Saddles with 4 girth straps...

[Holly B]

I have only ever used saddles with 2 or 3 girth straps. I was always taught that if you were using a saddle with 3 straps you should use the front strap with either the 2nd or 3rd, NEVER the 2nd and 3rd together. However, my new saddle (arriving this week, yay!) has 4 straps and I was wondering which combinations are safe and which ones were definite no-nos. Thanks!

 

[Retty]

Max's saddle has four girth straps - as he is rather wide and round the straps I use are the first and fourth

 

[Floob]

The fourth strap is known as a 'balancing strap'. Basically helps keep the back of the saddle down on round horses and helps prevent the saddle slipping sideways.
Which straps you use depends on what you need. On Ruby we use 1 and 4. But on Tarquin we use 2 and 4 as it means we don't have to use the point strap, which is apparantly better for him (has a bit of muscle wastage from previous owner's bad saddle, its coming on slowly)

 

[Holly B]

Thanks, will try 1 and 4, and 2 and 4, and see which works best.

 

[Pink's lady]

The reason we don't use girth strap 2 and 3 together on a normal saddle is that they are attatched to the tree by the same peice of webbing and if it snaps, both straps come undone. The first strap is attatched with a different peice of webbing.

However on a cob saddle there are four straps. The first one is a point strap and is bolted onto the tree points. The second and third are 'normal' girth straps and may or may not be the same peice of webbing. The last strap is a 'balance' strap and is anchored much further back than normal straps.

The different straps can be used to secure the saddle the right distance down the back. The girth always wants to make the small circumfrence around the horse so the saddle is pulled either forwards or back so the saddle sits directly over the girthing center.

That means with a pony with who has no withers, big shoulders and forwards girth groove (i.e the girth sits right under the elbow) the saddle is dragged forwards by the girth until the saddle sits right over the girth and the saddle is half way up the neck It's a very common problem.

Looks like this (my fabulously photoshopped horse)

So you would want to use the first (point) and second girth strap so the girth pull is as reduced as possible.
So it's more like this

However, if the saddle slides back (common on hunter types) you would want to use the back straps so the girth pulls the saddle forwards.

And on 'normal' horses you would use the middle two.

The point strap does drag the points of the tree down onto the back though and therefore the only time you would use it is if your saddles is being dragged forwards. The balancing strap is suppose the stop the back of the saddle rolling but doesn't usually work.

 

[Glider]

Is the extra strap at the front or the back? If it's at the front, coming from a different angle, it's a point strap, if it's at the back it's a balence strap. What you use depends on how your horse fits the saddle, but the 'normal' girth straps are still attached to the webbing as described to Pink's Lady.