Just wondering if anyone has tried different English Irons and what you thought.
I tend to ride a little "ducky" as I call it (toes to far out) I read that one way to help with that is to get stirups with an off set eye. If the off set is closest to the horse it makes you turn out your knees and grip with your calf, if you have the eye farthest from the horse it turns in your knee to help keep toes forward.
Wonder if anyone has experimented with different Stirups and what your thoughts were.
All I have ever used are the cheapest peacock irons they make, so I don't know if there are any that are better. The regular ones work for me just fine so I haven't looked farther. I just make sure to "try them on" before I buy them to make sure my booted foot has plenty of clearance on either side. I have used ones that were too small before and they are miserably uncomfortable and probably extremely unsafe.
I'm going to tell you something that will probably make old-school equitation instructors cringe, but I say if your toes turn out (mine do, too), then don't try to correct them just for the sake of "form." Don't force your body into a cookie cutter mold if your body wasn't meant to go that way. Ride correctly, yes, but accommodate your own body's needs. My legs are short and fat so I have to ride with shorter stirrups than a person of my height normally rides, and yes it looks a bit screwy, but if I ride with the "correct" (for equitation) length, I can't even keep them on my foot. Once upon a time I did try to turn my toes in like I was "supposed" to, but I finally had an instructor tell me that if my legs weren't built to turn them that way, don't turn them that way, because it actually screwed up the rest of my "form" when I did that. My body just isn't built that way. So I ride with my toes turned out and my stirrups too short and back in the day I still got plenty of ribbons in Hunter Equitation, some of them were even blue. Unless you actually plan on doing equitation, as long as your heel is lower than your toe and you have your straight line between head, shoulder, hip and heel, I think you're fine (I actually think you'd be fine in equitation as well, unless you've got a really hard-nosed judge that likes cookie cutter riders :P). That's my opinion, anyway.
If you want to experiment with stirrup irons, do you know anyone who has some you could borrow? Or maybe look on places like Ebay for some used ones that you could get cheap?
I was taught, and sometimes (rarely) have done this right, that you turn your leg from the hip, not the ankle to straighten out your toes. The instructor had me stand in the stirrups, then roll my leg (thigh) forward to the inside and then sit back down. For a period of time I did this and it was amazingly secure. More of my leg was laying against the horse. But it took effort and I got away from it, which is dumb because it really did feel good.
cckiger: Good idea! Now that you mention it I do remember reading that somewhere. Thanks for reminding me! I'm going to do that Tuesday.
I'm so excited I'm taking my husband on my next lesson, he is going to ride trustworthy Mel and I will be on Flake again! It will be my husbands first ride on a Walker, or any horse for that matter. While he is getting settled I think I'll try rolling the leg at the hip. Maybe it will work, or maybe like Meezer says I may not be built to do that. We will see. EEEE!!! I can't wait to see my guy on a HORSE!! HAHA
