Girth tightness

suzysparkle

suzysparkle

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Having had 2 people comment at the weekend on the looseness of my girth, I wondered, does anyone else ride with theirs 'less than quite tight'? I caught up with 2 people about 22km into a 31km ride, having just motored up a decent hill, saddle had not moved (no breastplate) and they told me they could see daylight between the girth and the horse. Oops. In fairness, it needed to go up a hole (despite being on its normal holes), but even then was still pretty loose. I use a wintec elastic (the one that is supposedly elastic in the middle) and every ride I do involves a lot of hillwork. I've never had an issue with my saddle slipping, that includes jumping any ditches and logs I find. Am I normal???!!!
 
I never over tighten and frequently have a quick feel and think, whoops, not sure quite how I've stayed on there! Some people seem to squeeze the horse's puddings out with the girth.
 
I think on an endurance ride I may worry if it was as loose as yours but generally I find if the saddle fits correctly the girth does not need to be over tight, it is not good for the horse to have too much pressure on the girth straps .
I have a horse for sale at the moment and he is a fairly narrow boy with a good wither and M2M saddle, someone came to try him and pulled the girth up at least 2 holes tighter than I ever do it, I could barely get my hand under it, we were only going for a very short walk and trot hack, luckily he doesn't mind.
 
I tend to tighten mine in stages as once I have warmed up I usually find it is much looser than when I started.

I really hate the idea of an over-tight girth as I worry about pinching and restricting the movement, never mind the over all discomfort caused. Its one of the reasons that I dislike the girths with the elastic ends as I find it makes it far too easy to over-tighten. :(
 
I also ride with wintec elastic and could fit my whole hand in it if i needed to. it would be tightish against my hand though and you definately wouldnt be able to see daylight in between.
But I was at a tack inspection last sunday before a competition and was made tighten tighter than I ever have before, I was not happy!
Iv never had issues with it slipping either
 
Out of interest be positive, why would you be more concerned on an endurance ride? I generally put it up a hole for jumping and XC but endurance it's the same as I always have it, because all my hacks I'm in trot / canter for at least 90% of the time. I do always check it after I'm on and have ridden a few minutes, I just don't pull it as tight as I can. I see so many people do this.
 
I used to be quite relaxed about it. Until the saddle slipped slightly during an out of character shy (in walk!) and the horse freaked out and I plopped off and smashed up my humerus, into what the surgeon described as 'just mush, basically'. To be fair, it was clearly far too loose and I think I just completely forgot to check it for some unknown reason... so while I'll never over-tighten I think I'll be a bit more OCD about it in future!
 
Snooples - I've had that as well at tack inspections!!
When I say daylight it wasn't properly sagging or anything like that, just noticeably not tight.
 
suzysparkle said:
Out of interest be positive, why would you be more concerned on an endurance ride? I generally put it up a hole for jumping and XC but endurance it's the same as I always have it, because all my hacks I'm in trot / canter for at least 90% of the time. I do always check it after I'm on and have ridden a few minutes, I just don't pull it as tight as I can. I see so many people do this.
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I wasn't really meaning just an endurance ride but more in a competitive situation, it can be easy to forget once you get going and a slipping saddle can be an expensive mistake. I think people do tend to do them up before mounting as tight as they can so they do not have to bother after a few minutes to check again, one of my pet hates as I think it is lazy and not fair on the horse, it may be why so many seem to be girthy, dressage saddles or close contact ones can be hard to do from on top but not impossible if the horse is well mannered.
 
My tb has quite high withers & I often work, canter or even gallop without checking my girth.. I've even be known to canter & after realised I can get 4 fingers between the girth & my horse, my instructor is horrified. Thank goodness for a decent fitted saddle & high withers.l
 
I'm notoriously bad for not doing up girths. Last year at the RC champs I got off after my 2nd sj round and went to loosen the girth to find I never tightened it the 1st place! A 12 jump course on hole one!!!
 
My share horse has a dressage girth and I have to do it up tightly before i get on as i can't do it once mounted. I really don't like it and always worry about wrinkles where the straps go through the top girth loop things :-/
 
daydreamer said:
My share horse has a dressage girth and I have to do it up tightly before i get on as i can't do it once mounted. I really don't like it and always worry about wrinkles where the straps go through the top girth loop things :-/
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It is possible to tighten a dressage girth while mounted (I do every time I ride). You just have to get flexible ;) ... and make sure the horse is used to you moving around while mounted :)
 
I had a horse who would stop dead and refuse to walk on if the girth was too tight. I had done it up to the normal holes (not gapingly loose but not really tight) and then my instructor did it up again in my lesson. I told her she'd refuse to walk more than a few steps and she didn't believe me until we went 3 stuffy steps to a complete standstill and I loosened it back off again and off we went! Funny horse.
 
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