Stirrups are a staple of AH, simply due to the fact that they seem so obvious in hindsight. Of course, like any good writing trope, they're usually overdone, but I didn't realize just how much until I saw that the debate over them actually has its own wikipedia page:
en.wikipedia.org
The gist being that the modern academic consensus - which, as someone who has only ever ridden bareback, I find fairly convincing - is that stirrups are a nice to have feature, but they're basically the cavalry equivalent of the early firearms. By that, I mean that their main advantage is that they reduce the time it takes to train a cavalry man to a skill level suitable for warfare. In this light, it makes sense that the earliest stirrups were only toe stirrups, used for mounting and dismounting, as even getting on and off a horse without stirrups takes quite awhile to master, whereas with stirrups, almost anyone can learn within an hour (and I rounded up by about 59 minutes there).
I figure we could have a pretty lively discussion on the topic here, so let's have at it.
Great Stirrup Controversy - Wikipedia
The gist being that the modern academic consensus - which, as someone who has only ever ridden bareback, I find fairly convincing - is that stirrups are a nice to have feature, but they're basically the cavalry equivalent of the early firearms. By that, I mean that their main advantage is that they reduce the time it takes to train a cavalry man to a skill level suitable for warfare. In this light, it makes sense that the earliest stirrups were only toe stirrups, used for mounting and dismounting, as even getting on and off a horse without stirrups takes quite awhile to master, whereas with stirrups, almost anyone can learn within an hour (and I rounded up by about 59 minutes there).
I figure we could have a pretty lively discussion on the topic here, so let's have at it.