I have a bad right ankle, in high school I did a lot of damage to the tendons and ligaments (runner and when I rode, I must roll my ankles and put the weight on the outside of my foot/ankle) with a refusal on cross country (not a bad one, but just enough turn to the left to snap it). I had it operated on and was doing ok afterwards, and then had a 10 year break from riding (school/masters, etc). I started back again a couple years ago, and really started jumping last year and it has started acting up. Right now just painful if I ride in jumping stirrups for too long, or a turn out to the left. Has anyone tried the MDC stirrups or the sprenger ones for ankle pain like this? (I don’t think I’m rolling them- but could be- ever since the surgery my toe points out when I ride). I’m curious to see if it would be worth trying a jointed or bendy stirrup iron. If there are other suggestions, I would be greatly open to them! Thanks!
I’ve never had great ankles (roll the easily and sprained one pretty well a few years ago). I actually don’t like flexi stirrups for them as I feel like they need support. I’ve jumped for quite awhile in the black plastic stirrups with wide footbed and been comfortable.
That being said, I broke my leg in August and now have a rod and lots of screws in my right leg and ankle. Honestly, I am the most comfy in my dressage saddle with plain old fillis irons. I think it is the stirrup length over anything else. Maybe play with your length of stirrups and see if you can find a length that still works for jumping, but helps with the pressure and pain.
Do note, for completely separate reasons from the leg, I am not jumping right now, so really only hack in my jump saddle. So, my thoughts should be taken with that in mind!
I’m another member of the bad ankle group, and from all the posts on the subject I have read many people seem to be in agreement that the flexee stirrups aren’t great for bad ankles. Ankles seem to benefit from more stability, rather than less. The flexee’s are great for providing shock absorption for bum knees.
I like my angled stirrups. Not the kind angled front to back, but the ones angled side to side. Putting the taller side on the outside of my stirrup helps to keep me from rolling it and provides stability to my ankle. (Lengthening my stirrup a touch, and excepting the fact the I do not have the conformation to be an equitation superstar doesn’t hurt either.) Best part is a pair of angled stirrup pads will run you less than $10. So it’s a cheap and easy thing to try out. I even managed to get the squishy wrap around stirrup pad cover things to go on my funky angled stirrups. It looks a bit odd, but I’m old enough to not care what it looks like so long as I can ride without pain.
I don’t like the flexible ones either, but I love these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/290842229467?lpid=82. They are the MDC jointed stirrups. It seems like just avoiding the action of twisting my foot when mounting or otherwise picking up a stirrup helps keep the owie to a minimum.
I have flexible ankles that aren’t very strong, so I have done a lot of exercises off the horse to address that. I can now spend several hours in the saddle without having too much soreness. Send me a pm if you’d like a copy of my training regimen. It involves a lot of pilates plus things that physical therapists typically do.
I have the royal rider flexible ones and like them. I think it depends on how your ankle is bad.
Mine are bad from having been sprained a ton (as a runner and a basketball player). Mine sprain very easily…but I wouldn’t say they are flexible. The damage caused to them means they do not flex that well any more. So I struggle to let the weight down into them. So for me the RR flexible stirrups are the best because the wide pad gives my foot support (and takes some of the strain out of my ankle) but the small amount of flex in the stirrup helps take the shock when I’m jumping. They are not super flexible stirrups.
I like the wide track ones a lot better than the flexi ones.
I like the wide track non-flexible ones…
I have had 5 surgeries on my ankle and tibia and the only stirrups I can ride in are the wide track. Having the extra base for support helps a ton. I can not ride in the bendy ones at all as they cause so much pain.
I rode with a lady who’d had both her ankles replaced (and possibly a knee or two?) and she had custom stirrup leathers. What she did was have a tiny bit of super strong elastic (like girthing elastic) put on the top of the stirrup by the buckle. Because her ankles don’t flex very well they don’t work so well as shock absorbers and this helps. It’s perfectly legal for dressage too (unlike some of the comfort stirrups) and doesn’t show at all even when she’s not on the horse. I think she had a saddler do them for her.
Royal Rider.
Flexible stirrups made everything worse for my ankles (3 surgeries on one foot from a horse rollover, 6 weeks in a nwb cast on the other from an unrelated horse accident)
I trashed my ankle (shredded the soft tissue, tore off the ligaments, and killed the tendons) in October, and am only now getting back in the saddle. I actually picked up a pair of the Reflex composite stirrups from Horze.com (but a few places carry them/similar ones) and they’re perfect for what I need.
The sides are solid, but the (WIDE!) footbed has a bit of flex to it, so it’s not completely solid but doesn’t flex as much as a jointed iron so reduces the risk of hyperflexing the joint. I used to only use jointed irons because I had issues sinking into my heels pre-injury, but my physiotherapist said that continuing to use them post-injury is too likely to re-injure the soft tissue.
I tried riding in regular fillis irons (just at the walk) a few days ago and had to get off and go get my Reflex irons because they hurt my ankle soooooo bad!
I usually really dislike composite irons because of the lightness, but the nut in the bottom of the Reflex irons (which I believe allows you to adjust how much flex the footbed offers) gives them a bit more weight on the bottom, so I find they hang more like a metal iron would.
I’ve been kind of “eh” about the flex stirrups, though I did like the MDC ones. But what really helped me with weak ankles (that break over to the outside) was the angled stirrup pads like Twisting described. It’s a very inexpensive fix if it works for you.
Not a stirrup suggestion but have you tried going to physical therapy?
I’ve been having a problem with my right ankle for the past year or so. After 10 minutes of riding/trotting I would have the WORST stinging, burning pain ever in my ankle. I’d have to stop every 20 minutes to stretch it out, only for the pain to come back. After I finally went to the doctor, he thought I had a pinched ligament or something so off to PT I went.
Turns out, I have uneven legs which threw off my alignment in my hips and such. Which then messed up how I walk. Which then messed up my ankles. I roll my right ankle out or something like that, and my left one in, so I am indeed pinching things in there when I ride. After just 1 PT session, I rode and the pain was significantly decreased. After that my horse got lame, so I haven’t ridden since, but still going to PT and feeling better after every one. She adjusts my legs/feet/ankles each time.
Sooo not sure if yours is really the same situation, but it might be something to look into!!! Best of luck
Glad someone started this thread because I am also wondering about stirrups. My left ankle is less flexible than my right. I don’t have any pain but my left stirrup always ends up more “home” than it should, my left heel creeps up, I get crooked, and I wear out the left half chap and left thigh of my breeches far more than the right. Boo.
Was thinking an offset or flexible stirrup might help.
Thoughts?
(edited to say I’ve done physical therapy and continue with exercises but progress plateaued).
I shattered my ankle, and trashed the tendons just over 18mo ago. The only thing that seems to work better than plain fillis irons for me are wide footbed plastic stirrups. The bending ones were completely excruciating, but these seem to help.
my problem is that I have both bad ankles and knees. I have always loved my HS flex stirrups when it was just my knees that were bad but now that my ankles are horrible too I am finding that I have to wrap my ankles with Vet Wrap to the point that my toes are turning blue when I am done riding to get some stability in my ankles. Maybe I will try the wide plastic ones. I hope they will be okay for both my knees and ankles.
sorry for delay in replies
I’m new to posting in COTH and thought there would be notices when there were replies… lesson learned there aren’t.
So here I am a couple months later. I have been in PT on and off for years (since the ankle injury, followed by surgery), last time was just over a year and a half ago. (and I’ve been bad since we moved to Michigan about getting back into my PT routine again, I know…). I have really bad ligaments, loose everywhere and when I originally injured it, they said it was the worst destruction to the ligaments that doctor had ever seen when the operated on it. Ha! So they didn’t do what they planned, tried something else and admitted it may not hold… and after this past weekend, I’m starting to feel that it’s not holding. Jumping puts more strain on them, that’s a given, and I ride only as short as is comfortable and is safe (especially when going cross country). This weekend I was riding my friend’s horse, survived the B-52 Green bomber attack and Max’s bucking event after he got bitten. No ankle pain. And then we are just nicely cantering around in a circle (to the right and my right ankle is the bum ankle) and all the sudden I felt like the ligaments were about to pop out of the groove like right before the surgery. I ride with just normal fillis stirrups. So somehow, without really weighting my ankle since I was doing dressage and in dressage length stirrups I re-injured it. I still had to ride the horse I lease to see if she’s any better, so I put my friend’s flexi sturrips on that saddle to see if that helped, and it felt a little better.
I bought the Bow Balance stirrups this weekend because they came recommended since the flexi stirrups seemed to help (putting my heels down isn’t an issue). I’ve been RICING the ankle since saturday, and keeping it wrapped. I have a lesson tomorrow, and will keep it wrapped for stability and try the new stirrups and see how I like them and let everyone know. The angled stirrup pads may work best (i walk on the outside of my foot a lot, but have been compensating, and pushing off from the inside of my foot, which makes the ankle feel worse, so no clue). Looks like back to PT again as well. ugh
I am in the process of joining the bad ankle club. Doctor appointment is still to come. That aside, I do the the MDC stirrups and can say that they do make the overall ride better. I find it much easier to stay properly balanced particularly in half seat. I am a much lower level rider and used to occasionally have to grab mane to stay balanced when trotting/cantering in half seat. The first day I used the MDC’s I was able to do both with no upper body assistance. I can’t vouch for the ankle part, but I do think they take some of the load off so to speak.
I love these for my ankle issues
http://www.adamshorsesupplies.com/Stubben-Double-Offset-Fillis-Stirrup-Irons-P7831.aspx?gclid=CjwKEAjw68ufBRDt0Zmrn4W_8AwSJADcjp1c94SgiOc5ZU7_wigbBix6U4AD9-AisCvCMwKTicNpwxoCCMbw_wcB
Hate the rubbery ones. Feels like no support
