Many riders, especially beginners, are afraid of losing the stirrup. To prevent this from happening, they seem to deliberately pinch their leg in the stirrup. Such a rider automatically lifts himself with his foot as a lever from a deep landing, and his hips are rigidly fixed. He can no longer accompany the movement of the horse with his body – that is why such a game, started with a stirrup, is far from harmless. Safety stirrups of a good quality should be used for this purpose.
A very useful exercise: from time to time, deliberately take your leg out of the stirrup. If at the same time you take out only the sock, then the stirrup itself returns to its original place. This exercise allows, in the form of a game, to overcome the feeling of fear of losing the stirrup, and shows that with the correct position of the leg, the stirrup always to find its place and remains on the leg by itself. Thus, the rider does not need to hold it down with special efforts. In this case, you need to be very careful in the event that the length of the stirrup reaches the level of the ulna of the horse, so as not to cause it severe pain. Magnetic safety stirrups are used specifically to avoid the fear of losing the stirrup.
Based on experience, it is easier for beginner riders to ride on shorter stirrups at first, since at first it is too difficult for them to maintain balance with a straightened leg. Children and novice riders should generally ride without stirrups a lot in order to practice the feeling of deep seating. In this case, you should pay attention to the fact that they do not cling to the saddle with their feet and do not lift their knees up.
