ridecamp@endurance.net: [endurance] re:neoprene girths - your experiences

[endurance] re:neoprene girths - your experiences

Unreplyable!SMTP!OutboundSyntaxError@mail.att.net
Wed, 13 Sep 1995 12:46:34 -0400

Ellen - My personal experience with neoprene girths has been exceptionally
good.
My horse is very thin-skinned. About two years ago we were using a
felt-backed girth and had a bad problem with galling right behind the elbows.
This caused some lost training time and made both the horse and me dread
cinching. Very frustrating to have an otherwise sound horse that cannot be
ridden because of girth galling!

Out of desperation I took a friend's suggestion and ordered a neoprene girth.
We went to a ride the day after it arrived. We had thin bare pink skin where
the galls had been but at least they were not open sores. Anyway, the vets
looked at them really hard but allowed us to start.

I liberally greased the girth area with K-Y jelly and cinched him up. I
repeated it at each vet check. We finished top ten so we went in for BC
judging. The vets were very complimentary on how well I had taken care of
him. The girth area was at least as good as when we started with absolutely
no additional galling or evidence of rubbing.

I was sold and have been using those girths exclusively since then. We
consistently get A's on back/withers/girth at rides. The neoprene seems to be
lubricated by sweat which probably explains how it works so well. I had some
problem with my leather crupper galling under the horse's tail so I found
someone to cover it with neoprene. That eliminated that problem, also.

Hope this helps.

****************************************************************
Dave Bennett
internet: idj3q.office@mhs-tva.attmail.com
*****************************************************************