ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Weird stirrups

Re: Weird stirrups

Susan Evans Garlinghouse (suendavid@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 30 Aug 1997 10:28:15 -0700

Ann Marie Olson wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I ran across the strangest stirrups recently on an older used Orthoflex
> that I saw for sale. They looked like they were patterened after the old
> style Asian stirrups. (a little bit like an up side down question mark)
> They looked like they were made out of heavy brass. They were open on the
> outside, and so looked like they would release the foot easily in a fall,
> and had the wider, foam cusioned footbed closer to the modern endurance
> stirrups than english style stirrups. If anyone out there knows who
> makes these, or has had any experience with them I would love to know
> more about them, they looked rather comfortable.
>
> Ann Marie Olson
> aolson@vnet.net

Hi Ann Marie,

I don't know if these are the same, but when I originally bought my OF
Express some eight years ago, I ordered the spring stirrups to go with
it. The main body of the stirrup is a heavy brass-colored metal of some
sort, with a spring mechanism in the throat, and yes, shaped like an
upside-down question mark. The side is open, with a small piece of
plastic on the footpiece that curves up to theoretically keep your foot
in place.

Quite frankly, I thought the design was extremely flawed and OF's
customer service to solve the problem was infuriatingly awful. They
cost somewhere around $150 or so, and the plastic footpiece broke the
first time I rode in them. OF sent me a new piece to replace it (three
weeks later) and then the other side broke. New piece sent, which
promptly broke. This time around, my foot slid out of the stirrup, I
lost my balance, came out of the saddle and landed hard enough to lay me
up for a month of no riding. OF's customer reps answer was that
obviously I must be a pretty poor rider if my foot was moving around
that much to break the footpiece. Never mind that all it took was ONE
instance of your foot moving outward (as in during a spook) to break the
thing, it must have been my riding, not their product. The next time
they sent the part, I had my trainer ride in them, the horse spooked
(Cato does that alot) and HER foot broke the stirrup as well. I guess
she must be a lousy rider, too, despite the fact that she's on the USET
and was on the short list for the Pan-Am Games at the time.

In the meantime, I had sent two letters to OF telling them of my
problems and asking for a refund or some sort of solution. No response
whatsoever. I called yet again and told them that obviously this was
going to be a recurrent problem, and what was their solution please? I
was told that as I had had the stirrups for more than 30 days ( even
though I'd only been able to use the stirrups twice in that period, due
to prompt and continuous breakage), they would not refund my money. As
they were under warranty for a year, they would continue to send me the
replacement plastic parts as often as they broke, in other words, every
time I rode in them. After a year, then I could continue to endlessly
replace the plastic piece, at $10 a pop, forever, assuming that the
design flaw(s) were not going to go away on their own.

In short, I adore my OF saddles, but in my opinion, the spring stirrups
are a piece of junk and very dangerous to ride in. OF's customer
service is completely unsatisfactory and their uncaring and patronizing
attitude about backing up their product was frustrating and
infuriating. If these are indeed the same stirrups that you are looking
at, RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN. Go spend your money on one of the other
flex stirrups available. I chucked the OF stirrups into a box to go
rust, put Trail Tech stirrups on the saddle and have been very happy
with their performance AND the company's customer service.

I normally don't foam at the mouth over unsatisfactory products I've
tried over the years, but this incident stills makes me grind my teeth.
Good luck finding a stirrup that will be a help, not a hindrance.

Susan Evans Garlinghouse

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