I put this in Google Translate and I still don’t understand what those words in that order mean… 
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Evil Chem Prof Translate: This is the one our family members want us to adopt (celebrate) because it means that we wouldn’t buy any tack (or other horse stuff) for a month.
Thirty years of interpreting student work has its uses.
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I have to admit that it made perfect sense to me, the advantages of not knowing “proper” English, I guess? 
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Nope. I still don’t understand. You’re saying NOT buy things for a month? Like not buy tack? I don’t get it. Not… buy… tack…? What?
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I think it is stupid too (as a coach of adults). We do do some no stirrup work, but I prefer to practice picking up and dropping stirrups in motion, or dropping one stirrup and picking it back up while posting or cantering - actual, functional skills. I just don’t find no stirrup work translates that well to better riding with stirrups.
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Wasn’t the English that was the problem, but the meaning they couldn’t understand 
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Ah, that does make it clear. 
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Do these trainers ditch their stirrups for a month too?
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I’m frequently disappointed when I think I need a new bit/half pad/whatever, only to realize I already own that item I suddenly need and don’t get to buy it.
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I’ve often joked that since I’m a writer and rider, I suppose one year I should do both!
(FWIW, I’m editing a new novel as well as writing one, so no pressure to finish a new one by the end of the month.)
I’ve always thought the “No Stirrups November” thing was for the type of barns where the kids showed (presumably with stirrups) most weekends, so presumably they weren’t going the entire month entirely without.
I just moved barns and I’m on a new horse, so there really isn’t much question about my doing it this year (no). But even when that wasn’t the case, like most adult ammies, I ride for fun, I don’t ride multiple horses a day, and although I think I’m in decent shape for my age, I’d probably end up acquiring just as many bad habits as losing them going cold stirrup turkey.
I also agree it really smacks more of mind control than actual mindful discipline on the part of the trainer to friggin’ touch a student’s personal (expensive) property. It’s certainly appropriate to say to a student, “you can’t jump higher without doing more no-stirrup work,” but it should be the student’s choice riding alone, outside of lessons.
Although I salute all of you who rode and jumped a month without stirrups on those slippery, unpadded pancake-like flat hunt-seat type saddles. In rust breeches, of course.
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And I’m going to a used tack sale tomorrow so I’ve already failed rule 7. Every time I bring home some new/used tack my husband says we have more stuff to sell at our garage sale. I have to admit I have purged a lot of stuff and I actually consigned some saddle pads (sniffle) recently.
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The top equitation barns are all in Florida for the winter 
I’m an adult with a green 4YO TB. She’s lovely and I just started doing a little sitting trot with her–like half a 20M circle. She’s got a lovely topline for her age and point of training, but it is cruel to her back to let me go around for a month without stirrups on her still-developing back. What I have been doing for the last couple months is walking around to cool out without stirrups–she needs to get used to the feel of them dangling there, and it gives me a little work without them. For November, I’m going to try adding in a little no-stirrups two-point.
My leg is actually pretty decent. What I’d like to fix is my wobbly left hand/elbow, so if there’s a month dedicated to that, please let me know.
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It is gimmicky and alliterative. That is all. It has annoyed me for as long as it has been “a thing.” Either work a bit without stirrups in little chunks (largely what I do when I have a sound horse) or when it is genuinely needed for a particular rider. Otherwise it is silly. And get off my lawn. 
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May I ask which series? Or really, will we be hearing from Simon again soon?
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I’m editing it right now as we “speak”! It’s a novella, so a little bit shorter than some of the previous installations, but I’m hoping it will be out by the end of the year!
I’m shocked (really) that so many people never learned to sit the trot, and when they do it now their horses have sore backs.
At the same time, I would tear my trainer a new one if she removed the stirrups from my saddle.
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Well, No Stirrups November has inspired me to try taking away my stirrups for a few minutes at the trot/canter every ride. I used to ride bareback and jump bareback all the time as a kid/teen, but damn this is a lot harder now that I’m nearing 40! I’m hoping to work up in time by the end of the month, because I 100% do not want No Ride December because my fat butt broke my horse.
Honestly I think we should have no stirrup July. In November my horse is suffering from Scary Squirrel Syndrome and we are well on our way to a WTF Winter.
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Florida – of course!
I can only do the take-the-stirrups-off no-stirrup work because my horse is a saint and has a fully-developed body.
Ages ago, a trainer gave me an exercise to help stabilize my hands – you can start at the walk and carry this into trot and canter. Go into 2-point and press your knuckles lightly into the horse’s neck feeling equal pressure on both hands. Do various things – circles, shallow loops, whatever, always maintaining that equal pressure and making minute corrections when you lose it in one hand or the other. You’re not actually supporting your weight with your hands, just having a small degree of pressure – the key is that the pressure is equal. Just an idea…
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Not all trots are created equal. Some horses it is easy to sit their trot. Some horses it is very hard to sit their trot. And some humans struggle with things that others find to be easy.
In some of the discussion here we are talking about once or twice a week people taking lessons, so having the muscle and control to not bounce on the horse during a sticky transition or just that fancy trot can easily lead to a horse with a sore back.
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You don’t have to tell me about trots that aren’t easy to sit, lol. Easy trots or otherwise, sitting is a skill that has to be learned, or should I say taught.
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