My saddle has a 2.5 in leathers. I want to get offset stirrups because I have bad knees. BUT almost all of the offset stirrups I have found (except the tuckers) have a 3 in neck. So my question is can I safely use a 3 in neck stirrup with 2.5 in stirrup straps?
Yes you can as long as you use stirrup hobbles done up snugly as close to the stirrup as possible. I have the same issue with my saddle - leathers are a smidge narrower than the stirrups that work best for me. If you are really worried you could wrap part of the bar of the neck of the stirrup with something to act as a stopper, but the hobbles should be plenty to keep things in place.
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Have you tried stirrup turners at all? I’ve got crap knees and these really help me.
Might be cheaper than new stirrups? 
Leather I am so short that if I add turners I won’t be able to get my stirrups up short enough. Otherwise I would have bought them long ago, lol
Oh that’s a bummer. What about having your stirrups turned/twisted? I’ve got this on some saddles too. A saddle shop can usually cut down the fenders a bit too to make the twist work.
http://www.jshawsaddles.com/Twist_And_Turned_Stirrup.php
Otherwise I’d agree with Ceylon Star that with a nice tight hobble it should be fine.
The other thing to think about with stirrup turners, aside from them altering the stirrup length, is that some people find that they poke into their leg and make it uncomfortable. I found with my old wintec that stirrup turners were really helpful, but on my current saddle it’s better if I turn my fenders and use wide tread endurance style stirrups because the fenders on this saddle are stiff and make the turners jam into my shins.
I recently had a leather worker shorten my fenders for me. I was riding on the shortest hole, and with my pony being used as a therapeutic riding horse, I have lots of different people riding in my tack, both western and english, and the stirrups wouldn’t shorten any more. Shortening the fenders at the top and then reattaching the leathers has me comfortably on the shorter side of middle hole which has given me a lot more freedom of motion in my legs because the fender isn’t jammed up under the skirt any more. I can now swing my legs freely even with my feet in the stirrups, something I couldn’t do before and didn’t realize how much pain it was causing until I was finally able to ride with the newly shortened fenders. So that’s something to maybe consider as well if you’re up near the top holes.
My saddle has cordura fenders, idk if they will “turn” permanently. I will look into that twist technique tho, it looks interesting. I wonder if having it done makes it difficult to change stirrup length tho.
