Foregirth

[Sara]

I ran across a foregirth while researching ways to svoid forward saddle slippage in a horse with a forward girth groove, short back and well sprung ribs.  I've never heard of it before and an more curious than anything.  Anyone know much about them?

Sara

[Ranch]

I found the following discussion on the web:

 

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?343139-Dressage-Foregirth-question

 

 

Personally, I would go with a crupper.  They do work.  I have used them on all my horses without exception for 25 or so years. 

 

Ed

Ed & Wendy Hauser
5729 175th Ave
Becker, MN

[Sara]

Ed,

 

Thanks! I saw that too when I did a search to see what a foregirth even looked like. I just can't imagine it not causing pain as the saddle moves forward and jams into it. I am also a less is more person when it comes to putting stuff on my horse.  Just curious to see if anyone had experience with it. I am working on getting a crupper for her, but need to get an English adaptor too and right now I am on a tight budget. Its on the list once things get back in order.

 

Sara

[deser...@aol.com]

A foregirth is pretty nasty actually.  It's an appliance that looks kinda like a lunging circingle but it girths on in front of the saddle, and has something (like prongs) to hold the saddle back.  It has to be tightened REALLLYY tight to accomplish its goal, easy way to end up with a girthy horse.

One of the general rules of saddle fitting is if it slides forward, it's more likely too narrow, and if it slides backward, it might be too wide.  It does hold true a lot of the time.  There are so many different ways a horse can be put together, and it seems like a lot more of the horses I see today don't have what I would consider a good saddle back.  They're built downhill, or mutton withered, or widesprung ribs, but a tube-shaped body.  Or they have high withers that extend halfway down their back.  Or any combination of these and more conformatiion "attributes"

My biggest complaint with a majority of the saddles that were made before the mid-90's were made for horses built like an OTTB.  Neither the english nor the western disciplines seemed to consider saddle fit the way many of us do today.  Saddle makers have been responding to the complaints that their saddles are too narrow in a variety of ways.  There has been a huge variety of innovations in the last 15-20 years. 

I'd re-evaluate the saddle fit, maybe try a few different ones out if you get a chance, so if you can find one that fits without needing a medieval torture device to hold it in place.
jeri

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to ride...@endurance.net
 
To post to this group, send email to ride...@endurance.net
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ridecamp+u...@endurance.net
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/a/endurance.net/group/ridecamp?hl=en
 

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ridecamp+u...@endurance.net.

[Lynne Glazer]

Jeri made some great points.  Start out with a saddle that fits in all axes: tree point angles, breadth across the pommel head, through the twist and the appropriate amount of tree rocker or flatness.

My new guy has the well sprung ribs, forward girth groove, coupled with withers that end well into the back.  Simple solution was to use the point billet on his saddle with 4 billets that matches his extra wide shape and flat back.  First time I've ever had to use the point billet on one of my horses, and need to be careful not to girth too tightly, as it puts direct pressure on the tree points.   He's in a dressage saddle but this photo shows the billet location on a saddle with medium length ones.  He's in first and third.

Lynne
[see attached file: billets_0763e.jpg]

[Sara]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I was curious on the foregirth because it seemed like it would add a lot of pressure and be more uncomfortable than the saddle moving forward would be.  I spent over a year trying saddles of all kinds: western, endurance, English (dressage, AP, jumping), treeless, panel saddles. You name it and I tried it. The one I have is the best fitting saddle short of a custom saddle which was my next step (Synergist) if this one failed. It fits her very well and is definitely not too narrow. If I go any wider, she wont have any wither clearance at all. Her sweat pattern is beautiful and even and she has not been sore at all.

 

So far what has worked well for me is an anatomic shaped girth which allows the girth to sit forward without pulling on the saddle so much. This has cut about 85% of the forward pull out. Her girth size is 20 (the saddle has very long billets) and I was stuck with leather as my only option in that size and style so I got a Delfina girth and added a wonderfully gaudy bright red fleece girth cover. I also use a non slip pad which works great as long as I keep it clean. A saddle maker told me that crossing the billets works as well which I can't seem to figure out in my mind why it would work, but it is helping. You place the front billet in the back buckle of the girth and the back billet to the front one. All this combined has eased the sliding problem and when I get my crupper it should eliminate the remaining tiny bit that I have when going down hills.

 

I always am on the look out for new learning experiences, so when I saw something I had never heard of, I thought I would ask about it.

 

Thanks again!

Sara

 

 

--

[Lisa Belhage]

My saddle fitter also told me the billet strap crossing trick which helped the forward girth problem when I was trying to use a dressage saddle. No girth problems but my hip hated the dressage saddle and since I was only riding dressage as something interesting to do during the winter, I bagged it and will playing around with jumping instead this winter. ;)

But the billet strap crossing was a nifty trick!

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RidecampRedistributed" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ridecampredistri...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Ed & Wendy Hauser]

On 8/27/2013 7:02 AM, Sara wrote:
> A saddle maker told me that crossing the billets works as well which I
> can't seem to figure out in my mind why it would work, but it is
> helping. You place the front billet in the back buckle of the girth
> and the back billet to the front one. All this combined has eased the
> sliding pr

Len Brown had some of his Orthoflex Saddles rigged in a somewhat similar
manner back in the '80's. They were a western saddle with a "cross your
heart" chincha that was shaped like an "X" between the front rings and
the flank chincha rings. He claimed it worked well, but I never saw
anyone using one. Like a number of his ideas, good and bad, it seems to
have disappeared now.

--
Ed & Wendy Hauser 5729 175th Avenue Becker, MN 55308 Ed- (406) 381-5527
Wendy- (406) 544-2926

[Laney Humphrey]

In my mind, crossing the billets creates a V a little like some centered girth systems.  The front billet is being pulled back because it's attached to the rear buckle and the rear one is pulled forward because it's attached to the front buckle.  This arrangement would also take up some of that long length of your billets!  Laney

[chi...@aol.com]

This is what I've found with my beloved Whippy all purpose saddle.  It's soooo comfy, and fits me like my favorite pair of jeans.  But it's just too narrow for either of my horses now, and probably never fit my other horses very well.

My biggest complaint with a majority of the saddles that were made before the mid-90's were made for horses built like an OTTB.

[k s swigart]

Jeri said:

> My biggest complaint with a majority of the saddles that were made before

> the mid-90's were made for horses built like an OTTB. 

This is one of the things that I like about them.  Since I have a bunch of horses built like OTTBs, it is possible to get good quality old saddles for really cheap that fit my horses.  And since I am of the opinion that a "back like an OTTB" is a good back (the one conformational trait that the race track selects for is a good back--and not just because it has a good place to put the saddle, but because it is an athletic and functional connection between the back end and the front end), I LIKE my horses to have backs like OTTBs.  It helps that many of them ARE TBs that were bred for the track (though none of them went there).

However, even my Arab and my anglo Arabs have had TB backs.

I suggest that people look for a horse with a back that fits into those saddles that were made before the mid-90's.  Not just because you can then find a high quality cheap saddle for it, but also because it will have a very functional back.

kat

Orange County, Calif.

:|