I am aware of potential for injury dismounting with peacock stirrups, but I am not sure why people just don’t have the kid cross the stirrup over the horse in front of the saddle and then get down? That would mitigate the risk for injury dismounting.
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This is the link if you hadn’t seen it.
I think this is one of those things where MANY people use them fine and never have a problem. But for those who have witnessed or experienced a problem, they say NEVER AGAIN because it is a horrific injury. I have not seen it happen in person where a child gets caught on the hook part in their groin area, but had it described to me one time by another trainer who had just had it happen to a child the day before and just remember shuddering in horror.
There are plenty of options for safety stirrups and I imagine someone can find an issue with each of them. They will each at some point malfunction, and when they do, that person will likely say “I had this bad experience with this stirrup and will never use them again”.
It certainly gets the conversation started about safe tack and safe dismounting procedures, but USEF has bigger fish to fry than banning peacock stirrups.
Adding on an anecdotal story:
Over the winter I had a child get her foot stuck very briefly in a stirrup iron. It’s the first that has ever happened to me in my riding and teaching career. As she fell, she went over the pony’s head and - I have no idea how this happened - her foot somehow ended up upside down in the stirrup. We don’t use the peacock stirrups, but even if we were using them, there wouldn’t have been enough pressure on the side to dislodge the rubber band because the child didn’t go sideways. Fortunately, her foot came free after a couple seconds and things ended fine, but it was one of those things that no matter how careful you are, bad things can still happen. I’ve also heard a story of a woman on a trail ride in a western saddle get her bra somehow hooked over the horn when she went to dismount. Again, not there, no idea how it happened, but stupid things happen.
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Many years ago I got caught while dismounting on this type of stirrup. The horse I was riding had a particular quirk where if the rider started to loose their balance or fall, he would panic and bolt. Not an ideal horse for a kid, but I was a decent-riding kid at the time. I dismounted, and the hook got caught on a loop at the front buckle of my full chaps. It was just at a height where I could barely reach the ground standing on my toes. I stood on my toes and was able to quickly unhook it, but my life flashed before my eyes in those few seconds. If that horse had known what was going on, I would have certainty been dead or seriously injured. I’ve never been a huge fan of that style of stirrups since. In my case I hadn’t crossed the stirrups over the saddle before dismounting because it had never occurred to me that this would ever happen.
Also, why are they called peacock stirrups?
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I got the hook of one of these caught on my breeches once and ripped them. It wasn’t cute, but far less deadly than getting dragged.
Crossing the stirrup over before dismounting almost eliminates this problem. It’s the protocol for those who use the Ophena open branch stirrups, or at least it is for those I know who have them. How many other things do we do daily to use XYZ equipment safely? Maybe this article would’ve been better as a PSA for those who use peacock irons.
Not for nothing, most of the other English style safety stirrup options start at around $200, and plenty have failed spectacularly by either breaking at the wrong time or not breaking/opening at all. Peacock irons are also reusable, whereas it is rather common for some safety styles to need replacing (to the tune of $200+) if you trigger the release too forcefully.
What I mean by this is I think calling for a ban of a relatively safe piece of equipment is silly. As another poster said, we have all seen some accident happen with a common “safe” practice or piece of equipment and sworn that particular thing off forever. Does it make sense to ban 5 gallon buckets or chain lead shanks or whatever?
Perhaps there is a need for “peacock” irons with a button fastener vs the upward facing hook. Something less likely to snag? I saw a comment on that article where a poster ground down the hooks on their peacock irons to accomplish the same idea.
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Would safety cages work, like endurance riders use? Or tapaneros (sp)? I mean, they may not be legal for certain shows but they may be useful at home.
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I’ve posted here about getting my breeches caught on peacock stirrups. It ripped them from mid thigh to crotch. I was a young teen. I was mortified.
I’ve seen other people get caught on them where shirts and breeches ripped. I thankfully have never seen any horrific injuries as described in the article.
There are other options, but the peacock stirrups are cheap. They give people piece of mind, but if there is a chance of injury, then yes they should be re-evaluated. I can’t even imagine a child or adult going through that kind of injury.
They do come in a lot of varieties.
This variety seems to be rounder on the top, so less danger of snagging 
Than this type.
ETA: Of course the top pair is over $100 (I believe that’s Canadian), the second is about half the price.
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That is what I have my kids do. The other brands of safety stirrups are really just too expensive for me to either Recommend them to parents who are already struggling with the budget or to put them on the lesson saddles.
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I don’t have any hard data to prove it, but I have a feeling the percentage of people who know enough to cross the stirrup iron over the saddle before they dismount is probably not that high. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a kid do that at a horse show, anyway.
I don’t think I had ever heard of this problem until I read about it on the BB a few years ago. It’s probably one of those things that would never occur to you until you see it go wrong.
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I didn’t know until I actually had a kid cut them self in the stomach on one, a few years ago. I tried every way I could think of to cut myself on everything on that saddle, including the stirrup, and couldn’t find anything sharp. I then googled it, found other people had problems and that that was the fix. We just include it in the “this is how you get off” instructions now. It’s actually great because it slows down the launching yourself off the pony move that most kids default to.
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That’s interesting! I have some very very old peacocks and they have rounded ends like the top photo.
Can we not just put a rubber stopper over it and call it a day?
Of all the things to worry about when riding horses, this seems to be low on my list of concerns along with being stabbed in the eye by the buckle at the end of the reins or tangled in the draw reins when a young horse decides that today should be his day to try out for the Vienna Riding School.
I mean, they both could happen… and I maybe I had a close call on one of those examples… but it’s horses. If there’s a way or a possibility, some person that’s able to do 4 foot combinations will find a way to impale themselves with something other than the jump… and kids will get bumps, bruises and tears. I feel like we’re getting to the point where we’re banning things without any better solution.
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Back when I was a teen and full chaps over shorts were all the rage, I remember dismounting and somehow getting my shorts hooked on the peacock stirrup. Ripped my shorts. Completely forgot about that incident until reading this opinion piece.
I’m actually in the process of buying a pair of these stirrups for my kid’s leadline saddle. While this all gives me pause, the chance of getting hooked still seems like a lesser risk than getting a foot hung in the stirrup. Those little kid feet/legs can so easily slide right through stirrups.
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Unless you need something for a show, wouldn’t this work?
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We have our kids cross them. But to add, I think if there’s something to get hung up on, a kid will get hung up. I had a great riding friend get her belt buckle caught on a breastplate high enough up that her feet were dangling about 6 inches off the ground. The trainer at the time had to literally pick her up and unhook her. Thankfully the horse didn’t move at all as she was wriggling around.
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That’s it. I’m riding nude.
Just kidding!
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I was backing my 2 yr old for the first time. As I went to slide off, I caught the sleeve to my shirt on the saddle horn. Thankfully he just stood there and looked at me as I imagine I would have lost my shirt if he had decided to move. Everyone recognizes that there are certain dangers to using a Western saddle but I don’t see people banning them!
As for safety stirrups, I always slide down the horse’s shoulder so I’m not rubbing against the saddle on the way down. My friend did get hit in the crotch as she dismounted by regular enclosed English stirrups and she was in agony. So I imagine there is a risk with any type of stirrup. A solid piece of metal hitting you in the crotch is going to hurt.
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I was taught to jump/push off and away from the horse to avoid most of these issues. I think the pony club way is to take both feet out and swing over? Dismounting that way (sliding down near the side of the horse) is what got me caught on a peacock iron the one time it happened (I was tired at a show and had been sitting with my feet out of the stirrups before dismounting).
I was taught to take the right foot out, swing over, then with most of your weight on your hands (on the neck and saddle), to pop the left foot out while lightly pushing away and jumping down. Basically the exact opposite of mounting and takes less time than it sounds here 
. It comes with a slight risk if the horse does something stupid, but clearly everything comes with risks. I think we did it to avoid scratching our saddles with the big blingy “western” buckles of our rhinestone encrusted belts that were all the rage at the time!
Banning peacock irons doesn’t make sense, especially when there’s not a currently available, showing legal, equivalent price option on the market, and the risks are uncommon. Better to start promoting crossing that iron over as part of dismounting, I think.
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I’ve always heard that these could be a risk in a fall due to the hooks as well, if for some reason the rider got hooked on the way down. TBH, I only very briefly had them as a kid, as the rubber bands constantly came off when they weren’t supposed to and got lost (much of my riding in those days was in our back pasture and they were often impossible to find), and my trainer at the time suggested regular Fillis irons and said that if they were properly sized and I kept the stirrup bar lock down on my saddle, they’d likely be fine.
I have no experience with other styles of safety irons, but like the idea of the endurance cages if one has concerns. They aren’t exactly glamorous and aren’t suitable for showing, but might be a good idea to try for schooling purposes. I haven’t ridden with those either, but know a lot of people who really like them (in the trail/endurance world, that is).
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I use these cages for every ride, because I ride a green horse, usually alone, and no longer show because of distance. They’re basically tapaderos for English stirrups.
I also take both feet out of the stirrups and push away from the horse to dismount. I think that teaching kids to dismount like this would make more sense than banning peacock stirrups, which I hate.
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