How tight should a girth be?

C

Carrie+Morgan

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Oct 1, 2008
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Question in the title really, I always leave mine on the looser side really as it cant be comfortable for the horse, I think your balance should keep it in place really :D sometimes I see people really the girth strap high and it looks so tight and uncomfortable.

How tight or loose do you have yours?
 
i do it up so that i can fit my hand (flat) between the girth and horse with ease. i don't like seeing girths done up so tight that the person has to stand higher than the horse to heave it up and still struggle. i've seen that a few times and then the rider wonders why the horse is either reluctant to move or is bucking non stop.

also seen someone have a nasty accident (air lifted to hospital with back and head injuries) from not checking the girth before getting on. she went to try out a horse (freshly backed and complete nervous wreck), the owner rode him first around the arena then she went to get on, the saddle slipped as she went to get on and the horse bolted with her, she came off and was unconcious.

she didn't check the girth before getting on and the girth was apparently so loose they could fit a fully clenched fist between the girth and horse.
 
I was always taught that you should be able to slide your hand - flat against the horse's side - between the girth and the horse's side.
 
i like mine looser rather than tighter - but then i trust my horse and know the saddle will not shift with a big spook or something... i'll do it up a little tighter for say jumping but not much more - but i only jump small at the mo ;)
but - say for polo it needs to be tight as you are leaning out of the saddle and i'm sure it'd need to be tighter for more advanced levels of jumping etc....
but yes - i agree that in general many people over tighten girths :)
 
For me it depends on the girth. I don't use elastic girths, but I have two different girths that I regularly use. One is a leather, anatomical girth - Lance prefers this one and I can pull it fairly tight while it still remains comfortable with him. I tend to use it out hacking as young = unexpected spooks, etc! The other is a synthetic girth which I find offers too much resistance (not slippy against the horse) so I make sure it's quite loose. Have to be very careful to fully stretch out the legs before riding off with this one ... but Lucy prefers it over the leather one (strange animal - I think the anatomical flat bits on the leather girth son't quite fit her particular anatomy!) ... I do mix & match, but mostly because I don't want the horses getting too used to a single item of tack only for me to lose it or something ...
 
i always check girth before mounting and again about 10 mins into ride, as long as i can slide hand in between girth and her sides, i feel i have it right.
 
I probably do my girth up a bit tighter than others .... as I've had so many injuries falling off from loose girths. (although checked it's amazing what happens when the horse breathes in!)

Girth I use is elasticated on one side, so I leave that on a fixed amount, and will then tighten from the leather side, so it's not up as tight as it could be made to go up.

Certainly never had an issue with girth pinching, or horse being reluctant to work/bucking as suggested.
Although have seen many horses not work properly or buck because the girth is loose and then the rider is sitting out of balance.
 
I have mine fairly tight,pretty much as tight as I can get it from the ground TBH (which due to my pathetically weak wrists is probably not that tight:o).

Before anyone thinks me terribly cruel though,I cannot tighten my girth once on board (health/physical reasons),and with me not being a lightweight,it does become somewhat looser once my not so small butt is in the saddle:o:p.Hence having to make sure is as tight as I can get it before I get on.
 
CER1389 said:
I probably do my girth up a bit tighter than others .... as I've had so many injuries falling off from loose girths. (although checked it's amazing what happens when the horse breathes in!)

Girth I use is elasticated on one side, so I leave that on a fixed amount, and will then tighten from the leather side, so it's not up as tight as it could be made to go up.

Certainly never had an issue with girth pinching, or horse being reluctant to work/bucking as suggested.
Although have seen many horses not work properly or buck because the girth is loose and then the rider is sitting out of balance.
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Have to say agree with this,I have also seen a heck of a lot more accidents due to a loose girth than one that is too tight.
 
I try to leave mine on the looser side, but have to strike a balance as my share horse is very wide and rather fat, so slippage is a distinct possibility!
 
I'm always able to fit an hand in, but I struggle to tighten when on board as it's a dressage girth so shorter than most others. Mine is a Wintec Elastic Dressage Girth and so has some give in it, and Phil seems to like it, which is good :)
 
devonlass said:
I have mine fairly tight,pretty much as tight as I can get it from the ground TBH (which due to my pathetically weak wrists is probably not that tight:o).

Before anyone thinks me terribly cruel though,I cannot tighten my girth once on board (health/physical reasons),and with me not being a lightweight,it does become somewhat looser once my not so small butt is in the saddle:o:p.Hence having to make sure is as tight as I can get it before I get on.
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I'm the same, except I can tighten mine up when on board but generally um, don't.

I do moan at my sharer a fair bit though as she has the girth super loose...to the point once when I was up I asked her to check her girth and it comfortably went up FIVE holes :eek: and you could still fit the flat of your hand underneath.

My horse can be spooky though and I try not to bale out the side.

ETA: I use a thorowgood cob synthetic anatomical girth (has no elastic at all)
 
Depends on the horse but I never have it very tight. Coblet has it so I can fit one hand in because she's round and the saddle can slip. Mia has proper withers so slipping isn't an issue with her and she's not keen on having her girth done up tightly so she has it looser.
 
i have mine as tight as i can get it -- its a treeless dressage saddle and i can't tighten it once mounted--i'm too short and too old

i use a stud style dressage girth from barnsby to spread the load:)

plus i fell 2 xmas's ago when girth was loose and fractured my spine so am paranoid about the saddle slipping

having said that -- once i get on and walk about for 5 mins -- ted relaxes his blown out belly and his girth is always that bit slacker when i go to untack him

he seems quite happy with the saddling regime anyway
 
Currently feeling terrible and like the worst owner ever! I always do my girth up as tight as I can from the ground as the first I ever had was due to someone not tightening the girth and me not knowing any better at the time- it's not a nice way to fall as you get stuck a bit even when the safety bars are down.

I have been thinking I might me over doing it a little and slackened by a hole over the last week. However, last night someone pointed out to me that their poney had a lump due to girth being done too tight and I realised Elb had the same. Prodded it quite a bit and got a slight reaction when I really manipulated it. I have been trying to do the right thing by him by starting on the first hole and gradually girthing up - I even warm his bit for him. Now feel like I have been abusing him by riding him when he must have been uncomfortable all the time - not sure even how long this has been going on. Although, he has never expressed that he is unhappy and he does normally say!!

I am going to give him a week off then proceed with much looser girth. Any idea about whether this is the right thing to do? Also do you think the lump will go? And does anyone have any feeling about elastic girths as I think this may have been part of the problem as never have any probs getting it done up?
 
elastic and humane girths are easy to over tighten unfortunatly :(
don't worry - at least you've noticed it and i'm sure horse will recover just fine :)
i have elastic both sides so am v aware i could tighten it too much - in fact i think i was tightening my wintec elasticated girth too much as honey started to get girthy :o (the one that has elastic in middle so you don't see it) so i bought one that was elastic each end so i could see when it began to stretch
i tend to put my girth on really loosly when i first saddle - then before i get on i do it up just so that the elastic is tight - but not stretched
then i get on (from wall - not from ground ;) then do it up again to the point the elastic is tight but not stretched. the elastic on my girth is quite strong though.
i do it up 1 more hole for jumping :)
 
I think I'm going to stick to my tight girth!

Had a fab schooling session on ponio yesterday, had such good canter-trot transitions on both reins that I wanted to stop and finish instantly, rather than proceed with his normal cool down in the school, wanted to finish on the excellent note. So decided to go for a short hack.

Having been thinking about this thread I decided to slack his girth off 2 holes. Figure we are only walking, he can puff out a bit. Until birds fly out of the trees at us :rolleyes: Fortunatley he's very good and only jumped sideways, so the saddle only jinxed a bit, and my balance has improved considerably. But the saddle did slip, and I then had to try and pull it back centrally.

Heres to keeping my girth tight on a barrelly pony!
 
The problem with elastic girths is that you can very easily over tighten them without realising, as you can almost ratchet them up due to the elastic. The rule of thumb i always use is when i get it to a stage i think it needs a bit tighter, yet when i go up a hole it feels no different, this is the time to stop. Everyone has different ways of girthing and it does vary between double single and no elasticated girths.

If you are using an elasticated girth, check that the elastic is of good quality, fairly supple yet pretty tough to stretch, if it stretches too much you can have problems with the saddle slipping when competing due to there being too much give in the elastic so the saddle then bounces around.
 
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