Swollen girth - advice

[BBP]

Yesterday I clipped my little horse with a chaser clip and then took him for a 2 hour hack. Lovely ride, came back, brushed sweat off and turned him out. It rained all day so I left him overnight in his stable in his turnout rug. It was a very mild night in the end so he was pretty hot this morning. This morning I took his rug off to groom him before riding and found he has a swollen girth area. It is literally like a girth imprint only raised. He wears a thoroughgood synthetic girth, elasticated at one end, which i'd like to change for one that is more balanced.

I am fairly certain I did not overtighten it as i try to be very careful about it. I wonder if sweating under the girth straight after clipping has irritated his skin. Has anyone else had similar? How long did it take to go down?

It doesn't feel hot or sore to touch but it does make me wonder, last time I clipped him I took him to a dressage comp a few days later and he was really naughty, bucking a lot, so I wonder if he had had something similar then but I didn't notice. It's really odd, I've never seen anything like it before.

Thanks (and Happy New Year!)

 

[china]

have you recently cleaned your girth with anything?

 

[Honey08]

My husband's horse got that a bit this year after his first ride post clip. I think that the skin is just very sensitive. The coat that we shave off is a fair bit of padding, if you think about it.. It is very easy to overtighten an elastic girth.

I used a cooling gel on it that I use on the legs after XC (an arnica one is good if you have one). It had gone the following day. I then used a girth sleeve for a few days and really made sure that I wasn't tightening the girth too much when riding.

 

[Burnttoast]

I do find those girths easy to overtighten even when you're trying to be careful (and I would agree about changing to one with no or central elastic) - but I wonder if particles of clipped hair in his coat might be the culprit? Even a good groom post-clip won't get rid of them all and they are pretty irritating. I think a two-hour wearing of the girth might be enough with this to cause some superficial irritation.

 

[BBP]

I have to admit it never occurred to me not to ride straight after clipping. I am fairly confident I didn't over tighten the girth as I remember when I got back and went to loosen it I thought that it was already fairly loose. perhaps I had the opposite problem and the slight movement of a slightly loose girth caused more irritation with the clipped hairs.

I will try popping some arnica on it and will be extra careful with girth tightness just in case and it has prompted me to buy a new girth as I hate the one end elastic types.

 

[shadowboy]

I hate elastic girths! Esp synthetic ones, unforgiving material, totally unnatural next to the skin. It would not suprise me if its a combination of the girth sweating and clipper rash.

 

[ester]

poor boy, not had that happen before. Aerborn do a synthetic waffle girth with elastic both ends. I use one on Frank its the only girth which he seems to get on with and doesn't rub leather etc doesn't work!