My Best Best For Sore Riding Knees
May 8, 2010 by Saddle Sense
Filed under Saddle Tips
Achy, breaky knees. If you spend any amount of time in the saddle, you know what pain I’m talking about. The human knee wasn’t really designed for the stress that riding a horse puts on this key joint.
There are many gadgets out there designed to take some of the pressure off the rider’s knees. I think I’ve tried just about all of them. The two that I’ve found to be the most effective, without negatively impacting my riding position (and without looking goofy) are crooked stirrups and wedge stirrup pads. Both of these operate on the idea of leveling out the angle of your foot in the stirrup.
1. 
Stirrup Tread Wedges – With most stirrups, the outside edge ends up tipped up higher than the inside edge. To even out the angle, attach a small wedge of stiff foam or leather at the inner edge of the stirrup to level your foot.
You’ll actually find angled treads for sale for English saddles as shown here in this photo, but, unfortunately, they’re hard to find for a western stirrup. You’ll have to get creative and create your own.
2. Crooked Stirrups – New “crooked stirrups” (pictured here) can also solve the problem. Their unbalanced design creates a parallel tread when the foot is in the stirrup. Many riders, including me, rave at how comfortable they are.
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I have a couple of antique/vintage western saddles. I’m interested in knowing more about them, including their worth. One is a Jumbo (yes, it has the elephant)and is heavily tooled; the other is a Fred Mueller. They are both in very good shape for their (I’m guessing at…)age.
Where do I find a good resource for this information? I’ve done several internet searches and come up empty…????
I have a jumbo saddle too (we are both vintage, I got it when I was 14 and am now 60 got on it the other day on a 14:1 H pony – fit both of us just fine. The older saddles really were made to fit most horses.
Don’t have any idea of value. Cheryl
Yep. In saddles, older is usually better – the materials and construction. There’s been an increasing emphasis on lightweight in production saddles today and the tradeoff is a definite declien in quality. No way these lightweight saddles will still be being ridden in twenty years from now.