How do you fasten your girth?

[Cinnamontoast]

Where’s the option for stick yer knee in his side til the little sod stops blowing out?! It can’t just be mine! I can get the first hole done up, then I have to do alternate sides, eventually he goes onto the last hole.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I'm another who came through the old school system of Pony Club inc camp (OMG, you didn't get any tea until your tack cleaning efforts passed muster!), and dragon BHSIs with fierce stable management standards.

We were taught to leave the girth attached, but looped neatly through the off side stirrup to keep it tidy and stop it dangling.

 

[scats]

I care from a riding school background in the 80s and early 90s and watched people just pulling girths up tight while ponies snarled and snapped at them.
We also left girths attached on one side and just flung them over the saddles, it was quick and easy in a busy school environment.

All it taught me was that that wasn't the way I was going to do things when I got my own ponies. You can certainly be taught one way, even at an early age, and pretty quickly make your mind up whether that's the way you intend to do it when left to your own devices. I realised pretty swiftly that being gentler with a girth meant there was less chance of losing a chunk of flesh!

I will admit that the removing girth fully thing didn't start happening until I was in my late teens and got my first expensive saddle (I still remember the horror of the day that I accidentally scuffed the cantle on a doorway...)

 

[SpringArising]

yup!! It's like mutton withers are part of my selection criteria...

To be fair, that first horse just looks very fat which is why you can't see them.

My new (ish) horse had absolutely no wither and was like a barrel until he lost a lot of weight.

 

[rara007]

You’ll have to take my word for it that while it’s a constant battle he never grows withers even fit and is overweight not obese I have several more photos to show as but that’ll derail the thread There’s a ‘team’ of 4 of us that keep him in work but he’s not mine.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I ride at a riding centre. Each horse has its own saddle and usually keeps the same girth.

Some of the girths are semi-permanently fixed to the billets by having a plastic cable tie put through the buckle and the hole in the billet. This means that we usually don't adjust the offside. I suppose that this has the effect of not separating a girth from its saddle, not having a novice tighten up from the offside, and perhaps reducing the time it takes a novice to get the horse saddles. Some girths have elasticated sections.

Usually, I don't adjust the offside, even if it's possible; I don't need to.

So I just pull up to snug at the onside. We walk to the arena or the covered area where I'll pull up another two holes or maybe three, get two fingers under the girth, get the horse to give me each front leg in turn and pull them out forwards; this is something the instructors have recommended, though not everybody does it, I think it's to make sure the skin isn't pinched or rucked up...

Then after warming up and getting the horse used to the idea of who's in charge it's time to check the girth and tighten up, usually one hole, before cantering or jumping.

 

[YorksG]

I ride at a riding centre. Each horse has its own saddle and usually keeps the same girth.

Some of the girths are semi-permanently fixed to the billets by having a plastic cable tie put through the buckle and the hole in the billet. This means that we usually don't adjust the offside. I suppose that this has the effect of not separating a girth from its saddle, not having a novice tighten up from the offside, and perhaps reducing the time it takes a novice to get the horse saddles. Some girths have elasticated sections.

Usually, I don't adjust the offside, even if it's possible; I don't need to.

So I just pull up to snug at the onside. We walk to the arena or the covered area where I'll pull up another two holes or maybe three, get two fingers under the girth, get the horse to give me each front leg in turn and pull them out forwards; this is something the instructors have recommended, though not everybody does it, I think it's to make sure the skin isn't pinched or rucked up...

Then after warming up and getting the horse used to the idea of who's in charge it's time to check the girth and tighten up, usually one hole, before cantering or jumping.

Presumably this has been done to ensure that the correct girth stays with the saddle, as presumably they stand the risk of getting lost in a riding school situation. It isn't a system I would want to use and would have thought that there were other methods which would work just as well.

 

[fburton]

What are the downsides of the riding school way that K_B described?

 

[YorksG]

What are the downsides of the riding school way that K_B described?

Well apart from the impossibility of being able to wash the girth, the constant wear on one hole in the girth strap, the imbalance of pressures on the girth and saddle the inability to adjust the girth equally, to accomodate horses who need the girth adjusting at each side for comfort, absolutely nothing wrongwith it.

 

[Berpisc]

I do my girth up gradually each side and undo gradually at the end of a ride. I am also one of those who leaves my girth on the saddle as it is long enough to lay over without messing up the saddle. If it is plastered with mud or I am riding with a short girth I would take this off.
I have over the years tried to ensure I keep whatever horse I am riding comfortable so will stretch legs where needed.