Winter Riding: Stirrups and Boots

March 2, 2007 by Saddle Sense
Filed under Hall of Fame, Resources, Saddle Parts

We’ve finally gotten some snow here in very dry southwest Montana, so I enjoyed a great ride yesterday. There’s nothing like taking your horse for a ride in nice, new powdery snow. It’s even worth bundling up in all those dang clothes and big boots and struggling to hoist your booty up into the saddle. It’s hard to be graceful in five layers, isn’t it?

While I was riding, I was thinking how riding with winter boots can be dangerous if you’re stirrups aren’t big enough. Your foot should easily slip in and out of your stirrup even with winter boots on. Sometimes that might require changing stirrups in the winter to wider and taller stirrups than those you ride the rest of the year. Depending on your boots, you may even want to use oversized overshoe stirrups. Changing stirrups may seem like a hassle, but getting your foot hung up in your stirrup is not something you want to experience.

By the way, I wanted to share my discovery for the "absolute warmest winter riding boots." Mountain Horse makes a line of boots called Rimfrost that are the warmest things I’ve ever found. My feet are always cold, and these are the first boots to keep them warm. The Rimfrost boots come in a paddock style and a tall boot style and are available for both women and men. They’re English riding style boots, but we won’t hold that against them. I have the paddock boots and they keep my tootises toasty.