Horse bracing off girth

[sam72431]

I am in the process of breaking in my four year old he is a big boy 17.2 I backed him last year with no problems he was turned away for a year and I began long reining him and leaning over etc, ive been riding him and a few weeks ago was trotting him as I had been for a couple of weeks he threw a massive paddy and chucked me off, I got back on no problem, I rode him a few more times after and he was fine then one day I got on and he bolted and broncd and chucked me off I got on and he was quite tense so I waited for him to calm down and he was fine. The saddle I'm using is a Wintec gp it fits him well enough but not perfectly as due to being young he doesn't have any muscle and so the saddle moves slightly at the back I'm having his back checked to rule that out but my concern is the other day a friend brought a saddle up that he is selling to see if it fits any better, we put the saddle on and did the girth up just enough so it would stay in place and he squeled and braces against the girth! He has done it a couple of times that's why I've stopped riding and have got the physio coming but my friend said that she knew a horse that had stomach ulcers and did this? Sorry for the long post but would bracing off the girth indicate stomach ulcers, he lives out 24 hours and isn't even fed atm as the grass is good!
Thanks

 

[Tammytoo]

It could be ulcers, but wait until your physio comes before having him scoped (although I personally prefer McTimony practitioners). It could also be pressure from the girth that he is objecting to. You could try a girth that has central elastication (like the Flexi-girth) which takes the pressure of the sensitive sternum area.