Hello, me again. So, as I get back into riding I’ve noticed that I have very weak ankles. They feel like they are about to snap if I ride too long. They’re literally shaking by the end. Any others have this problem? Any thoughts? It just makes me sad.
Hmm…can’t say I have but I wonder if you’re putting more weight on the ball of your foot causing your ankle to take more stress than it needs to be? Your ankle shaking kind of sounds like what happens to me after I work out and do calf raises where my weight is on the ball of my foot.
Any way you could try a light, wider tread stirrup like a Compositi, that might give you more of a base? Are you working with a trainer who can look specifically at your leg position?
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I had that as a child. I could stand and relax my ankles to the point they could touch the ground - both directions.
Ballet worked wonders. Even a barre class may be sufficient. But also consider discussing it with a sports medicine physician.
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After a leg injury that had me on crutches for weeks I had a similar problem on one side. I got ankle weights and strapped them around my feet near the toes. I laid on my side on my bed with my feet hanging off the end and did toe lifts, rolled over and did the same the other way. It worked perfectly and I got quick results. 
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One of the things I did to help me get back into riding shape was stand on the edge of some stairs as though I were in stirrups, let my heels sink down and kind of “post”. It really helped strengthen the muscles in my feet and ankles.
I also second the ballet or barre exercises. You might not even have to take a class - I’m sure you could find YouTube videos of ankle strengthening exercises.
Can you describe your rides? How long is each ride? How often do you ride? How long have you been riding on this schedule?
Like a lot of things - it may just take time to build up strength, and if you’re in a lesson with people who have been riding for a long time, you may not appreciate the difference.
Or, it can be that you are tight and/or weak, and there are exercises to stretch and strengthen your feet and ankles. But before you do that, I’d just make sure what you’re experiencing isn’t just normal fatigue in a new exercise.
Using the ballet comment - if you were a new ballet student, no one would expect you to be able to keep up with students who have been dancing for years. And, trying to do so might hurt you.
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To me that sounds like you are “standing” in the stirrups, using them to support you. Stirrups are a resting place for your foot, and extra support. They are not THE support, that role belongs to your legs.
Shaking means there is way too much tension. That can come from a lot of things, including fighting for balance in a saddle that doesn’t fit you (and/or the horse), to not having proper leg position, to focusing on forcing heels down and the associated tense, stiff leg.
Do you have any short video of, say, you trotting and posting?
I dealt with this a lot in my youth because I wasn’t riding correctly and had a trainer that was teaching me to brace my foot down in the stirrup so that my leg was totally off of my horse. She also insisted that my foot needed to be parallel to the horse. It took me YEARS to get out of that habit and relax my lower leg against my horse’s side so that it absorbs the shock instead of my ankle and I also allow my toe to turn out slightly. Between that and solid, wider footbed stirrups, the pain is pretty much totally gone but it took years. The bendy/ jointed stirrups made it worse IME.
I still struggle with weak ankles like this to this day. The MDC stirrups with the adjustable top have seriously been life savers. Also working on not bracing your foot in the stirrup and letting your leg do a lot of the work will help too.
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