My physical therapist thinks I’m onto something. I have a hypothesis that the reason I never had a single problem with tight calf muscles and soft tissue throughout my entire life, up until now, is that for my entire life, up until my horse’s recent retirement, I was spending an hour a day six days a week with my foot in a stirrup stretching down through those muscles. My horse is now retired. He doesn’t wear a saddle most of the time, because I am walking him bareback around the farm in half an hour I have between getting off of work and the sun going down. I am trying to figure out a way to rig up something like a stirrup in my house that I can use for stretching. The closest thing I can think of to mimicking the position of my leg is by putting a resistance strap over the top of a bosu ball. The problem is that the ball is too close to the ground, so the floor stops my leg from stretching down. Other than buying a custom built saddle rack that is sturdy enough to support my weight, can anyone think of a way that I could jerry rig this?
Can’t you use a yoga strap around your leg or your toe between your fingers? Alternating legs while lying on the ground?
Do you have stairs in your house? Standing with the ball of your foot on the edge and lowering your heels seems like about the same thing. Or standing on the bottom rung of a ladder – bonus, if it’s the correct height you can put a book or ipad on the top while you stretch.
If you want to spend money though, there’s always the Home Horse, there’s another thread about it.
I will be stretching for 20+ minutes here, friends. Stairs and Happy Baby aren’t really gonna cut it. 
I’ve been trying to stretch a stiff ankle from a 2020 injury that I largely ignored. I completely fail the dorsiflexion test on both sides but it’s much worse on the right. After using bands, balance disks and little inflatable balls the item that has helped the most has been a set of squat blocks turned backwards so the wedge places my toes up. Whenever I’m going to be standing in one spot for a bit I plop them down and stand on them until I get a really good stretch. I’ve gone from “you really shouldn’t be doing anything remotely athletic on that ankle” to the bottom end of normal in about 5/6 weeks. It probably has more to do with how long I’m on them per day than the method but it has worked for me. Plus I can turn them around, take the top wedge off and use them for squats too.
Well that’s cheaper than the slant board I was gonna buy. Thanks for the tip!
An active sitting stool that adjusts to standing desk height might do the trick?
I did not know that was a thing. Thank you!
these will mimic the stretch that you’d get on a stair: https://comfortorthowear.com/products/orthostretch-calf-stretcher-and-foot-rocker
You might be surprised how much weight a saddle stand can hold; I’ve sat on my heavy western saddle in one of those basic folding metal stands and I’m not light. If you or anyone you know could hack together a wooden stand that wouldn’t be terribly difficult either. And then when you’re through your PT you have a saddle stand!
Another recommendation for the Home Horse.
One of my Crosby jumping saddles complete with stirrups now “lives” on my Home Horse in my living room, complete with the double bridle extension with reins.
My feet are far enough off the platform that I can get my heels WAY down. The motion of the Home Horse prevents my from forcibly locking my ankle joint. It is a much more dynamic experience than just getting up on a stand and standing in never moving stirrups.
Sort of expensive deal, but the saddle was gathering dust, the stirrups and stirrups leathers were just hanging on my saddle rack and I own so many pairs of reins it can get ridiculous.
Now if I can just get over this “cold” (whatever it is), I will be able to get up on it and stretch my leg muscles out in a really dynamic way as I teeter back and forth (I have bad balance.)
Same idea as the squat ramps (so THAT’S what those things are at the gym, I’ve always used them for stretching!) I was just outside and noticed the wheel chocks. Very steep angle, but cheap, from Harbor Freight.
https://www.harborfreight.com/solid-rubber-wheel-chock-96479.html
I’d be afraid that could ruin the saddle, since it’s not uniformly supported on a stand, like it is on a horse’s back.
Something else to consider is what I do to stretch my calves.
I have used standing on stairs to stretch my calves and that worked for me. But now, I stand in the kitchen and put my arms straight out to the edge of the kitchen counter. I then walk backwards and stand flat footed with my body to an angle of the front of the counter to stretch the calves. I don’t bounce and I’ll stand there for a few minutes to calmly stretch the muscles. It is interesting how they never seem to be equal in their tightness. I’ll also twist my body one way or the other to favor stretching one calf all the way around, and then I’ll stretch the other like that.
You can do this while cooking, while making tea/coffee, dealing with dishes, etc. At least, I find myself in the kitchen several times a day and it’s a nice reminder that I should take some minutes to stretch my calf.
(I tend to bounce my legs at work and can get tight calves)
