The first stirrups found in Europe are attributable to the fourth century AD and come from the tombs of the Sarmatian knights in the Kuban river basin in the north of the Caucasus .
Just as some iron brackets belong to the fifth century AD, with the slit for the passage of the lash and the usual shape still today, found in tombs of Huns in Hungary .
In the West (nomadic peoples excluded), according to the chronicles, the first leader who had them adopted was the one who can be considered the most distinguished cavalry commander at the dawn of the early Middle Ages:the prince Byzantine Belisarius (Flavius-Belisarius 500-565. - Served mainly under Justinian from 527).
- The adoption of the stirrup was not, however, immediate everywhere, so much so that until the eighth century figures of horsemen without stirrups continue to appear.
- In northern Europe, the "Lombards" themselves, a Germanic people who even came into contact with the Avars in the fifth and sixth centuries. he did not learn its use from them but adopted it only after his migration to Italy [586 AD.], learning its use here (evidently from the local peoples and the Byzantines).
Regarding the invention of the stirrup, we have the expressions " Losing my temper ”And“ leave at full speed ", Which refer to the fact that the invention of the stirrups made it easier to mount the horse and therefore to use it also in battle.
Or" the stirrup cup "Which was the last glass offered to the rider ready to leave, with his foot already on the" stirrup of the horse “.