Test Results of Shoulder Relief Girth – Failure. NO! Rips The Horse

I have done everything possible to get a saddle to fit my horse. I use a Circle Y Flex Lite saddle. I use both girth rings of the saddle to try to keep the saddle from creeping forward on the horse. I use a very expensive saddle pad, because you get what you pay for in saddle pads. I use a CSI saddle pad. If a pressure point exists, the CSI pad prevents the pressure from hurting the horse. I use a shim to even out the hollow spot behind the shoulders. But, I have long been irritated at my girth. The saddle never stays back where I want it. The girth always ends up pushing against my horse’s front legs. What must that feel like in the hours and hours I ride my horse?

Facebook horse people have recently been regaled by yet another magic invention that will prevent the saddle forward creep and make our horse comfortable and happy. I think one sentence mentioned the prevention of the girth rubbing the elbows of the horse. I had no idea where the elbows of the horse are, so that went sailing over my head.

I have been to saddle fit clinics. I have been to saddle fit seminars. I have sat through many saddle fit demonstrations by saddle makers. I have been through the horrors of learning how to shim a horse from making my own horrid shims to now owning a workable pair of shims. I have watched the scapula move on a horse. I’ve marked where my horse’s scapula is at rest and how far back it goes when the horse moves at a walk. I have a local wonderful saddle fit expert come and look at my saddle and how it fits when ever I get a new horse. Saddle fit is “Master Class”.

I was intrigued at the Facebook ad and it was the first of the month when I think I have money. I looked at the web site and pondered. I had not bought anything silly for an entire month. I ordered the intriguing girth. That is what us horse people do. We want the magic to happen and our horse to be happy.

Read on:

Shoulder Relief Girth
Below is the girth newly installed on the saddle

New shape for a cinch.

The girth arrived and scary in how different it is when you actually hold the girth in real life. It has a big curve. I guessed the point of the curve would be in the rear and point at the rear legs. Luckily, I looked at the explanation of the girth before installing it on the saddle. WhooWEE! The curve goes to the front of the horse! I would have “installed it” incorrectly!

Still the girth is a scary thing with that big curve. I wanted my horse to move a lot before I rode. Perhaps the horse would think the girth was weird and do a little bucking to express that feeling! I took a lot of care to move my horse around at a walk and then a trot. That went well, so I asked him to canter both directions. Nothing happened to show any discomfort with this weird shaped girth. Whew!

You can barly see the difference between a normal girth and this girth from this angle.

The brand name side of the girth. We have now done our extensive ground work and neither the saddle nor the cinch have moved forward. What! That never happens!

I decided it was safe for me to ride. I rode for almost an hour. We did all our gaits. We walked, flat foot walked, fox trotted, and cantered. I didn’t try to do any flying lead changes, but we did try to do drop to a trot lead changes. We did hindquarters and forequarter turns. We did leg yields at a walk and flat foot walk. We backed through the trail obstacle “L”. We curved through a line of barrels at a walk. We moved every part of my horse’s body.

I dismounted and immediatey took this picture of the underside of my horse. I’ve never seen the underside of my horse before. This is a moment for me, to see the damage caused by regular girths. There are no sores, blood or anything like that, but it is probably going to keep me awake tonight. I have PTSD Saddle Fit disease.

From the underside of the horse

This is camera selfie mode, not me laying underneath the horse. You can see how the girth lays on the horse’s belly. You can see the dried skin on the horse’s legs. That is where all my old girths ended up…rubbing the legs when the horse moves. My normal girth ends up next to the front legs…touching the front legs when he stands and rubs when the horse moves at any gait. If you look closely at the spot where the leg meets the belly, you can see an indentation and above that, a lump. This is where my normal girth pressed against his leg and made a lump. The girth, every girth I have ever used on any of my horse’s always pressed against the front legs at all times after moving around for a short time. Where does your girth end up after you ride? Put your phone on selfie mode, bend down and hold the phone between the legs. Take the picture. With this amazing girth there will no longer be any rubbing. It stays back where it was originally placed. Boy Howdy!

After Riding
Sweat Marks the Spot
Sweat never lies in saddle fit

And the true story is told after the saddle is off. The girth stayed back. Which means the saddle stayed back off the shoulder and allow more freedom of motion which is a very good deal for horse and human.

Updating the test to highly recommend that you get the fleece cover with the neoprene girth. My horse got sores on both leg where it rubbed against the stiff leather piece that is stitched on top of the neoprene.  The placement of the leather piece is too close to the side of the girth.  The leather made the sores.  There is no other girth in the Western world that has a leather piece on top of the felt girth.  The leather piece also mades this girth highly expensive.  I wonder why we need the leather.

I ordered the fleece cover.  I put the new girth with the cool fleece cover on my saddle and the saddle on the horse.  The girth seems to stretch a bit.  I did order a shorter girth when I sent back the girth that had soared my horse.  I run my horse around quite a bit and tighten the girth at intervals before I ever mount.  The rule is that my horse has to either canter or jump something so that the saddle will be in place and the girth securely tightened.  That was done.  My horse cantered and other things as I gradually tightened the girth.  I got on a mounting block, put my foot in the stirrup and started to swing my leg over the back.  But the saddle had other ideas.  The fleece material was too slick and my saddle turned sideways while I was mounting.  I fell on the mounting block.

I am done with the Shoulder Relief girth.

Susan Engle is in her second childhood as seasoned horsewoman following the great journey of developing Missouri Fox Trotters using natural horsemanship. She started at age 48 and is now staring in “the 70’s”. You can read her dramatic, humorous and pathetic stories from Kersplat to Bridleless in a book called Susan Fox Trotter. Susan Fox Trotter book

There is a chapter in the book on how Susan thought money could solve saddle fit. HA! Sadly, money will not resolve saddle fit, only a learning journey and prayerfully , saddle fit experts. Saddle fit and girth fit go hand in hand. Susan still has a lot of rage about saddle fit and what the saddle makers fail to mention…downhill horses. Read the book and feel the saddle fit rage!