tying stirrups to girth.

It has been many years since I've taken riding lessons or even rode a horse for that matter, but if I remember correctly, one of my instructors had stuck something between our legs and the horse's side and told us to try to keep it there and not let it fall out. I don't think I would ever try tying the stirrups to the girth. To me, that just sounds dangerous and too risky.

What your instructor did sounds similiar to the Ride-a-Buck event in playday games, except it's done bareback. Last time I participated in that I won, because I was so sweaty & so was the horse so the paper note serving as the dollar was mushed into my pants. After I won I got off the horse & was walking around with this paper note stuck to my inner thigh,

My trainer tied my stirrups to my girth... it really helped my position and my balance got way better. :) I use safety stirrups, so would it still be risky?

Its not really risky = your feet fall out just as easy... you can always split the baling twine so its thin and will break easier...

Is really common... I've seen it use in jumping alot to help people with the position of the leg over the jump

Interesting...

To be honest, after a lot of trying and failing when it comes to "using things" to improve my riding, I've come to the conclusion that good old hard work is the most foolproof method. I've never tried this, so I could be talking a load of rubbish, but I would think that tying stirrups to the girth would make riding very awkward and really restrict leg use. I ride my horse through my legs more so than my hands and I'm constantly having to move my legs to ask my horse to bend and so on.
Personally I think that practising the hard way to lead to a more natural development of still legs, but I suppose that if someone was having real problems - say, the horse was interpreting the leg movement as an aid and speeding up, causing the riding to lose control or something.
Like the person above said, standing in stirrups is good for obtaining a more secure position, and is a lot safer than tying the stirrups to the girth.