Like driving a car, horse riding comes with the same intent to increase the safety of the rider if things are to get south. In automobiles you will find a variety of safety features such as seatbelts, air bags and customized suspension to bear the fall/intense contact. But in case of riding or performing other equestrian related exercises there is only one safety tool performing at its peak to increase the security around the rider and that is a safety stirrup.
What is a safety stirrup?
Safety stirrups are the mechanical devices that are used to increase the overall safety of the rider and to release their foot in case of a fall or other misfortunate event during equestrian performances. Almost all of the stirrup designs come with an intellectual breakaway feature that helps in the release of rider’s foot in case of an emergency situation and is triggered by the weight of the rider leaning against it. This design is either over the top or at the sides of the stirrup, the mechanism will kick in when the safety feature would notice a considerable weight being applied over the stirrup.
This will either cause the safety feature to help you free your foot out of the design or it would completely set you off in event of a vicious fall so you can gain control over the situation and save yourself from any miscalculated event.
Design of the safety stirrups
Every safety stirrup follows the same design pattern but comes with varying modes of material used to build it up, such as you can find metal stirrups, complete rubber stirrups or aluminum stirrups depending on your budget and availability of options. But rest assured the working mechanism is same for all of them no matter the specified material used to build it up. The most basic of the stirrups come with a rubber band on one side placed side by side with the steel bar. So, in case of an emergency your foot would add weight over the rubber bend and would cause it to disengage from the steel bar freeing your foot so you can recover from the ramifications of the fall beforehand.
Reasons why you should invest in safety stirrups
Following are some of the most dedicated reasons following which you should invest in increasing the overall safety of yourself with safety stirrups
- It will help you to focus on the game instead of intensively thinning about personal safety if things go bad
- Vividly decreases the chances of being dragged by a horse with your foot still clinging in the shaft of the stirrup
- Availability of various color and build options which is a solid point for the young riders and eventers
- Rest assured with the best of the equestrian technology incorporated into its significant design your foot won’t be released at random minimizing the risks of early release. Only applying of body weight at certain angle would trigger the release of your foot
Horse riding or certain equestrian performance is a serious game and that is why you should account for your personal safety and safety of others before going for it, that is why you should invest in the safety stirrups.