No Stirrups November: Make It Fun & Safe

Do you love No Stirrups November. Say YAY! Or Nay? For an instructor this is a great opportunity to be creative and to help students achieve basic goals. I’ve included downloads at the end of this post to help make No Stirrups November rewarding for you and your students. Be sure to check them out.

Everyone Can be Included

Why should only the strong riders have the opportunity to participate? You can set up your own program for No Stirrups November that will include your newest, youngest, or oldest students. They’ll feel included and they’ll have incentive to participate each fall. Plus, they will accomplish a goal.

And even though hunter riders have long had a love/hate relationship with No Stirrups November, it’s not limited to any particular discipline. Any saddle will do.

In order to set up your program, you’ll need to think small and then think large. This will aid you in setting up levels of participation.

Please understand, the idea isn’t to turn No Stirrups November into an endurance contest. It’s to make it challenging with reward for effort and a  job well done. Taking away stirrups for an entire month isn’t necessarily good teaching. In fact, in my opinion, that approaches bullying students. It can create fatigue, tension, insecurity, and even fear. All of which can lead directly to accidents.

A rider who becomes frightened may lose confidence that took months to develop. And horses aren’t always predictable, even when they’re dependable lesson horses.

And if you make students miserable enough, they will move on to another instructor.

Just remember No Stirrups November isn’t your opportunity to prove weakness in your students. No Stirrups November is just another teaching tool.

Level One-Think Small

Even your newest riders can compete with themselves to achieve No Stirrups November goals.

I’ll call this group Level One, but I know you can come up with a much more creative system of names, and when you do, I’d love to hear about them.

Take the time to define your levels and write the goals down. You can post them in the barn or on  your Facebook page for students to see.

For this group, I would choose a range of easy activities on and off the lead, such as taking feet out and returning them to the stirrups three to five times in a row standing still. When they are successful have them try at a walk and then with their eyes closed. Don’t worry if they hang on to the saddle.

Play Walking games on or off the lead (you decide what they are capable of) reaching for rings, touching colors or dropping rocks in a bucket. Don’t worry about heels down. Observe how students keep their balance when they have two things to do, ride with out stirrups while focusing on the game. My choice with early beginners or littles is to keep them on the lead so they don’t also have to worry about controlling the horse.

When they are established and feel secure  have them ride once or twice around the arena without stirrups at a walk, doing two to six steps of trot without stirrups on the lead.

Transitions from walk to halt, halt to walk can also challenge this group without stirrups.

Try any of the regular exercises. Choose multiple challenges and use a range to suit your youngest and oldest riders.

One caution with this age group, when doing toe touches make sure they keep the non-targeted leg down or they may slide off the horse.

Level Two – A little more challenge

I might ask this group to trot w/o stirrups between markers. Either do a walk-to-trot transition or have students go from sitting to posting trot for a few strides.

Play a game or set up a drill. Define where the student must walk and where they can trot, sitting or posting.

Set up a pattern of cones or poles to encourage focusing on gentle sympathetic hands while riding without stirrups.

Choose your challenges according to the levels of your riders.

In my experience, students at this level like to try for a number of times times posting. Encourage them to beat the number of posts they did at their last lesson.

This group should be able to do toe touches at a walk without stirrups.

Remember that the emphasis doesn’t have to be how far or how long your student can post without stirrups. You may choose to have them work on sitting trot. For example ask them to ride sitting trot from E to C one to three times.

Try feet in and out of the stirrups, ten to fifteen times in a row without looking and without holding the saddle, at the walk and the trot sitting. Not only is this a good test of how far their leg drops without stirrups, it’s a good skill to have if a rider loses a stirrup.

Have students try posting with only one foot out of a stirrup. This creates a different feeling in the saddle.

Set a pattern of poles that students will walk, sitting trot, and post to. Give them predetermined zones for their activities. For example, walk the green pole, sitting trot over the red, etc.

Level Three- moving up

Perhaps this is the level that you get serious about posting without stirrups, or you introduce riding two point without stirrups, or long side canter, or cross bars. (If you’re teaching western choose obstacles instead of jumps.)

Other suggestions: posting trot over a series of 5 correctly spaced trot poles. Do the same for sitting trot. How about 2 point over trot poles?

How about mounting without stirrups from a mounting block?

Advanced students

With this group the sky is the limit because most things can be done at a walk, trot, or canter. Games, obstacle courses, exercises, toe touches at the canter, posting a short dressage test.(How far can you go?)

There is no limit to the ways to use No Stirrups November to include all of your students, but set your students up for success. Help them be winners in their practice. And reward “try”.

Heels

Let’s talk a little about heels for No Stirrups November. I’m not in favor of all work being done with a relaxed ankle and a longer than usual leg. I agree that some work this way helps to deepen the seat and lengthen the leg but riders also need to strengthen their legs and develop a deep long heel, especially anyone who will jump. Be sure to include both types of leg and heel in your challenges.

Help for Planning No Stirrup November

Ann Guptill had a good article in Dressage Today with ideas and suggestions for No Stirrups November.

And Heels Down Magazine has a good article by Justine Griffin. Be sure to check out the videos on this page. There are some great teaching ideas for teaching without stirrups.

For more ideas on things to do without stirrups, check out my blog post Riding Without Stirrups, Do You Teach it?

Free Downloads

Now for the downloads  I promised at the beginning of this article. The first two are forms you can give to students to record their achievements.

For the student who takes one lesson each week.

For the student who takes two lessons each week.

The certificate for completion.

It’s Your Turn

Please let me know if you try any of these ideas. I love to have you share the success of your students with us on The Riding Instructor. 

Do you have a tip for riding without stirrups or one to recognize the effort of your students?

Here’s to success with No Stirrup November (and for all the rest of the months, too!)

Barbara Ellin Fox

Barbara@theRidingInstructor.net 

This article has been updated from 2023.