Girth bump

Any idea what this bump is from? I’m wondering if my girth is creating pressure or something. It’s firm-ish, and doesn’t seem to be sensitive, however she has become a bit girthy over the last few weeks when tacking up.

She wears an ergonomic pro-choice short girth, with a fleece cover. The edges feel soft, so I don’t think a hard edge is pushing.

I’ve seen this especially after a long ride. It doesn’t seem painful. I just assumed it was edema from the girth.

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This looks different from what I have experience with so YMMV. When I first got my fjord, he developed a girth gall pretty early on as I started riding him. Silly me tried a bunch of different girths but the saddle fit was the culprit. I have a wintec wide AP saddle and had to swap out the gullet it came with with the largest size they make. That did the trick for us.

Ive also seen similar looking edemas on horses in that vicinity.

How long have you been riding for in the tack you have? Is anything new?

Either way, I’d be riding bareback until it clears up or a vet takes a look.

My vet saw a picture and thought it weird but wasn’t concerned. She thought maybe a bug bite. I gave her Zyrtec last night and see no difference this morning. She’ll have today off, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

I don’t feel her moving and differently under saddle.

That is a bruise from a tight girth.

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Do you have a different girth you can try once the bump goes down? Assuming your girth is neoprene, they can generate a lot of heat. A different material, like good old leather might make a difference.

Well, its been a month, and the bump is still there, maybe a little smaller. I’ve tried 3 girths, all ergonomic- super padded leather, neoprene, and fleece. No noticeable difference.

She has suddenly developed difficulty picking up her left lead. I’ve just been puttering around on her bareback until our chiropractor comes out next week. Wondering if the two could be related? I’ll report back!

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When my pony had a bump like this, I rode him bareback for three weeks and it eventually went down and stayed down. If you’ve been trying girths and riding with the saddle, you may just need to give it more time with no pressure at all.

It looks exactly the same as what I had. I switched to a string girth and never had another issue.

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I would guess some sort of hematoma. They can take a while to resolve. I wouldn’t use a girth until it is gone

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@DoubleDown have you tried a string girth? My horse used to gall easily until I started using an alpaca/mohair blend string cinch. No problems at all since I made the switch, and that was several years ago.

I haven’t, I’ve been looking around for a short enough one. I have monoflap saddles.