Re: Girth Rubbing on Sports Saddle

[Lucy Chaplin Trumbull <elsie@calweb.com>]

Sorry, this got a little long-winded, but was an
interesting experience in cinch rotation.

> Has anyone had problems with the rigging placement on 
> the Sports Saddle. Girth is rubbing at the elbow...

As Provo and I have started doing more and more work,
I've had a few problems with rubbing girth on his SS,
all of which have been resolved by rotating girths as
we go along.

We started out with a flat neoprene cinch (28") which 
rubbed his elbows after a few short sessions in the
arena. This was during a period when I was riding him
in the dark, so it could have been that I wasn't getting
his skin arranged nicely under/around the cinch.

I'm now scrupulous about once I've tightened his girth, I
pick up each leg in turn and stretch it out in front, to 
make sure all the skin is lying flat and not bunched up.

He also gets a little scurfy, so I make sure I wash his
armpits/elbows carefully to clean off the sweat.

When the scuffs first appeared on his elbows, I switched 
to a "waffle" neoprene cinch (28"). This eliminated the 
elbow problem, but after a while, bald patches appeared 
on his sides - this cinch was rubbing at the buckle.

I scrutinized that one and discovered that it was the
fabric trim around the end of the cinch that was the
culprit. Although the neoprene part of it was easy to
keep clean, this small strip of fabric trim had got
cruddy and his fur was being stripped off by it. So to
avoid that, I just need to clean that part carefully
(or remove it... we'll see).

A shorter cinch was needed, to get away from the rubbed
area. Karen Chaton suggested a mohair cinch, but the only 
one I could find in 24" was a rayon strand pony cinch
from Stateline (conveniently - unless you happend to be
my bank manager - just opened down the road from home). 
This cinch cost a princely $5.90 and has done the job 
admirably.

I was a bit disappointed to realise that it didn't have
any rings underneath to attach the breast collar to, so
I had to just hook the clip into three strands underneath.
Surprisingly, this seems to be working fine. 

The fur on the rubbed portions is growing back slowly and 
despite a concern that the buckle on the pony cinch (this
is about as basic a cinch as you can get) might be digging 
in, he doesn't seem to be suffering any discomfort from it...
Yet. <grin>.

If any further problems appear, we'll probably start again
with the neoprene cinch and work our way around the 
rotation again.

> ...and there is no way to move it back.  It always slips 
> forward. Horse is fat and broad in the barrel.

I'm guessing that, as the horse slims down from work,
this will be less of a problem? 

Mouse (of the "look how much beet pulp I can put away!" 
fame) is a bit like this. Until she slims down, I'm going 
to have some saddle fit problems with it riding forwards 
(pushed there by her belly) and not staying secure (riding 
on her layers of blubber).

-- 
**************************************************************
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Repotted english person in Sacramento, CA 
http://www.calweb.com/~elsie

with Mouse and Provo
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