Bronze Stirrups

While nomads are trained from an early age to get onto and down from a horse without the need of any tools, if you want to excel in battle, herding and transportation, having solid stirrups is the one must have tool everyone needs. That, and a saddle to attach them to.   Stirrups greatly aid the stability of the rider and keep him steady in the saddle and they also help when navigating the horse with commands and gentle kicks. Over the years, they have become a symbol of an efficient rider and having nicely decorated and perfectly polished stirrups are seen almost as important as having a nice and polished sharp sword.   Bronze sturrups are the most common stirrups you can see among the nomads, decorated with intricate swirls and patterns reminiscent of ripples on the waters, repeating smootly all along the mattle and weawing together in intricate little nots. Different patterns are used to distinguish between different ranks so you can quickly tell who this particular horse belongs to. Their overall shape also tells you a story about what is this particular rider's main ability - is he a swift messenger, is he part of the cavalry that charge at the enemy among the first or is he the one carrying all the cargo everywhere. Different shapes accomodate different types of shoes and different types of needs that a particular rider might have - some would prefer to stay in the saddle as long as possible, some would prefer being able to get in and out of the saddle as fast as possible.   If a rider falls in battle, stirrups are usually taken from the saddles and laid on top of the fallen person's chest alongside their main weapons and it is such that those people are put to rest.