Turning Western Stirrups

Turning a Western saddle stirrup
(Please read through before starting and have a large pot of very warm water ready)

• First thing to do is adjust them to your preference. If they are one hole long that’s fine.
• Note the holes that the Blevins is attached to then remove the hobble straps, stirrups, and Blevins slide.

Take the bottom section of the fender (that held the stirrup) and soak it in the warm water for a minute or two. When you take it out the leather will be more pliable and you can twist it to the correct shape. Place the Blevins slide facing the opposite way and the part that you just twisted in the holes on the opposite side of the leather strap




Put the hobbles back on tightening them to hold the stirrups in place. The stirrups should now be facing forward instead of inward.



Let them stay over night to dry completely. When they are dry, you can take them apart and oil them.

This system keeps your stirrups in the right place so that when you put your right leg over your horse, the stirrup is right there for your foot.

It will also keep your knees and hip joints from hurting on a long ride.

The following picture is what I do with the extra length of leather that you may have. If it isn't too long you can just let it hang but I don't think it makes a nice look.

What I do is to fold the excess length to the inside and use the hobble and a piece of leather tie to hold it in place. It makes a nice, neat, finished look.

Fantastic thread Bill!!!! :-D Thank you so very much for doing this for us. I know it was a pain in the tushie. You have saved my knees!

Awesome! Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOO Much Bill! YOU ROCK!

Thank you for posting this! A friend and I spent the better half of an hour yesterday trying to figure out how to do the twist from the original post...
UNSUCCESSFULLY!!!

Did this post help you?

I haven't tried it yet as my saddle is out at the barn. I'll bring it back in this week and get it done! I'll also have to have holes punched before I try it.

You know, I was just thinking.....

My stirrups are too short for me, we're thinking that in order to get them to the right length, we might have to punch more holes, as for some reason the belvins doesnt match up with the next set of holes (make sense?). If I place the belvins one set of holes down, then do the twist, that should, in theory, shorten the stirrups up enough for me?

IDK... I just don't really want to go punching a lot of holes in the stirrups, as the owner of my saddle before me punched a lot of holes into it already.

Bobby, where you attach the tongue (on the part you twisted) makes no difference to the outcome since the fender will always be ~1 1/2" above the stirrups. To make the length longer or shorter you will be sliding the leathers on the tree.

The way your saddle came to you, the fender was shoved all the way up under the jockey instead of moving the fender up and down to keep it 1 1/2" above the stirrup.

You will end up with a lot of extra leather (the part with the holes) and I just fold it up on itself. I'll get a picture of it tomorrow and add it to the first post.

Make sense?

Makes sence to me!!! LOL... I was working on the hubby's saddle!!! I had the extra leather issue, I'm looking forward to seeing how you tucked it up.

( I haven't wetted the leather and actually done it yet, I just played around with it.)

Amy, how did it come out? Can you see it working for Bill's saddle? Wetting it will make a huge difference since the leather is so thick it is impossible to get it right without soaking it first.