Standard girth on dressage saddle? Or ...?

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Theocat

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Apologies for the essay!

Saddle fitter came today to try out dressage (and GP) saddles on the noble steed. It quickly became apparent that he's very unhappy with a dressage girth on the point straps - short choppy strides, and with one saddle / girth combo we could hear a loud clicky noise which turned out (spotted almost immediately) to be his elbow catching on the girth. We tried a curvy girth which was a bit better, but not a solution.

He then started coming up intermittently short on the right shoulder. We put him back in his current saddle, which helped but didn't clear it completely - I'm not sure if he's particularly stiff / sore, or if he was just / also anticipating discomfort, but we stopped the fitting at that point and a physio is booked.

He's always been awkward with his shoulders - he came out of a GP because his movement was causing it to move too much behind and causing problems.He's currently in a working hunter saddle (girthed on straps 2 and 4) and has been going well in it, but he's changed shape and it no longer fits (or can be adjusted to fit) as well as I'd like. We're starting to do more jumping and up our dressage game, so ideally I'd move to a dressage saddle and a GP (which should be okay for shorter periods - ideally I could do with a bit more security than the WH offers).

My saddler has suggested normal girthing on a dressage saddle - has anyone tried this, or any other solutions from anyone who has experienced similar?

It may be that we need to stick to a WH or VSD, in which case I'll only buy one saddle, but all ideas welcome on possible solutions for a dressage saddle - this is all new to me and the saddler hasn't seen a problem quite like this before!

Once he's got the all clear physically, the plan is to get physio and saddler along together, but we tried a couple of combinations today and it's already apparent a standard dressage saddle and short girth is likely to be problematic, so I'm hoping the collective wisdom of HHO can help us! (I don't have an enormous budget, especially as he's got firm for changing shape a lot.)
 
I put a full length string girth on one of my dressage saddles which solved the ol' elbow bump thing admirably. Just punched more holes higher up.
 
Thanks, both - the problem is that the saddles all had a point strap and a single strap further back, so we'll need to adapt a saddle to have two straps further back and ignore the front one. I was a bit unwilling to go to that expense without knowing if it was likely to work! (I imagine I'll either need to purchase a saddle or pay for the work to be done and then reversed if it doesn't work / turns out not to fit).

Webble - I think it's the position of the straps that's the problem, and a longer dressage girth would probably be more bulky than a standard girth, but thank you!

Cortez - that's reassuring, thanks. It seems like a sensible solution, but i wanted to get some opinions before I threw money at it!
 
We considered that - Saddler didn't think the Fairfax would necessarily fix it - it looks like we need two straps further back, possibly still with a curvy girth, though :)
 
I think I sort of effectively did this my default with a previous saddle and a pony who regularly gets rubbed elbows from girths if not quite right. He is a 42" normal girth and I had him in a 28" dressage girth which am pretty sure came up under the flap just.
 
found an old pic, friend riding but I guess relatively long compared to how most people have them :p

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I do something similar to Ester - VSD saddle with a longer than usual dressage girth so the buckles are nowhere near his elbows. I use the caldene shaped sheepskin lined dressage girth just for an extra belt and braces approach to rub prevention etc and it's worked well. It also means there's some cushioning there, although I don't know if that makes any difference or not. Horse goes well with this arrangement though.
 
I'm using a long girth (Stuebben cord girth), on my long billeted Wintec Wide... as I can't find a dressage girth long enough! the only issues I'm having are having the ends of the billets flapping around as there is no where to tuck them into.

Although it is a "short" girth, it should still be long enough to end up 1-2ins below the saddle flap to maximise stability of the saddle (and not just under the belly as a couple on my yard seem to use them!)
 
My Barrie Swain dressage saddle has short girth straps so I use a normal girth with it - much easier to do up when mounted too!
 
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Saddle fitter came today to try out dressage (and GP) saddles on the noble steed. It quickly became apparent that he's very unhappy with a dressage girth on the point straps - short choppy strides, and with one saddle / girth combo we could hear a loud clicky noise which turned out (spotted almost immediately) to be his elbow catching on the girth. We tried a curvy girth which was a bit better, but not a solution.


If his elbows were catching the buckles then the girth was simply too short. It should be fitted around 4inches below saddle flap or higher if necessary on most horses if fitted properly. A bit worrying your saddler didn't say so!
 
One of my Arabs has huge shoulders and is very wide I struggled with saddles for a few years and saddlers were insistent on a point strap, I believe this caused muscle damage behind his shoulder as the saddle was too tight, so I won't use a point strap now on either of my horses, the saddle he wears now is a dressage saddle but with short girth straps as I felt he was more comfortable without the buckles sitting on his abdomen as he is not long in the girth and has a forward girth groove, horses that are longer in the girth as in from wither to tummy and not so round cope better with a dressage girth in my opinion, so for me having a normal girth works and looking at your horse I would say his shorter in the girth so I would go for it,

Also wanted to say said horse also has a curved girth and is much more comfortable, I think it just comes down to shape not all horses are put together to cope with certain bits of kit.
 
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Yes, 4 inches below saddle flap would definitely not work on the pony. Pinkvboots, as you can tell he is also round with a forwards groove but relatively short in the girth.
 
I used to have a dressage saddle with short straps so you used a GP girth with it. A bit more bulky under your leg, and looks a bit odd, but otherwise no problem.
My Albion dressage comes with 3 girth straps as standard, one being a point strap, with the idea you pick the two that work for your horse and have the extra one taken off.
My Kieffer for my old boy had a kind of Y-shaped slidey configuration on the front strap, so it kind of balanced the pressure between a point strap and one further back. Sorry it's hard to describe and I am on my phone and don't know how to post a link to show you!
From your description I would have thought you will be able to find a dressage saddle and girth arrangement to suit. Tbh if it were me, I would be seeing what a different saddler could suggest.
 
eggs said:
My Barrie Swain dressage saddle has short girth straps so I use a normal girth with it - much easier to do up when mounted too!
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Ditto. Had a Butet monoflap before, which could not be changed to short straps. He is much more comfy in the Barrie Swain with short straps. I use a long Fairfax.
 
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