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Extreme Girthiness

scope her.
also, she may have hind gut ulcers, which you won’t be able to see with a scope. misoprostil is the best remedy for that, as it coats the stomach. and good alfalfa hay

She has been better lately. I think part of it is a learned habit. After the omeprizol I added a gut health supplement to her food, and I do give her treats when I put the saddle on and when I put the girth on before I do it up. I also had the vet out to get his opinion and he thinks right now it’s a behaviour loop. When she is distracted, like today she wasn’t girthy at all. I also find if I lunge her first she seems to be less girthy in the cold. Thank you for all the replies. The bot reply is very interesting, I will see if her next wormer covers it or if that a special medication.

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My mare was like this after a bout with a poorly fitting saddle. We had to retrain her by doing basically what @beowulf described. We put the saddle pad on, scratches and treats, and reminding her to “fix her face”, then once she relaxed, we would put the saddle on, same thing, get her relaxed, even if that means doing something else while the saddle just sits there, and then start the girth. It took a bit of retraining, she’s a CHESTNUT mare after all, and now we can saddle up with very little fuss. Not no fuss, again, chestnut mare, but its very minimal. She’s just a quirky horse.

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Unrelated to this threat but this is interesting. My pony does this and she also has a big white scar on her withers I am assuming from a poorly fitting saddle. She is ridden english by me but was started western and I always assumed she had a bit of a bad start so the spur thing makes sense.

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I’m coming in late, but another thing to consider is just how tight you are girthing your horse. Many people were taught as kids to “make it as tight as you can!” which when you were a little kid was probably true. As you grow taller (more leverage) and stronger, it is no longer the case. I think Hillary Clayton has said maximum tightness is 20 pounds. I actually have a scale I carry with me when I fit saddles to measure how tight people are girthing their horses, because LOTS of people are over-tightening.
If you have to make your girth overly tight in order for your saddle to stay in place, you either are putting it in the wrong place to begin with (H/J people also tend to put their saddles too far forward) or the saddle doesn’t fit.

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Unfortunately the “kick and jerk school of equitation” lives on in every discipline. :pensive: I’m glad your pony has you now!

What kind of scale do you have, how/where do you place it to measure this?

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The scale I use is a fishing scale from the sporting goods department of my local big-box store. It comes with a hook so it easily attaches to straps and buckles. I usually use it in presentations without horses and I have people pull up on a strap as if they were pulling on a billet to measure how hard they pull.
Another way would be to girth the horse up as you normally do, then unbuckle one buckle and replace it with a scale, holding the scale in place against the sweat flap with your hand to keep the girth tight as you unbuckle the other buckle and see what the scale reads that way.
It’s certainly not precise enough to use in a scientific study, but it will show if you are in the ball park, so to speak.