Girth Hunting

I've been slack-a-lackin' on this blog this week. It's mostly because on Monday I was going to post about my lesson with Tracey, but then I had a lot of trouble processing all of the information from that lesson. I'm still working it out mentally, then will hopefully have a post done for tomorrow.

But at my Monday ride, I had something happen that I didn't need to process.

I wrote that I had the saddle fitter out a week or two ago and that I basically paid her a lot of money just to tell me that I needed a new girth and then try to sell me one.

Mom I hate girths, ride without one instead, okay?

I immediately did some research online, decided that all anatomical girths are WAY WAY WAY too expensive. I ordered two of the Total Saddle Fit girths from Riding Warehouse because they're the best about returns.

For a couple of days, things seemed fine. His saddle was staying back where it needs to be and I was pretty happy with the quality of the girth. The saddle fitter was all "you get what you pay for," meaning that the $130 TSF girth would be far inferior to the more expensive one she was selling me. It's a nice girth! The only issue I sort of thought might be an issue is that TC is very narrow through his girth area, which means that the elbow clearance was a little off for him. I did have a size smaller girth, but there's no way that 1 inch on each side would put the swoop where it needs to be. He simply needs the part that swoops forward toward his legs to be narrower.

But I mean, I got it to keep the saddle back, not give him optimal elbow clearance. So we went along our way. TC seemed... about the same in this girth. I appreciated not feeling like the saddle was hitting his shoulder, and I'm sure he also appreciated that. I learned in my Tracey lesson that I sit really crooked, so I might not have the best feel.

I do, however, have eyes. And on Monday I took his girth off and noticed a bit of a red tinge on it. I checked his elbow and yep, it had worn a hole in one of his little elbow fat rolls.

It looks worse than it is

I know it didn't happen when I was putting it on, since I always check that. But I do tighten the girth usually one hole on each side while riding. And my horse has no manners, so he probably went to lean forward, leaving his left elbow back under the girth while I tightened it. He honestly told me while riding- he skittered sideways away from the left side into the canter and then bucked a lot. Maybe he shouldn't use the same response for bird shadows as he does for pain and I would have noticed sooner! Silly pony. It wasn't a deep cut, just took the first layer or two of skin off. So don't feel bad for him, he got lots of cookies and apologies.

I washed it, put some stuff on it, and have ignored it since. Today I'm going out in the morning and trying to come up with a plan. Luckily it's so far forward (like literally on his elbow), that it probably won't get in the way of any girth as long as I'm careful about tightening it. I think I'll try the smaller TSF girth today even just to move that point a bit away. I also have Rico's super cheap ovation (I think) girth that isn't anatomical but does have a little cut back.

My horse sweats a LOT

Still, I think we're looking at a damn narrow gauge anatomical girth. JenJ recommended the ProLite, which looks promising. The site that sells them in the US is really stingy about returns though, so I'm a little bit nervous. Especially because I've never used a girth with no elastic before. If anyone has any recommendations, I'm all ears! That narrow gauge seems hard to find, I've only really found it in the Fairfax girths (who also make the ProLite), which again, no elastic.