well, my horse cisco has been really good once i get a saddle on him. thing is he's been hard to saddle of late. moves around a lot and has lately gotten side shy. i have a new saddle right saddle pad on him and it seemed to work well for the first couple of rides. not moving around at all while saddling. mostly he is fine until i tighten the cinch. then he starts to move and sunday he even reared a little. i'm using a 30" justin neoprene roper style girth and have been since day one. the problem has manifested it's self within the last month. i thought the good saddle pad would cure the problem, but now it seems as if it is more of a girth problem. once saddled he has not shown a problem. sunday however he was a bit "spooky". but only when tied and me not in the saddle.

any help or suggestions would be appreciated. esecially from someone that has combated this problem before.

i thank you in advance.

It could have just been the day, but I would check and make sure the cinch is not pinching the horse, and make sure it is the right size. It maybe that since you changed the pad that the cinch is not fitting properly and pinching somewhere or digging in. I would start with that. Maybe put your old pad back on and see what happens. Also, I would make sure that the saddle fits properly. You could also try a different style cinch. I for one prefer 100% mohair roping cinches. I found that in the summer the neoprene cinches tend to pinch the skin more and rub sore spots. Since using the mohair I have had no problem. Hope this helps if I think of anything else, I'll post it.

thank you PC. i have been wondering about the mohair cinches. a couple of my riding buddies say they hate the mohair girth. i think one of them had a bad experience with one of the nylon look a-likes causing sores on a horse. i bought the neoprene on their promises it's the best thing out there.

last night i took a short peice of nylon cord and looped it around his heart girth line. i held it at the withers and cut it off with a pocket knife. after that i measured the length of cord at 75 inches. the way i have always heard to measure the girth size you need was to do this then divide that by two and subtract 3 inches. well, that comes up to 34.5 inches. the girth i have now is 32 inches. i wonder now if i should get a 34 inch or 36 inch girth. i'm pretty sure they only come in even numbered lengths. cisco has gained a little weight, of late. and i can tell he has gained a lot more muscle mass in his chest since i first bought him. but i also know he will inevitably lose a little weight come winter and some of that muscle mass. nothing too dramatic, but i don't want to have a girth too big for him either.

who makes a good mohair girth? and what size do you think i should get?

thanks in advance.

CK,

That is how I measure also. I would go with a 34 inch. I like the mohair cinches made by either Twenty X, Classic Equine, and the one I have is made by Weaver. It is their new smart cinch, that has the double roller so the cinch slides easily as you tighten it and creates less pinching.

My gelding I have was over weight at one time and then lost a bunch of weight when I got him and the result was extra skin around his heart girth. I, at the time was using a 36 inch cinch and it was giving him small sore were it was rubbing wrong cause it was to big, it was also one of those rayon/poly rope cinches. Once I changed (he wears a 32) size and material he has not had a problem since. The nice thing about mohair is that it stretches and give with the horse. I do clean my cinch every so often as recommended by the maker. The worst is when they are shedding their winter coats, After every ride I clean off the hair. I also like the roping cinches because it covers a larger area and is more comfortable. My mother in laws horse was real cinchy when she got her and at the time she was using a cinch that was too small (size 30) and was straight cinch. We measured her (size 35)and we bought her a 36in and we changed to a roper style and now she stands perfectly still when saddled..

Some horses do fine with the neoprene and some don't. I think it just depends on the horse and how they are built body wise. I also have found that Because of my horses body style I have to make sure I always use a back cinch. I realized this the few times I have used my austrialian saddle that does not have a back cinch.

Hope this helps and good luck.

i do appreciate the help. i just found a 27 strand mohair roper cinch in 34" on e(vil)-bay. pretty cheap too. i'll see if i can't bag that bad boy before the weekend. i know it'll take him some time to figure out it's not going to hurt him, so i'll use it a while and see how it does. i always use a breast collar and i have a rear girth but mostly i leave half a hand of space between it and his belly. i'll use it if were doing some major up hill down hill stuff, but for the most part it just hangs.


thank you again for the advice. if i can be of help holler.

Just wondering if it would help to keep the girth lose at first when you first cinch him while you brush your horse and bridle him up? Dont tighten right away. Once you get the other things done then go back and tighten. Are you maybe tightening to much? Just some thoughts.
My mare was cinchy and would even try to come around to bite when tightening so I tried a different approach as I suggested and it has worked for me.

i will tighten the cinch up, attatch the breast collar, then bridle him. then mostly gab with everyone else riding with me a spell. i then stretch his front legs, and tighten the cinch up( as he's usually blown out some by then) then, step into the saddle. most of the time about ten minutes later out on the trail i stop check everything and tighten the cinch again. sometimes i'll get about an inch out of it. he gives me no problem at this point. just during the initial saddleing and just before i step into the saddle.

over the past two weeks i have still had the problem, just not as bad. i now have the mohair cinch, and it seems he fights it less. where he would at times try to walk out from under the saddle and nearly knock me down, he might side step a little and that's about it now. i think maybe this whole deal would have been averted had i used one to start with.

thanks for the advice though.

This has worked for me: I recommend working the your horse in a round pen, about 60 feet in diameter
with this exercise:
Make a surcingle out of a long soft cotton lead rope and a cinch.
Then make a breast collar of sorts out of baling twine. Hook the
breast collar to the center dee on the cinch, and to the buckles on
either side. Don't hook it to the lead rope. Then run twine from
each side of the breast collar up over the horse's neck in front of
the withers to keep it from slipping down. (This will look like an
english breast collar). Once you have this in place, work the horse
around the round pen while you stand in the middle of the pen
holding the end of the lead rope surcingle. Tighten and loosen the
"cinch" by pulling on the lead rope. This will put you safely out
of biting range, and allow you to de-sensitize the mare by cinching
and un-cinching her many, many times.
For more training q + a, go to www.horsetrainingquestions.com