Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Lepidina]

I would see the use of soft stirrups as being a way to rest your legs on long rides. Riding a horse with you legs daggling down the whole time is very tiring.

Native American and stirrupless Romans did it all the time. I take my feet out of the stirrups to give them a break or hang them over the front of the saddle. You get used to it. In fact, when I got a stress fracture in my foot from dancing, I couldn't use stirrups so I rode without them for 6 weeks. Did wonders for my balance.

I can speak for modern "soft stirrups". Stirrups on bareback pads are useless because they are just sewn into the pad. The pad itself doesn't have a structure so it's not going to stay on the horse very well, esp. if it makes some sharp turns or starts to buck. You also can't use them to mount.

So maybe there were some leather straps on saddles that served as stirrups, but without any pictorial, archaeological, or references in the literature of the time, I'd be skeptical about their use.