This content was created by Mary Wanless. This content was uploaded by Mary Wanless. This is a YouTube video titled "How To Check Your Stirrups Accurately" containing a detailed instructional monologue by Mary Wanless from March 27, 2019. In the video, Mary explains how to properly measure and adjust stirrup lengths for riding, addressing common issues such as uneven stirrups and leg length differences.
You could be riding along as happy as a clam, feeling that your stirrups are level when they're not. The only way you can really tell if your stirrups are level are to measure them. And counting holes doesn't work very often. One stirrup leather has stretched relative to the other, so you have to do this before you get on. So you let down the stirrup before you get on, pull down the stirrup so you're sure there's no slack in the leather itself. Turn it up and measure. So for me, this is the width of my hand with all of my fingers and my thumb above the bottom of the saddle flap. That means we have a rider with relatively short legs and probably a saddle flap that's longer than ideal. And it's not that your stirrup leather should be a certain number of fingers, is that it should be the same on both sides. And if you're not sure, walk around and re measure the first side again. So you pull it down, you turn it up, you measure like that and you believe. You believe it when you get on. If you then get on and it doesn't feel level. And of course, the. Thank you. The situation gets complicated if your saddle would tend to slip to the side. And the situation might be complicated by the fact that your horse holds his ribcage like this. So stirrup leathers that are the same length, this one will look shorter because it goes right around the barrel, and this one will look longer because it's hanging straight down. But you are not allowed to ride with your stirrups uneven whilst you're doing this. You're only allowed to do that if you know you have broken a bone badly and in the resetting process, you know that leg is shorter. And if somebody's told you your leg is shorter, the question really is, is it structurally shorter, which it would be in the case of that break, or functionally shorter because it's jammed up into your hip socket. And supposing it's functionally shorter. So you go, gosh, this leg's shorter. I need my stirrup shorter. And you're going to push it up into your hip socket even more. So I really want you to set your stirrups the same length and we're going to figure it out. Sam.
