Regarding stirrups - I once had one lose the bolt that secured it - and rode the best part of a rough trail, up a rimrock, for close to a mile - with said stirrup in my hand (wouldn't stay on the saddle horn) FUN !!!!
I've always been a curmudgeon - now I'm an old curmudgeon. ~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~