Long story short, I have been out for 60+ days for a severely strained inner right ankle ligament (since May 1st) from a bad stirrup and pony mishap. During this time, I also found out that I have a 4" extra bone that stems from my heel to my inner ankle joint that is probably the reason for most of my pain over the years. I still have pain now from the sprain and aggrivating PT, but since my insurance has cut me off from PT, I have to return to my daily activities, which of course includes riding! I was in the midst of retraining for lower level eventing while working thru most of my fearful riding from past injuries (hurniated discs, cracked ribs, bruised tailbone, etc). Getting back into it, I have a faithful steed that is thankfully bombproof 
Knowing that my ankle is in nowhere near well enough for stirrups as of yet, but still wanting to get ahead of my avid research to come, I am looking for tips, tricks, and what not for post-injuries. My PT has NO CLUE about what muscles/ligaments that riders use in riding, so his suggestions for strengthening can only do so much. I was diag with arthritis in my knees/ankles/back when I was 12 (it’s in the family), so I have lived through enough pain to push it off.
The stirrups that caused the mishap were 5" MDC Jointed Stirrups; my BRAND NEW tall boots went right thru them when I went sailing up in the air, and pending my crash-landing, yanked my ankle badly. Thankfully, my pony did not drag me around the arena :yes: Since then, one of my trainers influenced my purchase of the KMSS Compivator Stirrup, since break-aways are not plausible for flexy-stirrups. I think they are absolutely genius, but what has me worried is the lack of flexibility/joint support. If your not familiar with the Compivators, they act like a jointed stirrups, but are only one-way pivots and lack the eye-sore rubber tubes. I used the jointed stirrups because they helped SO MUCH with my arthritis pain (depending on the day) and helped my flexibility (the whole flexing-ankle-with-weight-trainsferring-from-hips-knees-ankle-movement) and created the “bounce” that I so badly needed. I had heard about some sort of wrap-around stirrup pad that is really good for bad joints, but cannot remember the name of them!
Tips, tricks, exercises, input, and other suggestions are all highly appreciated!!!
