[buwaya]

True. But one and done, in its way. People adapted. There was no flood of innovation consequent to it, other than in some military tech and tactics.

[central_va]

I took a class in medieval history and the text book had a whole chapter on the stirrup.

[central_va]

PS: If you watch a movie with ancient cavalry, like Roman cavalry for example, and the saddles have stirrups then the movie is historically inaccurate.

"The stirrup was invented in the Chinese Jin dynasty during the 4th century, was in common use throughout China by the 5th century, and was spread across Eurasia to Europe through the nomadic peoples of Central Eurasia by the 7th or 8th century.[3][4]"