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[RC] riding w/o girth and a warning! - Marlene MossWell, I have told people at saddle fittings that I ride with a really loose girth and that if it wasn't for mounting (I'm short) that I would be willing to ride without a girth. I never tried it - until now! Yesterday I went on my first trail ride with a new horse. I prefer training on the trail to the arena and this horse has a pretty messed up background. I ride with panel saddles, Free'n'Easy in this case, and this horse doesn't have much in the way of shoulders or withers, so a crupper is a necessity. I've been working on that with her for over a week and she's finally stopped bucking (longest crupper training I've ever had to do). She is not very responsive to the bit either, thanks to her original trainer. But there will be snow soon on all the mountain trails and I really wanted to get this last (first!) ride in. The trail climbs 4000' in 2 miles - shouldn't need to steer, either she stays on the trail or we die! As we climbed I noticed my saddle had slid back a bit - the horse has an extremely level back, so it didn't surprise me, but obviously I needed to adjust my breast collar. I noticed that it seemed a little tougher than normal for me to stay balanced. Not a big deal - I figured the saddle wasn't as stable that far back and just kept going until we had some room to get off and make adjustments. We did a lot of trotting - I was with 2 absolute speed demons, my husband was riding my other mare that I call a locomotive and a friend was riding a horse that Jeremy Reynolds rode for a few years that is really hard to slow - and all up steep climbs with loose rocks and tough footing. Finally I was able to get off to tighten the girth and move my saddle forward. And suddenly it all made sense! I had no girth! It was mohair girth that I knew was not in great shape. I had washed it and left it out in the sun for many days. One strand had broke but the rest seemed strong. I had just set this saddle up for this horse since she is so different from my others. I knew I didn't tighten my girths much so figured it would be fine. But I think the sun really degraded the strength and every strand broke along the center dees. The girl riding with us was absolutely flabbergasted - she's just learning about trail riding, normally she rides 20 seconds at a time for barrels and other speed events and rides with an extremely tight girth. I was getting ready to tighten my breast collar and find a way to get back on and continue the ride (which really shocked this girl), but my husband got clever and found a way to use half a girth tied to the other buckles with EZ boot straps. I was a little sad - I wanted to continue the experiment! But really not that wise considering we still had some unknown crupper reactions, let alone this horse's first foray into the woods in her life. And I did get 2 bucks from the crupper later, but other than that, I really do think I could have managed quite well girthless. We finally ended up barefoot too (she kept stumbling and I wanted her to pay better attention to her feet so off came the boots ) - could girthless be a new trend? Haha! BTW, the horse will be awesome. She might even make a good CTR horse - I can get her to cross logs at a walk that are so big that she couldn't straddle with her front legs and her belly almost drug. She isn't afraid of anything. She walks as fast as the other speed demons, has a smooth trot and seemed to really enjoy being out in the world. But steering and cantering with the crupper are still projects! So, be careful washing out those string girths - don't leave them to dry in the sun too longer! Marlene Marlene Moss Saddle Fitting - www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com Boarding/Training - www.LosPinos-CO.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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