Stirrups

Stirrups were one of those pivotal yet invisble-to-us-now inventions which remind us that tradition may have much to offer but also much to learn. Humans had been riding horses for some 4-5 thousands of years when the stirrup was invented around the year 1000 AD. It seems amazing that no one had realized before that that a thong or vine slung over the horse's withers could support the rider and better connect him to the horse and utilize its power. But that seems to be the case.

So it's always a good idea to hold up traditions to the strong light of today and ask if it can be improved. Often, it cannot. But today's tradition was often yesterday's innovation.

Dunne & Krumm (and no doubt many places) sell something called Double "S" Safety Stirrups.

What interests me is that the stirrup doesn't lie flat along the length of the horse but transverse to it, making it a whole lot easier to place your foot.

Because of the way it is attached to the stirrup leather, the stirrup sticks out at a 90 degree angle from the horse, with the opening in the same direction as your foot. That should make it easier & quicker to place (or replace) the foot in the stirrups. The rapidity with which one can re-place one's foot in the stirrup seems like a major safety factor, especially for beginners like me who are wont to do something dumb like lose balance and lose a stirrup.

UPDATE: And the theory works. The tack I used yesterday on the Icelandic included these stirrups and from the perspective of a novice rider, it is a cleary superior device. I had no trouble whatever picking up the stirrup. I believe that had I lost one, I could have retrieved it with far greater ease than with the traditional ones. I am somewhat shocked that such stirrups are not used more widely as I believe that they are safer.

So even in the most minute details of practices to which humans have paid attention for literally thousands of years, there appears to be room for improvement. It still astonishes me that the vast, vast majority of stirrups lie flat along the horse. But as a skeptical respecter of "tradition," I wonder what I am missing. Why is this seeming innovation not universal?

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Btw, I just ran across another example of what strikes me as an ergonomic stirrup. In fact this one is adjustable.