Girths - Girth Grooves...??

Cloud9

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Hi - any help gladly appreciated. I have a heavyweight 15hh piebald cob. Have had terrible trouble with saddles and saddles slipping back. finally accepted my horse is putting the saddle where he wants it and bought a Native Pony and Cob Glen saddle. Can honest say I am not entirely happy with it but I can't afford to keep changing now as spent thousands trying to find something. It is moving quite alot and no-one thinks it fits. However thats a separate issue and I am going to get saddler out again. But I have been advised that I need a curved girth as his girth groove is quite a way back, basically round his middle rather than just behind his front lets. Have been told that with the shaped part of the girth torwards the front would anchor the saddle forward a little more. Having trouble fiding one. Seen a wintec cair girth but they are very bulky and had read a couple of bad reviews. can anyone recommend. The only other one I have just seen is an Aerborn Pressure Relief Waffle girth - anyone had any experience??

http://www.aerborn.co.uk/acatalog/Pressure_Relief_Waffle_Girth.html
 

kezimac

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yes they are good - i have one in 48" - if you have trouble getting one - i would be willing to sell as no longer have a saddle with short girth straps.

sits nice and very broad across sternum
 

Cloud9

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Thanks Kezimac - is it the wintec cair or Aeborn one you use. I ordered a wintec 46" but it is too short (on offer £39 quid on ebay) but had to go back. My current string girth is was a 46" when I bought it but it seems to have stretched. It now measures more like 50" but is too long so maybe a 48" would be ideal. Am not far from you at all near wolves.
 

flyingfeet

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I had an extreme backwards girth groove case and feel your pain

Wide or shaped girths made no difference to my horse - the only thing that worked is to allow the girth to go where it wanted to sit, by altering the girthing pattern (or in my case investing in a wow saddle so I could completely adjust the rigging!)
 

albeg

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I was told in a saddlery about a girth cottage craft do for the rounder types, I think it was like the prestige girth, but with a slighty wider curved section to help anchor it. I'll try have a look for it.

ETA: had no luck on their website, but I've just looked at the link for the Aerborn girth, and it seems to be what was described to me for my round ponio, so maybe they gave me the wrong company name.
 
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kezimac

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its the aerborn one i have - its just sat here so if you are interested just drop me a pm. its barely been used as previous horse had a dressage saddle with short girth straps and current mare has normal dressage saddle.
 

Keenjean

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Ideal make a shaped girth, think its called an f2 shaped girth. They're really good, worked very well for my horse altho a little pricey!
 

nwilson012

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I have a warmblood with a backward girth groove. My saddler recommended the Ideal Affinity girth. They're made to order so I'm still waiting (3 weeks). Cost is around £80 which is cheaper than some of the other (leather) shaped girths. I hope it works.
 

sbloom

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Have pmed you.

I haven't used curved girths but they are more often used to keep saddles back, with a forward girth groove. If you use them for a saddle slipping back - are you using the 2nd and 4th girth straps, using a really wide grippy girth? - then I suspect you should use it the other way round - you want the girth IN the girth groove, and the buckles more forwards where you want the saddle. I do wonder if a wider grippier girth might be a better idea.
 

ester

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ditto, the curves were designed for forwards girth grooves but nothing to stop you using them backwards! we have one on our forward grooved big bellied, bum high arabx ;) and it has certainly helped with both keeping the saddle back in the right position and not being pulled forwards and reducing rubs.
 

applecart14

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Hi - any help gladly appreciated. I have a heavyweight 15hh piebald cob. Have had terrible trouble with saddles and saddles slipping back. finally accepted my horse is putting the saddle where he wants it and bought a Native Pony and Cob Glen saddle. Can honest say I am not entirely happy with it but I can't afford to keep changing now as spent thousands trying to find something. It is moving quite alot and no-one thinks it fits. However thats a separate issue and I am going to get saddler out again. But I have been advised that I need a curved girth as his girth groove is quite a way back, basically round his middle rather than just behind his front lets. Have been told that with the shaped part of the girth torwards the front would anchor the saddle forward a little more. Having trouble fiding one. Seen a wintec cair girth but they are very bulky and had read a couple of bad reviews. can anyone recommend. The only other one I have just seen is an Aerborn Pressure Relief Waffle girth - anyone had any experience??

http://www.aerborn.co.uk/acatalog/Pressure_Relief_Waffle_Girth.html

Spoke to a woman the other day who visited the yard with some new protype saddles to try on to a variety of types and shapes of horses so she could get an idea before she went to the production and manufacture stage. She said my horse had withers that came fairly long down his back and therefore the girth wouldn't necessary sit in the correct place where the saddle is meant to sit although I felt she had put the saddle much too far back from where it should sit. She suggested that if I wanted to spend £1.4K on her new saddle once she was selling them I would need to get another strap put on - can't remember what she called it now, but this extra strap has a name. You might like to try that before buying another girth. I'm not buying the saddle by the way, quite happy with the one I've got, and don't have mug written on my face either. :eek:

Doesn't matter what girth you use, if the saddle has to be far enough along the horses back to mean that the girth is not sitting in the girth groove then you will need this extra strap. Thank goodness this is not the case with my horse.
 

sbloom

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The only other one I have just seen is an Aerborn Pressure Relief Waffle girth - anyone had any experience??

http://www.aerborn.co.uk/acatalog/Pressure_Relief_Waffle_Girth.html

If you do really need a curved girth that really isn't curved, it is shaped for the legs etc. If you draw a line from the centre of the buckles at one end to the other you will see that the girth is not actually curved overall. Although these are dressage girths they ARE curved:

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/160691974943?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

A rear strap is called a balance strap and may be what the previous poster is talking about. It is usually a fourth strap and should be attached as far back as possible under the flap. I occasionally see saddles with a fourth strap that is right next to the third which is no help whatsoever!
 

monikirk

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I have just got a new 'Black Country" saddle. I have a friesian with big shoulders. When I first got him my previous saddle fitter said he had no girth groove and prob fitted the saddle too far forward. I have tried to stop saddle slipping back by using non slip numnahs and girths.
After a summer of not being quite right which lead to bucking and a speckle of white hairs, a new fitter saw him. My new fitter has shown me how to place the saddle behind his shoulder and use his girth grove which is a lot further back than I thought was correct. She has shown me where the saddle should sit and where his ribs are - so far so good!
 
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