat, Dressage, and Western Riding require a longer stirrup. Hunt Seat uses a shorter stirrup.
Have fun, learn much during your lessons, work hard at having soft hands, and develop an excellent seat. We’ll all be cheering you on.
Pix: stirrup length OK, rider not straight
The Old Gray Mare writes for www.DressYourHorse.com and her Blog sites.
This Article has been viewed 306 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Heidi.
Getting my stirrups the right length was probably one of the most problematic things I first encountered when I was still new to riding. Even using the armpit method as I did has its drawbacks (seems my arms are a little long for my height, just don't please call me "monkey arms" :)). Everyone kept trying to get me to have a "long and elegant" leg for dressage, but my feet just kept coming out of the stirrups. I've actually developed some skill at riding the trot and canter without stirrups, but it's not my preference.
I think ultimately, the point you make about comfort is most important. So I just chucked the whole long elegant leg thing, keep my stirrups as short as I want and ride with confidence ... more or less. :)
Hugs,
DianneI think lots of us feel better in our stirrups on different horses. If the horse is smooth gaited, you can tolerate a little more length. One thing I frown on is when the stirrups appear lopsided. It happened with my granddaughter. I'd see her from the back and she was clearly lopsided. When well into her lesson and the instructor didn't notice, but kept admonishing about heels down, and Shawna didn't ride that well, I finally spoke up. The instructor checked. Nope their the same length. I told Shawna to rock the saddle. It didn't change. I still think I caught the instructor up and she didn't want to admit it. I say that to myself, probably not true. No reason for it. I couldn't figure why the difference was so obvious. Shawna never really did ride that well. She also thought she was crooked.
The stirrup thing worked well for me when I was learning. I rode Saddlebreds and they were tall and not that round barreled. They are a slimmer horse and their body type is very similar. That might all have something to do with feeling ultra comfortable in my stirrups. I also have long legs for my size. Trainer always said I had great "riding legs".
I got really good at sitting the trot. I've never done dressage though. Our horses show at a show walk which is really a high prance. I always sat that. Even when my formal three-gaited horse Be Calm had his shes pulled in winter, and we rode trails with my club, he never walked. Everyone else was in a mule train and Heidi was jigging along. Kind of snooty it was. But I used these rides as a phenominal training tool for Be Calm. He would bug his eyes out of his head looking around and enjoying himself. He was trained to prance and that's what he did. My legs got mighty tight. The whole trick was to keep my heels down, legs against the horse, tight. Free ankles and feet. I'd sort of use my "natural shock absorbers" and roll with his gait. It sounds obvious but I got rather elegant at it and you could not see it. The horse was so pretty, people loved him.I'm finally getting the hang of keeping my heels down. It became easier when I shortened my stirrups. And a loose ankle does indeed make a great shock absorber. But I'm still no good at sitting the trot. I can sit a jog just fine, though. :) But in dressage we don't do jogs. :) Snooty lot, hunh? :)
Anyway, I love your horse articles. Can you tell?I love that you love them. Gives us a chance to gab. In gaited riding we also ride with a longer stirrup. We've all seen the "how not to look" positions in he saddle or what I call the "double bob." Some really famous people have some of the worst seats going. But with the saddle horses, the thing is to show your horse. I mean you sacrifice everything just to get head up, tucked, motion front and back and keep the horse at the rack without skipping or breaking. Some of the trainers forever have their feet "under the dashboard." Not pretty but oh dear the horses are. Then there's the double bob. They just sort of bounce twice instead of posting. These are he ones that usually sit way back on the horse's kidneys. I'm not really too enthralled with that - what am I talking about - I don't like it. I don't want to break down my horse, I want to show it. If my horse doesn't have the bloom he needs to show, then I'll keep him home. But that's just me.I've seen a lot of double bounces even posting a trot. And I've seen the feet under the dashboard as you describe it as well. It isn't pretty to me, but really if it gets the job done then fine. In dressage, part of the score is the rider's equitation. It's not a big part because, really, we are basically supposed to be showing the horse at his best as well. But it does tend to get all mixed up sometimes. And anyone who sits back on a horses kidneys and bounces around is an idiot and cruel to boot. There, I said it! I've also seen a few riders that seem to be gliding along with their horses. I aspire to that! One day ... maybe. :)I forgot one other thing that goes on a lot, especially saddlebred and morgans. The rider has his elbows sticking out at right angles from the body in some cases. Not at all attractive but their horses are the ones doin' it! So critiquing aside, show to win, whatever it takes - except don't be hurting the horse. Don't sore them like the Walkers, and don't bounce around on the kidneys - And go to win
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.