Horseback riding shoesWhen looking for horseback riding shoes I highly recommend buying boots. Shoes are definitely not very useful when riding horses. When riding horseback you are nearly always using a saddle, and all saddles except bareback saddles also have stirrups. The reason "horseback riding boots" are so much more important than "horseback riding shoes" is because of the stirrup. Stirrups are where your feet are while riding and often they are built specifically for a boot, not a shoe.
Now for many people this may seem like i am being fussy, however it is more about safety than anything. When looking at riding boots you will find most of them have a thin leather sole. This leather sole does permit the boot to leave, or slide out of the stirrup with ease. This is very important. Shoes on the other hand have thick rubber soles which will often get "hung up" in the stirrup when you get off of your horse. The shoe getting hung up is the problem. When you get hung up it causes you to panic a little, which means you struggle, and hop towards your horse, and your horse senses your change. This change alerts the horse that something maybe wrong, for example perhaps there is a predator, or perhaps something is wrong with you and they feel threatened. So a normal reaction from them is to try to move away from you. The horse then sees you reacting even more strangely as you panic even more. Unfortunately the next thing to usually happen is the horse actually turns away and tries to leave you, often at a very hi speed. Just one problem. your foot with that darn thick rubber shoe is still in the stirrup, and if it is tied tight your foot will be going with that stirrup. you can just imagine the rest of the story, I dont need to elaborate any more.
So when it comes to picking horseback riding shoes I definitely recommend BOOTS. There are some great boots out there that are very affordable and so durable that they will last you years and years if you take good care of them. Some great cowboy boot brands would include :Ariat, Justin, Brahma, Luchese, Tony Lama, and Stetson just to name a few. There are many many more brands to choose from. Many of them being very hi in quality.
So when looking for a pair of horseback riding shoes make sure you keep the size and thickness of the sole in mind.
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