County Conquest Xtra stirrup bar

[Huntin_Fool]

Y’all, after looking and looking and trying and sending back, I tried a saddle that fits me and the horse. BUT look at these weird stirrup bars. I’ve never seen any like this. It looks incredibly dangerous. Dear Lord, I am so sick of looking for saddles. I might try to get a local shop guy to grind it down.

What do y’all think???

Regards,
Huntin’Fool

[sheltona01]

What is so strange about them? They are standard hook bars found in a lot of saddles.

Where would you have them ground down at?

[Huntin_Fool]

I think it’s hard to see in that pic-my bad. The bar that is flipped up is a solid piece-you can’t flip it down. Here’s a pic without the leather. So your leather with not come off if you fall and your foot’s caught in the stirrup.

It also looks crudely made. A friend has the same saddle and the pic she sent me has a traditional stirrup bar. Here’s her bar

Regards,
Huntin’Fool

[sheltona01]

Yes, they are standard hook bars. A lot of companies use them instead of the tumb bits. It is just a different type of fairly common stirrup bar.

I do agree those look rough in the picture. I don’t Iike the divot out of it.

[Blueeyedroan]

Don’t think I’ve EVER seen a stirrup leather come off the bar when a riders foot has been caught. Even with the other bars it generally doesn’t work. And I’ve seen this scenario more than once (it never gets less horrific).

Get yourself a set of safety stirrups.
Lots of great options on the market and they are worth it.
I personally opted for Freejumps and they are WORTH IT.

[Huntin_Fool]

Dear All,

It doesn’t look more dangerous to y’all? Truly just asking. I have seen a leather come off-but I’ve seen it not come off too. I think the straight style-with the hinge thing pushed open-would be safer, but that’s me. And I don’t know of any tests either. Tho I think I said above I talked to a County rep who said County quit making them.

And I agree it’s very crudely made-really worse in person.

I am going to return the saddle which I really hate to do. I guess we all have stuff that speaks to us, and this is one of mine.

Thanks for your input everyone!

Regards,
Huntin’Fool

[Lusoluv]

There is nothing unusual about the shape of this stirrup bar. I would never rely on a stirrup leather to come off the bar whether it’s curved or straight. I have safety stirrups on both my saddles. One is the B Vertigo aluminum safety stirrup and the other the BR Lavarone safety stirrups. The side branch pops open in a fall when pressure is applied.

[sheltona01]

It is not any more dangerous then anything else related to horses. I agree with the poster above, you shouldn’t rely on your leather coming off any more. There are a variety of safety stirrups on the market that are better options.

There are a couple of reason why a brand would move away from tumb bits stirrup bars. Most people don’t know they you are suppose to oil the joint and they were getting frozen and not moving.

Also with the tumb bit down, it is more likely that it would press into the horse’s back causing physical issues. Most people started leaving them down because of the above issue.

[Huntin_Fool]

Well actually County anyway went back to the bar with the joint-according to the County rep.

And I agree that joint does get rusted or tight. If you look at any books or on line they always say leave it down. I’ve never read in a book or on line to leave it up. But then I’d never seen that hook style or whatever it’s actually called stirrup bar either! I’ve never noticed that the jointed thing being down bothered a horse-but I could have missed it.

The safety stirrup does seem to be another layer of safety that’s probably a good idea.

I don’t agree that a bar design that might anyway, and I have seen them work, release your leather is the same as one that absolutely would not release your leather, but as you say a safety stirrup removes that from the equation.

Regards,
Huntin’Fool

[Huntin_Fool]

So I googled ‘hook stirrup bar’ and got a lot of concrete answers-apparently it’s a concrete thing too. But all the pics I found of hooked bars look like the one I’m gonna attach along with the County one. All the other bars I saw had a small bump that was canted at maybe 60deg? 70? The County I was looking at has a much longer upright that’s about 90 deg-not quite but close. I think that makes a difference too. And as discussed the County workmanship on the bar was bad. Anyway, there’s that.