So I have fairly flat feet. All my shoes and boots have custom orthodic insoles, but I still find that my field boots don’t have enough support for the balls of my feet and the after ride is painful.
So anyone with similar foot issues? Which boots have been the best for your feet?
Bad feet are my specialty, lol! I am hypermobile, have very flat feet, and have Mueller Weiss syndrome (the navicular bone went necrotic and died. Fun.)
Anyway, I had to hang up my normal Ariat Heritage boots. Can’t even walk 20 feet in those without severe pain. I bought a higher quality boot with the cobalt foot bed. The model at the time by Ariat was the Volant, but they’ve moved on to a new style. They are an improvement, but still did not offer as much support as I needed.
The game changer came when my physical therapist recommended Currex insoles. They run $75 online. The company has a quick test to determine which insole is best. I pop those into my tall boots before I ride and the amount of pain in the saddle has greatly decreased, and I can walk around the farm in my boots without as much pain. The company makes many different insoles for various activities, but I bought the ones specifically designed for stability.
Hope that helps.
Now I want to know what stirrups are people with foot pain riding in? I just have normal fillis irons. The bendy flexy ones made my feet hurt worse.
Thank you for sharing this.
I buy boots that are a little big in the foot and put my old orthotics in there, that has helped me a ton. I’ve used Ariats for a long time now, but recently hit the jackpot with a used pair of Dehners I found on Facebook. I swear I hear angels sing every time I put them on!
@PNWSunnyDay - I really like my FreeJump stirrups. They didn’t eliminate my foot pain but they do help. And I just like how they are designed.
I used to get crippling knee pain from walking in tall boots. Using arch support wraps/pads on my feet ($14 on amazon) took away the pain.
I really like my DeNiro’s. I have Plantar fasciitis as well some other foot problems. I ordered them in according to the measurements of my orthotic insoles and they fit great. They did require a little break in but after getting them wet they are really comfy. I also found that my wide foot bed MDC irons supported the ball of my foot and my arch far better and helped with the pain.
The upper range Ariat ones are good - I have the old Crown ones (old meaning 2011 and no zipper) that work nicely. I used to use my Superfeet insoles in them, but they didn’t have enough cushion for the balls of my feet, so I put the original insoles back in and changed my stirrup pads instead. 
I love my Ariats and find them the most comfortable by far - but I have high arches (and wide feet]
It does! Thank you, I’ll check them out.
I got the Sprenger stirrups after I broke my ankle. They help a ton but my feet still get painful when I get off and if I ride for over 45 minutes at anything but a walk it’s bad.
I have bad ankles- they roll from me just walking on flat surfaces. I have sprained my ankles so bad that my doctors have said breaking them would have been better.
I look for anything with the tennis shoe type bottom. Ariat Volant/ Vortex. Parlanti K Boot (which I ride in now), I know other higher end brands are starting to offer this.
I also changed my stirrups. I have tried almost all brands. I ended up with Lorenzini for the wide footbed, cheese grater bottoms and slight angle.
Do I still have pain? Sometimes. But its decreased immensely after the tennis shoe bottom/wide footbed stirrup solution.
I have flat feet and I’ve had them at least since I was a wee child (I can still remember comparing wet footprints at the swimming pool) and my father had them as early as age 21 when he was drafted for WWII, so I suspect they’re genetic. What I have learned over the years is that orthotics aren’t made for people with flat feet, they are made for the most part for people who have normal feet but want some extra support. So much of my foot pain, chronic shin splints and even back pain from standing long periods of time went away when I stopped trying to “support” my flat feet with orthotics or fancy running/athletic shoes.
I have custom Dehners with a flat slab of leather for a foot bed for showing and a pair of Mountain Horse Sovereign field boots for everyday. I also do all my barn work in Muck Boot slip ons.
I do use MDC stirrups which have a partial twist at the leather insert which I quite like and seem easier on my knees.
It’s been a while since you posted your answer here but I hope you might be able to advise me. I have neuropathy in the balls of my feet. I am going to look into four2farm’s suggestion of MDC irons but I wondered if you just bought new stirrup pads or know of some that had extra cushion?
@aforby Unfortunately, my solution uses two items that are no longer available!
Extra wide stirrup pads (Pro Jump Sure Grip Foot Pads)-- helps with distributing pressure along the balls of your feet
Since the stirrup pads were made of metal, there wasn’t a whole lot of cushioning there and my feet were still going numb. I then wrapped Super Comfort Stirrup Pads around those (had to shim with cardboard to keep them from slipping) and that helped quite a bit.
Voila, extra wide, extra cushioned stirrup pads.
At the time there were very few options for safety stirrups and this was the best I could do – the market has exploded with options since then, and when I go back to riding, I’ll likely look at some of the ones on offer.
I love my DeNiros but think I need to “get them wet” to make them perfect! Can you tell me more of what you did?
UPDATE: So along with a pair of Ariat Volant’s (I’ve had them a few years now), and the Sprenger Stirrups, the thing that helped most was a pair of custom insoles from a company called Tactical Rehab. They were awesome! I went in and they did all kinds of measuring and molds of my feet. Then a few weeks later I picked up my new insoles. I got two different kinds, an everyday stress type and a heavier, more supportive type for when I was doing heavy hikes, carrying a heavy pack or doing heavy exercise. Now I got these before I retired from the Navy (the reason for the two different kinds) but they have been the best thing for my feet. No more immediate pain when I was rolling out of bed in the morning, very little if any pain after riding. I can definetly tell the days I haven’t been wearing them, say if I spend a weekend at home and am just wandering around the farm in a pair of boots that don’t have my insoles in them. But the pain is significantly less. So if you can find a company that does custom insoles I was absolutely do it.
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