Fairfax dressage girth-article in H&H, what do we think?

livery has a tekna one, which i think would be worth trying, if it seems to make any diff i bet my saddler could make me something similar in proper leather for a hell of a lot less.

thanks for pics trouble :)
 
Sol said:
I notice it doesn't actually say anywhere how wide it actually is at the widest point? Anyone know?
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Its almost like a stud girth in reverse. The centre piece partially sat between my horse's front legs. Horse, who is opinionated on his tack likes, was perfectly content. In our case, even if my horse come sound, its a non starter as it covers a lump that sits clear of conventional girths, including albion.

Its a few weeks since I saw the girth, but I'm guessing about 20cm at the widest point.
 
my instructor has a le tixerant girth and she rates that.

I have a wow girth and i think its fantastic for my mega girthy, KS mare.
 
How much !!

I will show my age - and carry on using my beloved three fold leather girth with the navy flannel inside that I pour oil onto on a regular basis. Must be 20 years old, still as good as new, baby soft and seen many miles in the hunting field and show ring.
 
AdorableAlice said:
How much !!

I will show my age - and carry on using my beloved three fold leather girth with the navy flannel inside that I pour oil onto on a regular basis. Must be 20 years old, still as good as new, baby soft and seen many miles in the hunting field and show ring.
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You're very lucky that it's an old girth - no leather should be subjected to that! Much better to use conditioner, oil simply stretches and loosens the fibres in leather so although it feels soft it is actually damaged and should only be used in small quantities on new tack, even old stiff dry tack shouldn't be oiled.

There are plenty of other nice wide girths out there that will do the job for most horses WAY cheaper than that. If it works for the odd difficult to girth horse then great, but I've yet to meet one that needs more than a nice wide padded Atherstone, very occasionally a Stubben type string girth and even more very occasionally an extra wide girth for stability and comfort. Not even needed a forward curved girth in my years of fitting....
 
Tr0uble said:
It looks very similar to the Ideal Lynx Pro girth I just bought with my new saddle, which has lovely rolled edges and is very padded.
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My immediate though was that too! Very similar to the Ideal with the lovely padded rollover edge

I also have a Wow girth which is more similar in shape
 
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If it was that secret and that good would they not all have worn them?
The article actually says
'This leading edge is then structured to guide the muscles back under the girth, rather than blocking them, which happens in SOME girths.' -so not all girths then!
 
sbloom said:
There are plenty of other nice wide girths out there that will do the job for most horses WAY cheaper than that. If it works for the odd difficult to girth horse then great, but I've yet to meet one that needs more than a nice wide padded Atherstone, very occasionally a Stubben type string girth and even more very occasionally an extra wide girth for stability and comfort. Not even needed a forward curved girth in my years of fitting....
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Can you recommend some? I've been looking out for a nice dressage girth for my mare to improve comfort and this looks great.....but way to expensive! I'm kind of hoping I might be able to get something sub £100 that does a similar job.
 
All the girths mentioned - heritage etc are nothing like the new Fairfax girth. Neither in shaping, padding or quality. It is incredibly difficult to find a true anatomically shaped girth for a full length girth. AFAIK Prestige do the only true anatomical girth & that is only available as a dressage girth. We have quite a few customers who are looking for a girth like this, I think it will sell well despite the price tag!
 
Interesting thread. I liked the look of the Fairfax, but not the price tag. After reading some of the posts, I thought the Ideal girth sounded good so typed Ideal Girth into Google :o:o:o
 
Load of marketing hype and twaddle. I second Minstrel_ted with the lovely English made quality girths by the English Heritage people (Marlow family, beware cheaper Indian made tack under same name. Good value but not the same quality!!)
 
Joeyjojo said:
Can you recommend some? I've been looking out for a nice dressage girth for my mare to improve comfort and this looks great.....but way to expensive! I'm kind of hoping I might be able to get something sub £100 that does a similar job.
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Tricky as I only supply long girths which are made by us. My own short girth is a ReactorPanel which I picked up second hand - new they are well above your budget and I cannot recommend the retailer in this country sadly.
 
I very very nearly bought one for my girthy horse yesterday, but couldn't bring myself to part with the money!

They don't look that dissimilar to other shaped girthy on the market, and are quite soft but not buttery soft.

I re read the H&H article with my sensible head on and comments like 'some improvement' don't sound that robust (certainly wouldnt be goid enough in a clinical trial ;)). Also, when testing, they seem to have done the biomechanics testing on their girth after the horse has been ridden in its regular girth first. Just thinking (cynically!)about this, surely the horse would move better for 2nd testing as it would have warmed up properly by then.

Anyway, I resisted buying and the more I think about the less I regret my strong willpower taking over ;)!!
 
Well my mother bought 2 of them today, one for Jem and one for Pickle! She is obviously a much nicer person than me, they currently have cheap wintecs! If anybody is interested I can report back, I am a little sceptical, but the proof will be in how the horses perform.
 
I spied them on tne stand today so had a nosy...wasn't massively impressed TBH! I can see how the shape would be comfy, but they weren't that soft.
 
i checked them out too, liked the feel of the prolite etc, loved the idea, but since i'd need 4 (short and long, dr and stud girth) it's not going to happen! would love to have one on trial and see if it did make a difference.
 
Mine is a similar style to Tr0bles' Ideal although it's made by Jeffries.

http://www.ejeffries.co.uk/product/68292/GIDZ/_/Zenith_Dressage_Girth

I think girths have come on so much in the last few years that there is a lot more choice available if you have a sensitive or top level horse, where everything is potentially an issue. I can't see myself ever paying that for a girth but I guess people used to say that about bits before they were revoloutionised by a few leading brands!
 
I think that using the correct girth is very important and can often be overlooked - and I am not surprised that when using an 'anatomically' shaped girth the horses' performance improved. However, I think that the article was very biased and i'm not convinced by the depth of science that they used i.e. Exactly what type of girth were they compared with (it says the horses own, but I don't think is sufficient information)?
I also think that the article was a bit dangerous in regards to almost entirely dismissing the importance of saddle fit - it almost read as though the girth was a 'fix-all' solution and what it was attached to didn't matter.
I did go to the Fairfax stand yesterday and had a feel of the girth, as like many others, I was keen to feel the difference. Although you could feel the prolite edge, it was much smaller/narrower than I had expected, meaning that actually you could feel the hard edge of the main body of the girth very easily. I had also expected the shape to be more severe and alien looking (as it did look quite extreme in the pics), however I didn't think that it looked particularly more curved than many other girths on the market.
I'm sure that horses will perform better in this girth compared to lots of other types of girth, especially depending on what type of girth they used to use. However, I don't think that there is enough evidence to suggest that it is a miracle girth as yet, particularly considering that the horses in contention for the Olympic teams would have been more meticulously managed than usual and would likely have had more treatments, conditioning in all areas than normal.
I'm glad that it might have raised awareness of the importance of using a well designed girth though and hope that it will contribute towards people thinking more carefully about the design and function of all of their tack and equipment, as well as thoroughly evaluating the science (or lack thereof) behind it.
 
HerbiesHuman said:
I think that using the correct girth is very important and can often be overlooked - and I am not surprised that when using an 'anatomically' shaped girth the horses' performance improved. However, I think that the article was very biased and i'm not convinced by the depth of science that they used i.e. Exactly what type of girth were they compared with (it says the horses own, but I don't think is sufficient information)?
I also think that the article was a bit dangerous in regards to almost entirely dismissing the importance of saddle fit - it almost read as though the girth was a 'fix-all' solution and what it was attached to didn't matter.
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This - reading the article I had too many questions about some of their testing, particularly as they measured the results by using the girth after a normal one, surely the length of time in work with the first girth would have meant the horse was more relaxed becuase it is worked in.

A question for those who have seen it, is it really that different to other shaped girths on the market? In the article it glosses over the differences rather than set itself apart.
 
Can anyone else not see the point of using some beatifully anatomically correct girth on any monoflap or dressage saddle and leaving six inches to a foot of bare girth straps to pinch the horse on either side as most people seem to do??
 
Renvers said:
A question for those who have seen it, is it really that different to other shaped girths on the market? In the article it glosses over the differences rather than set itself apart.
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It looks very similar to the Passier curved girth.

If you have that sort of money to spend why not take a look at the devoucoux dressage girths, they have two styles depending on the girthing of your saddle. If you don't have that sort of money, have a look at the cotswold sport version.
OK so neither have prolite in them, but both are nicely padded and if you're that worried about prolite then why not invent a prolite girth sleeve and reap the benefits of all of us buying one to make our regular girths like the Fairfax!!
 
Roody2 said:
It looks very similar to the Passier curved girth.

If you have that sort of money to spend why not take a look at the devoucoux dressage girths, they have two styles depending on the girthing of your saddle. If you don't have that sort of money, have a look at the cotswold sport version.
OK so neither have prolite in them, but both are nicely padded and if you're that worried about prolite then why not invent a prolite girth sleeve and reap the benefits of all of us buying one to make our regular girths like the Fairfax!!
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Thanks Roody - I think budget is nearer the latter, I will take a look. Good idea about the sleeve, I will give you a share of the profits :D
 
cptrayes said:
Can anyone else not see the point of using some beatifully anatomically correct girth on any monoflap or dressage saddle and leaving six inches to a foot of bare girth straps to pinch the horse on either side as most people seem to do??
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I had exactly that problem years ago with a huge ID horse. All 18hh of him, a normal dressage girth just about reached his elbows.

My saddler made him a dressage girth that looks like a 3 fold type girth, quite wide, very soft and very long. I wouldn't say it's the most attractive piece of tack but it did the job. The horse also wore a half panel saddle to enable his massive shoulders room to move.

Both the saddle and girth are still sitting in my tack room, I lost the horse only months after getting him finally getting him 100% comfortable and achieving good scores. There is no way such bespoke tack will fit another horse so it sits there as an ornament !
 
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