Hi! I’m in need of a new dressage girth - and wow, there are a lot of choices out there! It’s almost like girth fitting is as complex as saddle fitting, and there are lot of different styles depending on the conformation of your horse.
What kind of girth do you use? What do you like about it? What is your horse’s conformation like and what kind of shape does the girth have?
I love my Total Saddle Fit StretchTec girth. I have two regular Total Saddle Fit girths (dressage and a long girth) for one horse and the dressage StretchTec for the other.
The StretchTec horse has a very short saddle area, a forward girth groove, and an easily pinched nerve behind his shoulder blades. I got the neoprene liner for his StretchTec girth. This horse liked the regular TSF girth, but he seems to like the StretchTec even more. He is less girthy when I am tacking up. I would say he is a medium width horse, neither narrow, nor wide.
I will admit to taking a gamble on the StretchTec. I saw a post on CotH in the morning asking if anyone had tried it, and I had ordered one less than 12 hours later. I want to replace my other TSF dressage girth with a StretchTec.
I completely agree with the unbelievable number of options - all claiming to be the best! I just purchased the Stubben Equi-Soft girth, which will hopefully arrive next week. I liked the idea and research behind it and found lots of good reviews. Not thrilled with its appearance, but if it works, I’ll cope! It has the option of leather, neoprene, or sheepskin backing/liner and they can be interchanged. I chose the leather because I ride through water.
My horse has very well sprung ribs so there is a fair difference between her width at the front of the girth groove versus at the back. She is very girth and skin sensitive in general - gets rubs very easily, brush sensitive in the area, and sometimes girthy (not ulcers). Her sternum area is fairly broad and she is fairly short backed.
Luckily, both my jumping and dressage saddles have long billets, so I can use the same girth for both!
My hardest to fit horse with the well sprung ribs and forward girth groove is happiest with the Lettia Coolmax fleece girth. It works better on him than the TSF stretch. There’s a similar Toklat girth that works well for him too.
What problem does your girth need to solve? My mare has a big rib cage so the girth tends to slide forward and drag the saddle with it. I got an anatomical girth which fixed it, a padded leather one from Greenhawk. I liked the look of the County and Jeffries anatomical girths but they were a bit pricey and this does the job. There are other anatomical girths as well. But if you don’t have this problem you possibly don’t need one.
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