The Real Just Riding: Lorenzini

Lorenzini Titanium Stirrups Guest Review By International Show Jumper Aleksandra Lusina

I have been riding for around 30 years, during this time I have represented my country and competed and won at WEF Kentucky, Europe Championships Manheim, Europe Championships, London, CHIO Achen , CSIO Rome, CSIO LA Boule , CHIO Rotterdam.  I compete in Grand Prix events at the highest levels nationally and internationally.  I am currently training in the United States. During these years I have used many, many different types of stirrups iron/steel, plastic, carbon, spring action, safety ones.. black, red, blue, even pink once... lol my point is I have pretty much tried them all. 

I had recently decided on Freejump Soft Up Pro I have been riding in these for the last couple of years and actually quite enjoyed using them particularly for training and bringing on younger horses as falling and hooks ups although fairly uncommon do still happen with younger horses. I was happy with these stirrups and had no intention of changing. To be honest I had got kinda fed up with people saying "try these they are unbelievable" #thelatestthing, #amazingstirrups!! I mean come on.. #reallypeople?!?! get a grip they are stirrups I mean how good can they be?? 

Then these came along... Lorenzini Titanium Stirrups and yeah o.k to look at they are pretty beautiful but the kicker came after riding in them. Wow, just wow! These are something else the precision engineering that has gone into these can literally be felt through your foot, it is quite unbelievable. I thought to myself how on earth have they managed to produce this? and so I researched the company a bit and Lorenzini have been precision engineering equipment for the medical industry for decades before they stepped into the equestrian arena, they are a family run business owned an operated privately and based in Italy.  

Not only have they managed to transfer their amazing gift of producing highly precise medical equipment to equestrian products they have also patented the application of Titanium for this purpose. I'll come onto the material in a while because I also found this fascinating, let's just say Titanium (The Metal) is an element with many unique assets...

So it started to make complete sense, the reason why when you stood them on a flat surface every single pair leaned under their own weight slightly backwards at exactly the same angle (I mean exactly) it's all about precision. 

Unlike the stirrups that we have been used to up until now, you know the flat ones with the flat treads they calculated at what angle the riders foot should ideally sit in the stirrup and then develop a rounded based which is weighted more to the back edge to encourage that angle when the foot is placed on the foot plate and believe it or not it is this one piece of genius engineering that sets these stirrups quite literally decades ahead of what we are all using today.  

When your riding you get this feeling of complete complimentary support from the stirrup, your not fighting with the stirrup or looking for it, your foot isn't ever awkward or out of place. The treads are perfectly made very grippy and so not only is your foot positioned right it stays there.

I just wanted to add this about the metal, Titanium is the only metal that is completely non corrosive and at the same time does not react in anyway with living cells, it is why they use Titanium in medicine for surgical pins etc.Which means that its complimentary to you and your horse both in the wearing of it and the handling. I also found out that Titanium is as strong as steel and twice as strong as aluminium, but is 45% lighter than steel! 

I still use my Freejump everyday for training and bringing on young horses as they are excellent stirrups and incredibly safe but I now only ever compete in my Lorenzini and I challenge anyone to ride in them and not buy a pair, everyone that rides in mine wants some. 

I hope you have enjoyed my review of this product, the product is of course available from Just Riding and comes in pretty much any colour you can imagine. The treads can be unscrewed and replaced with new ones or with ones specifically made for dressage and they have custom foot guards which fit perfectly on the front of the stirrups for polo. I have also been using Lorenzini Titanium protection boots, Bits and Spurs and will be posting reviews on these items as soon as I can. Here below is an image of the Aluminium coloured stirrups with Dressage treads attached.

UPDATE: 08/04/17

Lorenzini was acquired by Equiline in 2016, while details are few at the moment what we do know is that Lorenzini will continue producing for them for now, the range has been reduced as we no longer see the iridescent or matt variants on the 2017 price list. Whether this means that this is the last we will see of the Limited Edition variants from Lorenzini I honestly couldn't tell you. I do know that the stirrups are still being produced to the same excellent standard. I am inclined to think the Equiline being behind this brand is a very good thing, lets wait and see...

Freejump - Just Riding made a decision in 2016 to stop selling Freejump stirrups.

If you are looking for a safety stirrup we now stock the Venice by Tech Stirrups for both children and adults. The stirrups is very sturdy and it is being marketed as a genuine safety stirrup, the feedback from our customers has been excellent and we are seeing the same vibe echoing through our social media channels. So far then it is a BIG THUMBS UP for Tech Stirrups!!