hey.

 

whenever i ride, the stirrup always falls to the back of my foot, then my instructor always makes me put my stirrups up very high to stop it from sliding?

does anyone have any tips on how to keep the stirrup at the ball of my foot and my heel down?

 

thanks.

 

xx

Work without stirrups will strengthen your leg and help you balance so that will happen less often. Also be sure that when you start out, your stirrup is placed right on the ball of your feet visually - what feels "comfortable" to me when I mount is usually a little behind that and I have to correct it. Visualize your leg being nice and long and stretching down while still sitting deep. I think a lot of it is just muscle memory - after enough riding correctly, it will click and "feel" right, but it takes some time.

One visualization that can really help is to really focus on relaxing your thigh and letting your thigh and knee drop down along the saddle.  Think about dropping your knee down towards the ground.  This will actually allow your heel to sink quite effectively.

One trick that I use is to keep my toes UP, not my heels down. Effectively, it does the same thing, but concentrating on keeping heels down can make you try to push your weight down into the stirrups, which in turn pushes you up out of the saddle, a fault as bad as heels up. With the toes up the leg stays long and the stirrup just rests on the ball of your foot. 

 Another idea: Stand up in your stirrups. You'll want to do this at the halt first. Try to balance yourself without holding onto the horse with anything but your legs. You'll find there's really only one position you can be in, only one good place for your foot in the stirrup, and your heels WILL have to be down somewhat. When you can stand like this for say 30 seconds at a time at the halt, try it at the walk, then eventually at the trot. 

If you feel really unsteady, put a grab strap on the front of your saddle first in case you start to teeter.

A quick note: if you have a grab strap, attach it to the stirrup bars, rather than to the D-ring on the saddle. Grab straps can easily tear the D-ring off the saddle if much force is exerted on them, leaving you with nothing but a loose grab strap in your hand as you fly through the air, on your way to the ground. A dee-saver can connect the grab strap to the stirrup bar. They are not obtrusive, easy to attach, and they can save your bacon. I have them on all of my saddles: you never know when you'll have to use a grab strap to prevent you from coming off your saddle, and that's the kind of force that will tear a grab strap off the saddle. That is a VERY expensive repair!

thanks a lot,

i'll use all advice and hopefully it will work :)

 

xx