ewww…no thanks.
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I don’t think anyone would argue that it’s not useful. It’s the idea that someone walked into the barn and found that their trainer had removed everyone’s stirrups. FFS, I’m an adult. I might agree to it, but I don’t have to. And, don’t touch my saddle.
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I’m supposed to ride without stirrups AND write a novel?
Heck no.
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I would cavil at my trainer hiding them from me, but she wouldn’t have to, since I ride without them all the time. What PNWjumper wrote echoes my feelings: I ride without stirrups because it’s good for my riding. I actually rode without them most of this summer while I was bringing my jumper back into work after surgery because I was working on using my seat more effectively and one of my trainers suggested I try it. It totally worked!
I think it’s a good thing to get used to, mainly because it’s something that is invaluable to how I ride and train. Just yesterday I rode my trainer’s UL event horse without stirrups because I didn’t notice his saddle didn’t have them on when I tacked him up and I was too lazy to go back and get them. I forgot about it once we got going. It’s just a regular part of riding for me.
I wouldn’t appreciate being treated like a kid (my trainers used to take my stirrups away all winter when I was a junior), so I’m on board with huffiness about that, but riding without stirrups is so incredibly useful I think it should be regularly incorporated into riding for jumpers, at least.
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I am definitely feeling defensive but I wouldn’t say contrarian. In my current life state I would benefit from maybe 10 or 20 minutes per ride of no stirrups and not getting my stirrups stolen in the night. I’m simply not fit enough and am looking for a little solidarity from some internet strangers. I ride with only juniors and a few AAs who don’t work and ride quite a bit so I’m feeling like the lone weenie in the group 
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No stirrup November = Sore Back December
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general comment.
I’ve complained in various threads about how coaching and physical education in general for kids is coercive and predicated on the idea that kids are lazy and always trying to skive off, and need to be hustled into action (as opposed to being afraid, in pain, or ill). And how much I’ve appreciated sports training for adults where the fitness instructor actually says “go at your own pace, listen to your body.”
No stirrups November as described above sounds to me like potentially one of those coercive things that might work OK in a particular upper intermediate teen lesson program to develop a sticky seat. But bringing it on full scale for adult riders especially ones training their own green horses is one of those obnoxious moments that coercive kiddie coaching culture seeps over to adults who are capable of listening to their own bodies and horses.
Obviously riding without stirrups can be useful and a teen riding bareback for a few months is a great confidence builder. But when you get to the age that you cannot afford another fall at all no way, you need to modify these things.
BTW my mare will not let you post with no stirrups. She just halts and pins her ears.
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At 38 years old I still love riding trails bareback and do with decent frequency! Charlie is 4 and while he is a super chill 4 he needs a lot more on training rides than I can give without stirrups, at least right now anyways.
If a trainer said no stirrups we would not have lessons for the month of November LOL and they would not be getting paid!
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Exactly! No. thank. you.
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I can’t like this twice, so I wanted to quote it. I grew up as one of those “bad at PE” kids who was “no good at running.” It wasn’t until I graduated from college and trained for my first 5K that I realized that it’s not that I was bad at running. I just wasn’t fit. PE testing was functionally public shaming rather than a useful measure of progress. The curriculum wasn’t designed to systematically build the attributes being tested… And my sport of choice didn’t transfer well. They were not testing adductor strength, unfortunately. 
So back on topic. No decent trainer is pulling an out of work horse out of the field and expecting them to go straight to full work and jumping around courses. Doing the equivalent to clients for NSN is just as dumb. If you’re an equitation barn and do tons of no-stirrups year-round and it makes sense for some/most/all of your students in that context, great. But if your students do 5 min or less weekly, it’s crazy (and likely also bad horsemanship) to just disappear all the stirrups for a month.
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Maybe we should try making our own trend.
No Spur November (works leg strength and all the school ponies like this one)
No Show November (for all of those who maybe horse show a bit too much)
No Snack November (for those of us needing to loose a few pounds before we gain it back at thanksgiving)
No Spook November ( A goal many of us cannot achieve)
No Shuffle November (get that walk swinging! No shuffling here)
No Shop November (the one our family members want us to adopt, where we don’t buy tack for a month)
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This. And can we just take a moment to appreciate the trainers who ARE aware and do not pressure NSN on riders (or horses) who aren’t ready for it?
I was talking to my trainer about in my lesson last night. My current horse is a green 6yo OTTB. I’m finally starting to really regain my confidence on him after a bad fall last winter that left me unconscious and sent me to the ER with a concussion. Sure, no stirrups work is great, but not for a sensitive green horse and a nervous adult ammy. Trainer said hell no to NSN for us this year, and I agree. We’ll focus on incorporating more two point instead - done correctly it should still help me build strength and stability in my lower leg.
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As a kid my trainer made us ride without stirrups regularly and I had my stirrups taken away the winter I was 14. She kept them in her car… but I was 14. I am far away from being 14 so that is not going to happen. As a result of the regular no stirrup work, my leg was pretty awesome. Fast forward 30 year (holy crap!) and I have a big moving, spooky horse, that during most Novembers is freshly clipped with the weather changing to winter temps. We’re talking Canada temps not the balmy US ones. He can have a good spooky spin on him too. So am I spending my November without stirrups… absolutely not. Will I think about doing 5-10 minutes a day? Sure. Will I do it? Probably not.
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My trainer told us that one of the top equitation barns on the East Coast waits until Jan/Feb for the no stirrup month – when the weather is really bad and the horses might not be getting turnout.
That said, I did it last year pretty much on my own (I was at a different barn where no-one was into it). I’m with PNW about the benefits of doing more than the 5-10 minutes here and there. Fast forward to this fall – This was more humiliating than anything, but last month I was in the second round of a 3’ jumper-type medal final when I lost both my stirrups going into one of the first lines of the course (probably because I buried my horse at the jump). I knew that any effort to retrieve my stirrups would end up with my horse breaking to the trot, so I just kept going and jumped the next 10 or so 3’ fences without stirrups. Embarrassing on so many levels, but at the same time, yay I was able to do it! (Of course, my horse is a saint and could care less about loose stirrups banging around on his sides!)
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Working on number six - no shuffle November.
I’d be a total failure at number seven. Hello, my name is Spud and I’m a saddle pad addict
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I do not understand any trainer who walks into the tack room and removes things (stirrups) that are not theirs.
I also do not understand any trainer who does not care enough about their lesson string to do the same to their own stirrups, when they have people who ride only once or twice per week.
I think riding without stirrups is a good skill to have. I think even us old people should work on our balance and such. But to just take away stirrups for everyone is not thinking.
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I already failed on number 7 
I went shopping on November 1
Yes! This, this, this! Like another poster, I couldn’t like this twice so I had to quote it.
I am the daughter of a phys ed teacher, and both of my parents were athletes in their own right (my dad went to Wimbledon, played ice hockey at a semi-pro level, and competed in the Downhill World Cup of mountain biking, for context.) I grew up in a home that prioritized being physically active and staying healthy, which means that we learned how to build fitness over time, and cross-train, and take rest days, and push ourselves but also recognize that today is a “bad knee day” and that pushing through injury is a bad idea. That upbringing was so important to seeing physical activity as fun and something that we do to be good to ourselves and feel good in our bodies, not a thing that we have to do or that we have to suffer through. File under “move your body in a way that feels good to you.” You are right- taking away someone’s stirrups entirely without it being a discussion and a scaffolded part of the program is exactly like the bad kind of 80’s phys ed class where the ex-army football coach made you get up and get back in the game with a concussion.
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Agreed. No one should be touching someone else’s stuff… trainer or not… without express permission.
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+1 for new word that even sounds slightly horsey 
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