centerfire girth

[Marlene Moss <marlene.moss@wcom.com>]

Hi,
I just got a saddle that seems to fit my wide mare very well.  I am
comfortable too, although having to retrain muscles since I moved the
stirrups back under me where they belong.  But it is a pretty wide saddle
and it has a centerfire style girth rigging.

I am conditioning for a Competitive Trail ride on the trails the ride will
be held on and some of the hills are very steep - steep enough for my
husband to chicken out and lead his horse down!  Because the saddle is wide
and my mare doesn't have much in the way of withers, the saddle moved
forward.  This probably wouldn't have been too bad because it only slid so
far and then seemed to stop.  But the bigger problem was that the girth came
forward quite a ways and was suddenly very loose.

So I'm wondering if with this style of girth I will almost have to use a
crupper?  I can go make one and do plan on doing that, but I am a little
leery of starting to use one less than 2 weeks before a tough ride.  My
husband thought that a rear girth might help - he'd set up a saddle last
year with a front and rear cinch that were connected and thought something
like that might work.  Also not sure I want to start experimenting with that
2 weeks before a ride.

I don't have to use this saddle, I have found that my mom's Marciante works
pretty well - but I'll have to do some work so the stirrups can go short
enough for me and I really want to start moving forward with my own saddle -
it's been a 3 year battle with this mare!

I've already done some major surgery on this saddle, so don't mind doing any
other alterations that might work, so bring on the ideas.  Otherwise, we're
starting crupper training tomorrow!

Thanks,
Marlene