Seeking: Recommendations for THIN stirrup leathers at a reasonable price

[Backstage]

Every time I jump, I get frustrated. And its not my inconsistent ability to find a distance - its the stirrup leathers, and the battle that is shortening my stirrup length. My previous saddle was generous in the stirrup bar area, so this was not a concern. None of my existing leathers are thin enough and I’m in need of recommendations. All the previous threads that I found on this topic were a bit dated, and inconclusive.

I have a Delgrange Virtuose in case it matters and someone has a solution specific to this saddle. Delgrange, of course, does sell stirrup leathers which would probably work, but they are also more expensive than I’d like.

Ideally I’d like nylon lined, but I’m flexible on that point. Ideal price point is $100ish.

[bjd2013]

Beval sells really nice ones, that are thin IMO. I think they’re more towards 150$, but I think you can find them new on eBay cheaper.

[kelsey97]

I hate thick leathers. I have Stubben fancy stitch calfskin leathers and love, love, love them. After 4 years they have held up really well and not stretched much. VTO saddlery has them for $158, but you may find them cheaper.

[jn4jenny]

What color is your Delgrange? The Beval Italian Calfskin Leathers are delightful and very slim, but they only come in a dark havana color. A perfect match for my Amerigo Pinerolo CC, but too dark for the typical Delgrange Virtuose.
http://beval.com/Italian-Stirrup-Leathers#.VsY6o5Num-o

For a better color match, try the Prestige Nylon Core Leathers in Tobacco. They’re spendy, but Equus Now has them for a very good price.
http://www.equusnow.com/products/prestige-stirrup-leathers.html

[RugBug]

I have two Delgrange’s (Athenas) and use these stirrup leathers with no difficulty:
Dover’s Children’s Ultimate Adjust. You will have to deal with some stretching at first, but it is over quickly and you won’t have adjustment problems again.

[fordtraktor]

The Prestige ones are my favorite. I have had the Bates, Beval, Pessoa, Courbette microfiber, Freejump (which I also like OK at the top though find bulky at the bottom). I also like my Antares dressage ones just as well but they were $200 and they are no better than the Prestige. If I had it to do over I would just buy the Prestige and save $70.

I hate stirrup leather bulk so have been on a life’s quest to find the perfect stirrup leather! :lol:

[Backstage]

[QUOTE=jn4jenny;8536916]
What color is your Delgrange? The Beval Italian Calfskin Leathers are delightful and very slim, but they only come in a dark havana color. A perfect match for my Amerigo Pinerolo CC, but too dark for the typical Delgrange Virtuose.
http://beval.com/Italian-Stirrup-Leathers#.VsY6o5Num-o

For a better color match, try the Prestige Nylon Core Leathers in Tobacco. They’re spendy, but Equus Now has them for a very good price.
http://www.equusnow.com/products/prestige-stirrup-leathers.html[/QUOTE]

Good point on colour - I forgot to mention that. My saddle is one of the two-tone ones - the seat and front part of the flap are lighter in colour, but the “main” part of the flap is dark, and a dark stirrup leather works best. Like this: http://img.equinenow.com/slir/w1200/english_saddles/data/photos/15003_1.jpg%3F1432145318

The Beval and Prestige both sound like good options, and are do-able price wise. The US-CAN dollar is really killing me right now! What colour are the Prestige ones in real life? The Equusnow photo makes them look quite light, but the description section indicates dark chestnut brown…

RugBug - How tall are you? I’m a bit short legged, but I do wonder if the children’s size will be long enough!

[Soaponarope]

Another vote for Beval. DD has had hers for I don’t know how many years. They are slim and strong.

[SweetMutt]

Maybe I got a freak set, but I have Beval lined leathers too and would NOT call them thin. I hate having to adjust them from the saddle. They have held up well over 6 years or so though, but I avoid changing my stirrup length on the flat vs. fences because I can’t stand them.

[RugBug]

[QUOTE=Backstage;8537064]

RugBug - How tall are you? I’m a bit short legged, but I do wonder if the children’s size will be long enough![/QUOTE]

I’m 5’7" with most of my height in my legs. The Children’s leathers come in in 48" and 54" options. I have both. This is what a regular length stirrup leather does to me. (They have to be trimmed but I never end up doing it.

This is with a child’s 48" leather on my PJ Lite. And again Perfect…nothing extra to trim…nothing sticking out.

This is my trainer’s Partition (we love our Delgrange’s) with 54" children’s leather.

This is a 48" on my Athena

I will admit that both my trainer and I are frugal and $30 is an attractive cost. They aren’t the highest quality leathers, but they work, they last and they are thin.

(as for thin: you may be getting two answers: I take it to mean thin thickness wise (the depth of the leather) so any type of lined or even stitched leather is probably not what you are looking for. You could also mean thin as in width or side to side. The Children’s are 3/4" wide so not the typical 1" in regular leathers.)

[fordtraktor]

The Prestige will Oil up as dark as you need them to. My saddle is a rich Havana and mine are oiled to match it perfectly. I am sure I could get them considerably darker if I wanted with Hydrophane.

When I think “thin” I mostly care about “is the buckle and leather going to create a lump.” I don’t really care about what is the thinnest leather. If you want really thin and don’t care about buckles, the Courbette microfibers are superthin. I didn’t like the color though and the buckle wasn’t as smooth as I would like.

[Lexie55]

I second the Prestige leathers. What I found was bothering me when i put my old leathers on my new saddle was the lump the old style leathers made at the stirrup bar. My old leathers were 3/4" children’s leathers from Beval, single ply. I have always used children’s leathers because I am short and have short legs and would end up having to punch more holes in the adult leathers.

Anyway, I saw the Prestige leathers at a tack shop and asked the sales person about them, and she said the metal thing at the end of the leather, where they attach to the buckle, would make them lay flat. Sorry I don’t know the proper name of the metal part They do lay very flat on the saddle and don’t bulk up under my thigh. I bought myself a pair on ebay for a song, so I don’t know the retail price (but I seem to remember them being about $100 or $110 at the tack shop, and I didn’t want to spend that on something I didn’t know I would like, hence ebaying).

The other positive I have to say about the Prestige leathers is they have a lot of holes in them. I have 5 holes left above the hole I am using, and they are adult leathers (I am 5’4" and have about a 29" inseam). They are spaced at what I consider to be half-hole intervals, so lots of options, and they will work for a short legged rider.

I’m pretty sure they have nylon lining, but even if they don’t, mine have not stretched at all.

Anyway your actual question was more along the lines of what would slide through the stirrup bar better. A nice side benefit of the Prestige is they slide way better than my old single ply leathers. I don’t know if that is because they are thinner, or because they are slicker, or what, but I don’t have to get off to change stirrup length.

Color: I now have 2 pairs of Prestige leathers because I bought a pair for DD’s saddle. The first pair from ebay was virtually new and is a milk chocolate color (think Hersey kiss). The second pair, also from ebay, had been used more, and is a very dark brown, like they had been oiled a lot (think dark chocolate). My guess is they come the milk chocolate color new, but if my 2 pairs are the norm, you can definitely make them darker pretty easily. I don’t use anything but Leather New on my tack (I don’t like the limp feel that heavily oiled tack has) so the newer pair is still milk chocolate and looks good with my Pessoa XP3.

[jn4jenny]

[QUOTE=SweetMutt;8537099]
Maybe I got a freak set, but I have Beval lined leathers too and would NOT call them thin. I hate having to adjust them from the saddle. They have held up well over 6 years or so though, but I avoid changing my stirrup length on the flat vs. fences because I can’t stand them.[/QUOTE]

We might be comparing apples and oranges. There’s three kinds of Beval nylon-lined leathers: regular, Gladstone, and Italian calfskin. The Italian calfskin ones are much, much thinner than the first two.

[jn4jenny]

[QUOTE=Backstage;8537064]
Good point on colour - I forgot to mention that. My saddle is one of the two-tone ones - the seat and front part of the flap are lighter in colour, but the “main” part of the flap is dark, and a dark stirrup leather works best. Like this: http://img.equinenow.com/slir/w1200/english_saddles/data/photos/15003_1.jpg%3F1432145318[/QUOTE]

For that color, I’d get the Beval Italian Calfskin Leathers in Cognac. The Prestige leathers in Tobacco will be too light; they’d be more appropriate for one of the caramel-ish Delgranges, like this one:
http://www.iselltack.com/products/2012-bruno-delgrange-17-4x

They do (or at least they used to) make the Prestige leathers in a chocolate brown color. But IME, that’s hard to come by. If they’re still made in that color, then an outfit like Equus Now could probably order them for you. But I wouldn’t go through that hassle for the saddle you’ve pictured. There are other off-the-rack options like the Bevals, so why bother?

[beowulf]

Lined stirrups are usually NOT thin - and if they are, it can be a real PITA when the leather stretches but the liner doesn’t - you end up not being able to use half the holes because the lines for the holes don’t line up.

I love my Courbette stirrup leathers. They are thin and no matter what, can be slid into any stirrup bar – even my evil Ainsley’s stirrup bars which are more crooked than the devil’s horns and take so much physical effort to get lined stirrups into :mad:

[fordtraktor]

You can oil the Prestige ones to be as dark as you want them with Hydrophane. My saddle is a “rich Havana” I would say, it’s on the darkish side (not a chestnut color like some saddles today) and mine match perfectly. I would say my saddle is comparable to OP’s. Wasn’t hard at all, a few coats of Hydrophane was all it took, they are not overoiled or anything. Don’t soak them in it! Clean well; Swipe, wait a few hours and see what you get, repeat. Also if you roll them it will speed up the process. I definitely ordered the “tobacco” originally. Out of the box, yes, they will look too light.

[bjd2013]

I mean this isn’t price friendly, but the Voltaire ones are thin and last a while. They’re lined, and don’t stretch really at all. My BF rides anywhere from 6-15 horses a day and he had his one pair for 3 years before he replaced them, and even then they weren’t that bad.

[DMK]

[QUOTE=kelsey97;8536897]
I hate thick leathers. I have Stubben fancy stitch calfskin leathers and love, love, love them. After 4 years they have held up really well and not stretched much. VTO saddlery has them for $158, but you may find them cheaper.[/QUOTE]

Agree, these replaced the prestige leathers with so much happiness and joy. Every other lined leather I ever used on a addle had to be left out of the keeper because it would bother me so much (up at the bar it would “lift” the skirt and apparently I have Princess and the Pea inner leg sensitivity because it would annoy me with full chaps never mind breeches).

The only down side is they are so soft and floppy, my heavier sprenger stirrups rarely stay rolled up for long even if I run them up and wrap them instead of just run them up

[Kimstar]

OP, I’m not sure where in Ontario you’re located, but why not give Bahr’s in Hornby a call?

They have many, many different stirrup leathers including Prestige (they’re a dealer) and also Beval.

And the prices are in Canadian $! (And most of the leathers recommended above are probably not in your budget when converted to Canadian $.)

http://www.bahrsaddlery.com/for-the-horse/girths-stirrups-irons/stirrup-leathers.html?limit=all

[dynamite0319]

I have the Beval Italian Calfskin leathers and the Prestige Calfskin leathers and the Beval’s are incredibly thin. So thin I wish they were thicker! They make my Prestige leathers seem chunky when I go back and forth between saddles.