How to Adjust Stirrups on a Horse After Mounting

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Kelli on behalf of Expert Village. I am going to show you some tips and techniques that I use mounting/dismounting my horse. After you are on your horse, you will need to asses especially if this is a saddle you are riding in for the first time, whether or not your stirrups are the proper length for you. Now your western stirrups will hang a little lower than your English stirrups will. So you want just a slight bend and you don't want your knee jacked up here like you are a jockey but you don't want your leg completely straight out either. So about where my stirrup is, is about the proper length for riding western. You want to make sure that your stirrups are even meaning that they are the same length on each side. Now if you would need to adjust them on a western saddle, what you would have to do is get off the horse, going to look at this, decide whether you need to move your stirrups up or down and there is a buckle under the fender of the stirrups that you can slide off and you can adjust your stirrups accordingly. So that is how you would want to adjust your stirrups "