I love EZ ride with the cages on the front. I think that your problem might also be the big fenders, they put a lot of pressure on your leg. Have you considered switching to an endurance saddle? They have ones that are more english and others that are more western. EZ ride stirrups come in all sizes…
You could, of course, say to hell with how it looks and put EZ rides or any English stirrup on English leathers in place of the Western fenders and stirrups on your current Western saddle.
Or get cordura nylon fenders, they are quite a bit floppier than leather ones. Either option is a lot less expensive than replacing a whole saddle!
Will add that I’ve experienced the collapsing metal EZ ride problem, but in that particular wreck my foot was out before the horse fell on the stirrup. Thank God.
Currently my wintec AP has icelandic style transverse irons with cashel cushions, and the wintec dressage saddle sports some generic EZ ride-type endurance stirrups, in metal as it happens. I dont think the metal is aluminum but I also dont think it wont crush if a horse lands on it.
I did think of just putting my English leathers & stirrups on my western saddle, but switching things back forth is a pain and they are different colors-one’s black & the other blonde.
I ended up buying aluminum stirrups despite the “rollover” dangers. My QH is pretty surefooted and the odds are with me. I hate the idea of plastic resin stirrups.
The minute I put my foot on that FLAT tread I could feel it was the right decision. No shin splints. (although I have slight ankle pain from a prev injury-that’s a fender issue)
When I took my leather padded stirrups off I could see how my weight shifted them out of “square”. The tread just wasn’t flat and wide enough to give my foot the correct support. Plus the padding made the tread “rounded” and I think my foot rocked heel to toe in it.
Thanks for all the input!
You can use nylon dog collars (the 5 buck fix) or Stirrup Straights (probably29.95) to take care of the fender issue–take the stirrups off, buckle the fender, put the dog collar through where the stirrups were, slip the stirrups on the dog collar, buckle dog collar, then adjust fenders for length since this makes the stirrup hang a bit lower. (Stirrup Straights aka Cashel EZ Knees in case my explanation makes no sense and you need to look at a picture of how this works.)This turns and more importantly KEEPs the stirrups pointing so that your ankles arent providing the force to keep the stirrups at right angles to the side of the horse. Really helps the ankles and the knees.
Jeano is right. The dog collars work wonders. A few weeks ago we went on a ride and at the last minute I took my western saddle with the dog collars and easy ride stirrups on it with me. We ended up riding almost 7 hours and not a bit of pain in my ankles. Normally I ride english and within the hour my left ankle is killing me and I have to drop a stirrup to get rid of the pain. I am thinking of putting the easy rides on my english saddle to see if they help.
no, not a picture about what I’m talking about. Stirrup hobbles in and of themselves dont keep the stirrups turned as shown–that picture is of a very nice correctly fashioned fender that hangs so as to make the dog collar or EZ knees fix unneccesary. Probably a REAL expensive saddle. You still need stirrup hobbles when you use the dog collar trick, by the way.
I have a cranky knee. When I first started riding again I had a brand new Billy Cook saddle that had turned stirrups. My knee hurt! I bought Crooked Stirrups and they did help and made riding better. After riding for almost one year I bought an Aussie Saddle with English Type stirrups. What a difference! My knees quit hurting. I did ride in a western saddle a 6 weeks ago with out the crooked stirrups. Gaaaa.a…my knee is STILL hurting. For me, Aussie saddles (or English or plantation type saddles) have stirrups that work for my particular issue.
I use stirrup turners on all my western saddles, then it doesn’t seem to matter what kind of stirrups I use, I get relief from the knee pain. I used to downhill ski so my knees are screwed up anyway, but I refuse to give up riding.
