Hi Allegra,
Everyone has their own riding style just like we
each develop our own unique handwriting. We all were taught the "correct"
way to form our letters way back in early grade school and most people
were taught a "correct" way to ride at some point and we spend the rest
of our lives finding our own way to do things. As far as I'm concerned,
how you make your letters doesn't matter much - as long as they are legible.
I do believe, though, that there are very good reasons behind most "correct"
ways to ride. The primary reason is SAFETY.
Lots of people think of saddles as accumulations
of odds bits and pieces of leather that were important way back in riding
history when knights or cavalrymen rode (or maybe cowboys). In a
way that's true, but those same bits and pieces are still important to
our riding today. Have you evere thought about the purpose of the
girth or cinch? You might say they are there as an anchor
for the breast collar and you wouldn't be wrong but that's not the main
purpose. The main purpose is to keep the saddle on the horse's back
Not only to keep the saddle on the back, but to keep it centered side-to-side
and front to back. Have you ever given a piggy back ride to a wiggly,
squirmy, bouncy toddler and had to struggle to stay balanced underneath
that energy to keep her from falling off? That's what we ask our
horse to do when we ride. Hopefully, we don't wiggle like a 2 year
old, but one of the biggest jobs the saddle and girth do is keep us in
place up there so the horse can concentrate on going down the road.
Another job for the girth/cinch is to help spread out the rider's weight
underneath the whole saddle instead of just under the rider's seatbones.
In order for the saddle to function correctly it has to be held snugly
to the horse - that's the job of the girth/cinch. If the girth/cinch
is so loose that it doesn't keep the saddle in place, you might as well
be riding bareback for all the good the saddle does the horse.
The sweat pattern you saw the other day is exactly
what you should see. Anything less is probably just where your horse
is feeling pressure. Have you compromised air circulation to your
horse's back? That depends mostly on what kind of saddlepad you are
using. The purposes of saddlepads are to cushion the horse's
back, to allow air circulation and to keep the underneath of the saddle
clean. There are lots of different kinds of pads out there.
Some emphasize their ability to increase air circulation. Pads are
not intended to improve the fit of the saddle.
My personal answer to your question would be to
ask you why you think air circulation under the saddle is more important
than your safety (just because you've stay on this long doesn't mean you
will forever!) and the psychological comfort of your horse - horses get
bothered when their rider and saddle start slipping around! And then
I would ask who taught you that riding with a loose girth was "correct"
and is that person more likely to be right than 2000 years of riding history?
Cheers,
Laney
Allegra wrote:
Usualy I ride with my girth very loose.
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