Cob Jockey

This is a long, circular story about blogging, girths, and why I completely failed at sizing them for Connor.

A long time ago, I had a..20"? 22"? Total Saddle Fit Dressage girth:


Which was fine, but I thought it was a little big.  It came up higher than I thought it should on Connor's sides.

And the World's Longest Billets on the Thorowgood I owned back then stuck out by a solid 6".

So I sold it to get something shorter and ended up with an 18" Total Saddle Fit StretchTec Shoulder Relief Girth:


Which I was moderately happy with, even if cleaning it drove me CRAZY.  You just cannot keep hair and dirt from getting in between the Velcro "halves".  It was always dirty.

Then a few weeks ago, when Connor's summer coat was coming in, I noticed white patches forming where the two "halves" of the girth must have rubbed Connor, with the velcro in between them.  I had no idea this was even happening, there were no rubs or damage to his winter coat, but we'd had that girth for months, so it had been a while, poor pony.

White spot by girth visible in this "Hey is my horse downhill?" photo I probably sent JenJ.  The white spot has since faded, so I caught it in time before it completely killed the pigmentation and became an acquired leukoderma.

I was immediately very mad at this "gimmicky" girth that hurt my horse, and was so irrationally frustrated with anatomic girths in general, I bought a contoured Lettia Click girth as an impulse buy and sold the TSF.  And came this close to writing a post about how terribly designed the TSF StretchTec girth was.  But I'm glad I didn't...

Lettia Click Girth shown.  I loved the Click mechanism.

In the process of my remote saddle fitting experience with Ann of Equestrian Imports, she pointed out that the straight Lettia girth was all up in Connor's business behind his elbow, which was pulling the saddle forward of where it should be.  She told me to move the saddle back and put a hands width of space between his elbow and the girth, which I did, but...


Both saddle and girth would always slide forward to the original location very shortly into my rides.

Ann suggested a Total Saddle Fit girth (of course she did) but in 24".  When I protested and said that must be too big, she said "Absolutely not, if it's any shorter the contours will be in the wrong places and rub him."

Immediately, I thought "Oh.  My God.  I am an idiot.  THAT'S why the StretchTec girth rubbed Connor.  It wasn't the girth's fault at all.  And I'm really glad I didn't write that scathing blog post now."

So, because Ann sells them, and because I knew some karma just came full circle, I ended up with another classic TSF girth.  This time in a 24" size.  And the saddle and girth both stayed where I put them, where Ann recommended them, through the entire ride:

Taken after a ride.

Compare to the Lettia girth photos above.  So much more freedom behind the elbow for him

There are a few takeaways here:
- Sizing anatomic girths properly REALLY matters.  And the length of the girth and whether it keeps your saddle on the horse is only one small part of that sizing.

- It's important to do your due diligence before blasting a product on this very public platform.  I am so glad I didn't write what was on my mind when I thought bad design was the reason for Connor's rubs.  We don't owe anything to the manufacturers, and should feel free to state our opinions, but man, my opinion would have been dead wrong.  And the internet is forever.

- Connor definitely needs an anatomic girth.  No question.

- I could have saved myself a lot of buying and selling if I had just thought a little more critically about how the girths fit him.


And with that...we are REALLY done shopping for saddles and girths now!

I mentioned before that my 20" TSF girth was long on Connor, and the billets of my new saddle stuck out so far, they hit him in the elbow.

Just...not...attractive.  The billets, not the horse.  The horse is attractive.

I'm hesitant to cut the billets down because this saddle isn't a forever saddle.  So I decided to sell my 20" Total Saddle Fit girth and buy an 18" of the same thing.  It wouldn't fix the problem entirely, but it would mean 1" less billet sticking out on both sides.

20" TSF girth, now sold, for almost what I paid for it originally.  Hooray, lack of depreciation!

When I got to their website, I got distracted by the new StretchTec girth on my way to purchase the old style TSF girth.  I know that there is actual scientific data (albeit a small sample size) showing that "The type of girth and the tension at which it is applied affects athletic performance. Lower girth tensions and the use of elastic materials in the girth would appear to optimise performance."  (Though the girth material probably doesn't negatively affect athletic performance as much as overtightening your girth does.)

I spent several days trying to find reviews on it (and couldn't find any, I guess it's too new) and asking my personal saddle fitter Mary if she thought it was legit. (Her verdict: legitimately a good idea, lifespan may not be as great due to all the elastic, but definitely worth a try.).


In the end, I figured, hey, it'll make a good blog post, with TSF's 110% money back guarantee I won't lose money on it if it's terrible, and I'll apparently be the first person on the Internet to review it.

Here are their marketing claims:

• Stretchy elastic center for maximum give/horse comfort
• Removable/interchangeable panels (so you can switch between leather and neoprene if you want, or I guess have one set of clean panels and one set of dirty panels?  Multiple sets of panels for multiple horses without having to clean the girth in between?  So many possibilities!)
• Contours to horse's natural chest shape better due to the elastic/even contact across the girth
• Improves performance

All pictures and impressions are done without the strap, which I don't have yet.

Velcro points shown, about 1/8-1/4" away from his skin.  I don't have the covers yet.

Shot from below without D ring strap.

I didn't notice anything different with this girth vs. his old TSF girth while under saddle, although it's not like we were doing gallop sets or running XC - it's a Dressage girth, and we did a Dressage ride.  It's currently only available in Black from sizes 18-34", though if TSF's past product history is any indication, they usually release the short black Dressage/monoflap jump girth before the longer brown standard jump girth.  I would be interested to try this out on XC.