purpose/use of stirrups

you use a stirrup to step up and swing the other leg over the saddle.

Stirrups have little to do with controlling the horse. The feet can do everything with or without stirrups for controlling the horse. The stirrups are primarily there for balance, ease of mounting, and supporting the comfort of the rider.

The reins are connected to a control device, such as a bit, located on the horse's mouth or nose. Simply speaking the reins provide the control of the horse, including turning, starting and stopping. Bad riders use their reins for balance. They shouldn't.

Understand that with a well trained horse, you can ride without reins or stirrups and still control the horse.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

From the dim and distant past, the aids I was taught (aids being UK horse speak for how you steer) were:

To steer left pull gently on left rein and at same time slide the left leg back a little and the right one forward a little and with a little pressure to it (as though bending the horse gently to the left)
Opposite way for to right

To stop pull on the reins equally - I seem to remember something about sitting down more firmly in the saddle as well.

To walk on or speed up, squeeze firmly with legs. May need a kick with the heels as well. Some horses need several kicks. When I say "kick" I mean a tap with the heels not welting the hell out of them.

Note that stirrups have the draw back that if you fall off and your foot goes through the stirrup you can be dragged by the leg after the horse. Older style stirrups are continuous and you were advised to always wear boots with heels so the instep would catch and your foot wouldn't go through. I think there are now modern safety ones where your foot can come out sideways.

You are also taught to move with the horse and to let your arms flex with the horse's head movements so you are not yanking on its mouth.

You stay on by gripping with the knees and balance (or holding onto the pommel before you learn the first two). Each pace is very different rhythm and feel. Each horse is a different experience - height off the ground, wideness of body, smoothness of pace, tendency to eat the hedge as you ride past.
After your first 1 hour ride you are waddling bow legged and sore.

Without stirrups your butt and lower back would take the brunt of the impact every time the horse's hoofs hit the ground. But With stirrups you can stand up a bit and use your legs like shock absorbers. Originally they also allowed people to fight better on horseback. Better stability for archers.

I remember learning in medieval history in college that stirrups were first used by the Hoplites. They were military in intention, giving the warrior/rider something to balance with and add impetus to the forward thrust with sword or javelin.

You can ride bare-back and turn or stop a horse.

I don't know what stirrups are used for with an English-style saddle, but I know that for a working saddle (western-style, with the horn), they can facilitate balance while roping.

Mostly they get you on the horse and stop you from falling off the horse.

They also give you something to brace against when using a lance or spear or sword on horseback. They help get more of the weight and power of the horse and rider behind the point of the weapon.

Trick riders can pick things up off the ground, like their hats, while hanging onto the saddle horn and keeping one foot in the stirrup.

My daughter is not a trick rider and she can pick things up off the ground from her pony at a gallop. She is a mounted games rider.

http://www.mountedgames.org/

But beyond that, back to the original question, stirrups are there to help with mounting and staying in the middle of the horse. It is entirely possible to ride without stirrups. Also possible to ride without reins. My pony is largely controlled by my seat and legs, somewhat by my voice, and very little by the reins.

November is no stirrup month. I know a number of folks who are riding without stirrups for the whole month. Most of these are people who never leave the ring, but I would guess the majority of them are jumper types with a smattering of dressage riders thrown in.

Bolero - you have the leg aids backwards. You want your horse to bend around your inside leg, so the outside leg is behind the inside leg to turn.

We ride English and we do use safety stirrups, a very old design with the outside branch of the stirrup bent forward to allow the foot to come out to the side. There are also Peacock stirrups, which have a rubber band in place of the outside branch. Western tapaderos serve a similar safety function by not letting your foot go all the way through the stirrup.

People were riding horses, and even fighting from horseback, for many centuries before stirrups existed. Mounted archers were common, but heavy cavalry also existed -- they were frx one of the keys to Alexander the Great's battlefield victories.

But the introduction of stirrups was really a game changer, because they gave riders a degree of stability & security of movement (esp. in combination with more substantial constructed saddles) that a rider who had to cling to the back of the horse by the strength of his thighs alone could never match.

A good rider would never dream of trying to use the stirrups to control the horse. That's what knees and balance and reins are for. Stirrups are a convenience for mounting, but that's not their primary purpose - there are a lot of other ways to get onto a horse.

What the stirrups do is to anchor the rider atop the horse in a manner that allows the rider to do everything else that's going on without having to concentrate on not sliding off, and to help brace the rider against impacts that could push them off. (For example, when roping cattle or charging an enemy with a lance in hand.)

Stirrups are useful for mounting and maintaining balance. Everything that can be done on a horse, can be done WITHOUT stirrups - but having stirrups makes it all a little easier.

This includes mounted combat.

The use of the leg aids, whether its behind or ahead of the girth on the 'inside' turn - will depend on the school of riding and the era.

So too, will the 'seat' and placement of the feet in the stirrups. There are many, MANY different schools of equitation that evolved to serve different purposes at different points in time. The way one sits in an English saddle, is not the same for a western, or Iberian , or medieval saddle. The skills used by a jockey, are not the same employed by someone working cattle. Although the principals of most schools will be familiar to most riders.

In the off chance that you typed STIRRUP when you meant to type SPUR (A not uncommon mistake) - Spurs are also called 'aids'. They are used VERY SPARINGLY by experienced riders and should never be placed on the heels of a novice.

http://www.classicalfencing.com/articles/shock.php

My article on the use of the stirrup for medieval combat.

http://www.classicalfencing.com/articles/irishconnection.php

My article on the speculative use of the roman saddle in medieval Ireland.

melindamusil said:

I know that, in a VERY general sense, the stirrups and reins are the "accelerator" and "brake" when riding a horse. But beyond that, why are they present? Is it only for balance, or do they contribute in some deeper way?

Click to expand...

Not quite - your body weight is the accelerator AND the break. Your reins are your 'check'

Stirrups are there for balance and have very little to do with control - most proficient riders are just fine without them - or without a saddle.

shaldna said:

Not quite - your body weight is the accelerator AND the break. Your reins are your 'check'

Stirrups are there for balance and have very little to do with control - most proficient riders are just fine without them - or without a saddle.

Click to expand...

This. Best way to learn to ride is without anything but a halter and legs.

Says I .

(And a horse. A horse is useful.)

I'm not an expert horseman, but I've been warned not to rely on the stirrup to get on the horse, because it can make the saddle off-center. You should put your weight on your hands on the horse's back when mounting.

Stirrups were why the Normans conquered England. Without them, if you charge and hit someone with your lance, you get knocked backward off your horse.

There is probably some other purpose, because people still use them even though they are not likely to get into a joust, but as others have said they are of minor importance and it's perfectly possible to ride without them.

mccardey said:

This. Best way to learn to ride is without anything but a halter and legs.

Says I .

(And a horse. A horse is useful.)

Click to expand...

This is mostly how I learned. And we had a really sadistic riding instructor who would tie out thumbs together with a length of string to teach us to use our core rather than our hands. used to make us jump with our hands on our heads too.

morngnstar said:

I'm not an expert horseman, but I've been warned not to rely on the stirrup to get on the horse, because it can make the saddle off-center. You should put your weight on your hands on the horse's back when mounting.

Stirrups were why the Normans conquered England. Without them, if you charge and hit someone with your lance, you get knocked backward off your horse.

There is probably some other purpose, because people still use them even though they are not likely to get into a joust, but as others have said they are of minor importance and it's perfectly possible to ride without them.

Click to expand...

This is true - if you are using the saddle/stirrup to pull you up on one side it puts a tememdous amount of strain on the horses back and can cause injury. Where possible you should mount from a block/step etc, or, if you are agile enough you can vault up - i used to be able to do it withmy 14.2, but I've a 17.2 now and am not as young as I used to be.

I was once on a runaway horse with my foot caught in the stirrup. The hooves were dangerously close to my head as I struggled the get free. Then the lady in Walmart came and unplugged it.

Andreas_Montoya said:

I was once on a runaway horse with my foot caught in the stirrup. The hooves were dangerously close to my head as I struggled the get free. Then the lady in Walmart came and unplugged it.

Click to expand...

I wanna be friends with you. That was great

(snort!)

During English riding training, they used to make us drop the stirrups at any time during the ride. The idea was to rely more on the knees and use them to both grip and guide. Then once in awhile they'd make us drop the reins. And then there were those moments when the master had us lie back over the cantle of the saddle, gazing up at the sky, and hope we didn't slip off. Not sure what the point of that particular permutation was.

To this day, I can't handle a Western saddle or neck reining. It just "feels" wrong. Such is the power of early learning, I guess.

Deb Kinnard said:

(snort!)

During English riding training, they used to make us drop the stirrups at any time during the ride. The idea was to rely more on the knees and use them to both grip and guide.

Click to expand...

This makes me want to yell at your instructor.

You should never grip with the knees - this tenses the rider and pushes them upwards instead of allowing them to sink down into the movement of the horse - this is why so many people fall off when they ride without stirrups - they tense and try to grip instead of allowing themselves to feel and go with the movement.

The purpose of dropping your stirrups is to encourage the rider to relax and lengthen their leg, sit deeper and straighter and to NOT rely on their legs or knees for balance.

Andreas_Montoya said:

I was once on a runaway horse with my foot caught in the stirrup. The hooves were dangerously close to my head as I struggled the get free. Then the lady in Walmart came and unplugged it.

Click to expand...

Lol.

Admittedly though, although I'm laughing, I have actually done this on a real horse - i took a bad fall when my mare dropped her shoulder at a hedge and I got dragged along behind her for about a quarter of a mile before she stopped. *Insert severe head injury here* - I don't remember anything after the point where I went over her shoulder, but apparently it was quite spectacular to watch. It's actually a pretty common problem - especially when the stirrups are the wrong size for the riders feet - if they are too wide then the foot is more likely to slip through. This is why elasticated release or peacock stirrups are so popular in riding schools and pony clubs etc.

Deb Kinnard said:

I remember learning in medieval history in college that stirrups were first used by the Hoplites. They were military in intention, giving the warrior/rider something to balance with and add impetus to the forward thrust with sword or javelin.

Click to expand...

Hoplites were ancient Greek infantry. That's a looooong time before the medieval period.

Hoplites didn't use stirrups because they weren't cavalry.
Ancient Greek cavalry didn't use stirrups because they hadn't been invented at the time.