From: Kaycee
Dear Jessica, this is such a stupid question you will think I am a total idiot, but here goes! How do you adjust the stirrups on a western saddle? I never had a western saddle before, but I just "inherited" I guess you could say a horse from my neighbors who own the farm next to mine. He came with a western saddle and it seems to fit him alright, so I would like to ride him in it. I know how to do the cinch knot to fasten the cinch, my neighbor showed me, but it wasn't his horse or saddle the horse belonged to his daughter who got pregnant and moved away with her boyfriend. He never had anything to do with the stirrups and didn't believe me that they can be adjusted. Since his daughter is gone we can't ask her and he says as far as he knows they were fine for her and she never tried to change the position. Her legs had to be a lot longer than mine because I can't even keep my feet in the stirrups and I can't get my boot sole onto the part of the stirrup where you're suppose to put your feet. If they were about five inches higher they would be fine for me. I know there is a way to adjust them but WHAT IS IT? I can't figure it out. I can't find any buckles anywhere and just above the stirrup there is about a three-inch high hard leather thing, like a tube only flat, that wraps all the way around. I don't know what it's for. Anyway can you please tell me how to do this, or does it sound as if this saddle is strange and maybe it only has one place the stirrups can be? I like this horse a lot and the saddle is fine for sitting, but I want to ride in it!
Kaycee
When you look under the saddle's fenders, you'll notice that the stirrup leathers are punched with sets of TWO holes (unlike the single holes in the stirrup leathers on English saddles). The slide will surround the leathers, just above the stirrup. If you'll pull the slide UP, away from the stirrup and toward the saddle, then look at the part of the leathers it had been covering, you'll see that underneath, there's a flat, shaped piece of metal with two horizontal metal posts sticking out of it. Those posts go through the holes in the stirrup leathers, and then the slide is used to keep the leathers on the posts, and lock everything into position.
To shorten or lengthen your stirrup leathers, just pull the leathers off the posts, make the adjustment, push the posts through the appropriate holes in the leathers, and push the slide back down to cover the buckle.
If you can get someone to help you, that would be ideal. Sit in the saddle, let your legs relax and hang down, and then have the other person adjust the leather until the tread of the stirrup is level with your anklebone. That will give you a good, safe riding position, and you can begin with that, go on a few easy rides, and then adjust them up or down one hole if you decide that you'd be more secure and comfortable with your stirrups a little higher or a little lower.
Since you suspect it's been a very long time since anyone has adjusted the leathers on your saddle, I suggest that you take a bottle of good leather conditioner out to the barn with you - Leather Therapy would be my choice - and treat those leathers! You want them to be strong for safety, and flexible for your convenience in adjusting them. If they haven't been adjusted in a long time - or since the saddle was purchased - they may be very stiff.
Snce you're on your own, your neighbour can't help, and I can't draw a picture here, I'm going to make one more suggestion. The first time you do this, clean, treat, and adjust ONE leather at a time. Unfasten it, clean it, treat it with the leather conditioner, and then adjust it to the length you want, and fasten it again - using the OTHER leather as an example to remind you of how everything fits together. Then you'll be able to do the same thing with the second one, using the first one as an example.
Have fun with your new horse and saddle - I think you'll enjoy riding much more, and I know you'll be much safer, when you can have your boots in your stirrups, your heels down, and a comfortable angle at your knee.
Jessica
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