Over girthing

Roxy's Mum

Roxy's Mum

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Jul 21, 2009
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Following on from a recent couple of threads about girths & girth galls, what constitutes as over girthing? And how do you tell? Can you fit fingers in when the girth is done up?

Following my fall recently from a loose girth I will be getting into the habit of tightening it again once onboard. One the ground I can just about wiggle my fingers underneath - but clearly this wasn't tight enough, yet I still worry about overgirthing.
 
Oh yes, will be interested in hearing other people's opinions on this aswell. I was really worried the recent saddle and back issues I had were down to overgirthing as I'm unable to tighten once in the saddle owing to confidence issues. For that reason I'm careful to get the saddle on a good fifteen twenty minutes before I ride so that if Flip blows out I can tighten before I get on. I potter about brushing, picking out hooves, plaiting and bridling, inbetween nudging it up an extra hole either side so its not a rushed job. But still not sure what the final result should look like.
 
I tighten so I can still get the flat of my hand under without it feeling pinched. Having previously had a girth with elastic in both sides and now a humane girth I'm very aware of the dangers of over tightening.

Joys never blown herself out and I personally think over tightening can promote that issue.
 
I used to always tighten from the ground to a fairly loose stage (whole hand easily slip inside), pull horse's legs forward, get on then tighten after walking around a few paces - but still leaving enough room to be able to slide my fingers under the girth when I lent down.

However, all this agile arseing around is now well beyond me - So I tighten up from the ground as tight as I can go - and usually struggle at this stage to get my fingers inside the girth. BUT - once I get on from the mounting block and manage to creakily lean down slightly and feel the girth, I can then slip my fingers in easily.

So I would say - however you do the girth, in my opinion, if you can slip your fingers under it once you are on and mounted then it is tight enough. However, if you are doing faster work or jumping after say 20 minutes hacking, I would always re-check the girth as it can easily have slackened up to be too loose by then.
 
Joyscarer said:
I tighten so I can still get the flat of my hand under without it feeling pinched.
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Same here. I like to fit 4 fingers in between the girth. I see some people doing it up so tightly and the horse looks so uncomfortable. If you have a correctly fitting saddle and are a balanced rider, the saddle shouldn't slip even if the girth is slightly loose.
 
Mary Poppins said:
If you have a correctly fitting saddle and are a balanced rider, the saddle shouldn't slip even if the girth is slightly loose.
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My problem the other day was that Roxy spooked and jumped sideways - that can't be pridicted and granted I'm not the most balanced of riders but it's something like this which will highlight how potentially dangerous a loose girth can be.

My worry is that without physically touching it I wouldn't know the symptoms or signs of an overtightened girth.
 
Mary Poppins said:
If you have a correctly fitting saddle and are a balanced rider, the saddle shouldn't slip even if the girth is slightly loose.
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Yep, in an ideal world, but there will always be some that unfortunately defy this simple logic MP. Those flamin roly poly cobs. I know some will come back and say 'yes but the saddle isn't then a correct fit' but we're talking laws of gravity here imo.
 
Roxy's Mum said:
My problem the other day was that Roxy spooked and jumped sideways - that can't be pridicted and granted I'm not the most balanced of riders but it's something like this which will highlight how potentially dangerous a loose girth can be.

My worry is that without physically touching it I wouldn't know the symptoms or signs of an overtightened girth.
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It all depends on how loose you define loose as. I would say that if you can just about fit your whole fist in the girth, this does need to be tightened, but it should still be tight enough to hold if the horse spooked. Obviously, if you can see air between the girth and the horse, this is not going to stay put.
 
Flipo's Mum said:
Yep, in an ideal world, but there will always be some that unfortunately defy this simple logic MP. Those flamin roly poly cobs. I know some will come back and say 'yes but the saddle isn't then a correct fit' but we're talking laws of gravity here imo.
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I do agree with that. When my RI explained over girthing to me, he explained that horses are not round (we were talking about a TB here), they are oval shaped. If you tighten the girth so you can hardly fit a finger in the side, you are making it very, very tight at the bottom. If you try and put a finger in the girth at the bottom of girth done up tightly, you find this almost impossible. This is why girth galls appear at the underneth of belly, because this is where the girth is at it's tightest. This also explains why an apparent slightly loose girth around the side, will hold the saddle in place if the horse spooks.

With horses that are rounder, they won't have so much of a barrel shape so their girth won't be as tight on the underneth section. Does that make any sense?
 
Mary Poppins said:
Obviously, if you can see air between the girth and the horse, this is not going to stay put.
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I didn't start riding yesterday so I know I don't want to see air between the girth and the horse....

I don't want to hike up the girth uber tight & hurt my horse but by a similar token I don't want to risk a saddle slip if she decided to tank off sideways. All very good if I know it's going to happen and can prepare but otherwise my weight will shift, as it did the other, onto one stirrup. It's going to happen and believe only the creme de la creme of experts and confident riders would be able to sit otherwise.

Inevitably as she gets fitter she will change shape and things will be a better fit but we're not quite there yet.
 
Mary Poppins said:
I didn't mean to imply that you didn't know what you are doing. Sorry for any offence caused.
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:biggrin: Not to worry - I was a bit *tut* well durr! Not to worry, I know you're only trying to help, I didn't mean to snap. I'll ask up the yard tonight and see how tight others have theirs. I appreciate the round cobs are a harder shape to fit to - hopefully we won't be round for very long though!
 
Good question and the best way I had it explained to me to check (can't remember if I read it in an article or was told by an old RI) was to actually check the girth right on the horses sternum as that is where most pressure is exerted when up tight.

I've had the saddle slipping issues and used many girths, I did use a humane girth for a while as did OH for years and years, and his horse at 25 isn't girthy at all. I was using humane ones to help try and keep the saddle on when I had my first slipping saddle (having a roly poly cob doesn't help!!!) and looking back yes I was overtightening as it led to my horse blowing out. He still does this habit now, but I do it slowly and one hole at a time and like FP do picking out of the feet, putting the bridle on inbetween the time it takes for me to get to the final hole. Yes it's slow when I tack up but I don't like to rush anyway when I'm up for ride.

The girth I use now is one like this Girth which I pinched from OH :D It's lovely and well padded over the centre of his sternum and has elastic in the middle so there is a bit of give in it. If I don't use that one then I use an elasticated girth on one side, weird but it has to be elasticated only on the one side, if it's on the other side then the saddle slips, but on the right hand side it stays put :unsure:

Maybe this is showing how unbalanced I am when riding :o

But after all that waffle, then the rule of thumb I have always used is I should be able to get about 4 fingers under the girth comfortably at least down the horses side level with their 'elbow' without it seeming like my fingers are about to loose circulation !
 
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Until it's tight enough to hold the saddle in place if I decide to lean off the side!

I dunno, you just sort of get used to it, working in a riding school I can spot a girth that needs tightening at 20 paces (interestingly enough we have banned the use of humane girth's on our yard for safety reasons and we only have one elastic girth which is always double checked if used by anyone other than a senior member of staff or the ponies leaser!)

Henry's girth always goes to the same spots, it's a snug fit before I mount and then when on it goes up one final hole so it's a snug fit when I'm mounted, if I'm jumping I will periodically check the girth.

For those of you that say you aren't confident enough to check the girth when mounted, surely confidence dictates that you should be checking more often?!
 
I'm working on it Lots, lack of confidence in my horse standing still long enough for me to adjust it is the problem but we're schooling for that...when he's not lame. I know what you're getting at, tbh, none of our sessions have been long enough or involved enough work for it to be something I've had to worry about. I can check it while in the saddle but would get someone else to help adjust it if need be.
 
I do my girth whilst we're still moving, I figure it's more likely that I won't over tighten it if I can feel the pressures of the different movements under it (but I have a very safe reliable horse so take these things for granted!):inlove:
 
I guess it's horses for courses on this one with a few 'shoulds' thrown in but people doing what's right for them and their situation. Just how it should be.

As adults I think we can all do each other the courtesy of respecting the choices we make knowing the pros and cons of our choices.
 
To us mum- sorry to say this - but in my expeience, if it's gonna slip, it's going to slip - sudden weight one way will inevitably make it slip. You could put a non slip pad or girth, but I guess that will just rip the hair out (bit different for general stability). It's not just your weight, but weight x momentum so increases actual weight experienced - like why a jump of high diving board makes a bigger splash than a lower board.

You could try some shelf liner and see, though it may make her girthy etc, but you won't know unless you try.

I used nonslip on madam for a while, now my balance is better (and my ability to predict her behaviour!), an she has lost weight the saddle is much more stable. Balance helped by bing unable to fasten girth as it was just too sore on her skin - you could see daylight very easily between girth - saddle only on to cushion her back from my bum!!!!! :redcarded:
 
If I under tighten Shadow's girth the saddle slips a bit, I rarely get on off the ground these days because of this (it goes sideways some times), and over tightening is a problem, because it's difficult to find a happy medium, when the horse is round not oval..
His girth is elasticated on one side, which I put on the side of the saddle I don't get on - I've noticed some people put the elasticated side on the left side, which is wrong, as your more likely to over tighten as that side of the girth has more give, making you think it's not tight enough, when it actually is
 
I don't get the assumption that a non slip pad rips hair out. My Stephens gel pad (used before I found the humane girth was perfect) had a slight tackiness to it but never had hair stuck to it except at shedding time and certainly no more than her numnah would have.

It's like having sticky bum jods but isnt that sticky.
 
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