How tight is your girth, er, I mean, cinch?

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

As some of you know, I’m learning western after years of riding hunt seat. I’m finding a difference of opinion between my western friends and my hunt seat friends about how tight the girth/cinch should be.

On my jump saddle, I make sure I can slide my fingers in a little ways between the girth and the midline of the horse’s belly.

But on my western saddle, people have been telling me to crank it up about as tight as it will go. I can’t slide my fingers between the horse’s midline and the girth when I have it as tight as my western friends advise.

Is there a reason for this difference? Or are my western friends just doing it wrong?

How do you tell when your western cinch is tight enough? Too loose?

[Lilykoi]

At least in my experience, my girth and cinch are about the same snugness. For whatever reason, I can easily mount from the ground with my Western saddle, but need to find something to stand on for my English or it will move. Maybe that’s the reasoning, mounting from the ground and also its pretty hard to tighten a cinch while mounted Western, unlike an English girth. So maybe you’re just used to tightening your girth after your on your horse? Just some thoughts:-)

[kewpalace]

If your saddle fits correctly, no need to crank the cinch up on a horse so that it is so tight you can’t slide your fingers in there. I ride reined cowhorse, so do some quick moves on a cow. My cinch is like you described for your jumping saddle - I can slide a finger or two under it. I like my horses to be able to breathe a little bit. :yes:

[UrbanHennery]

I find that if I tighten my cinch pretty tight, it loosens up once the horse starts to work. Not because its slipping, but because the horse loosens its back and let’s out the extra air. It’s easier to start a bit too snug then have to dismount and take up the slack later.

[gaitedincali]

There’s no difference between how tight my cinch/girth is with different saddles. Western, english…horse has still got to be able to breathe.

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

[QUOTE=Lilykoi;7123358]
Maybe that’s the reasoning, mounting from the ground and also its pretty hard to tighten a cinch while mounted Western, unlike an English girth. So maybe you’re just used to tightening your girth after your on your horse? Just some thoughts:-)[/QUOTE]

That could be. I often do tighten my girth after I’m on - but then, I bet my english pads (cotton pad with a thinline on top) and saddle flocking compress more under my weight than my western pad (diamond wool) and saddle do once I’m sitting in the saddle. So I don’t know.

And it could be my friends want the cinch tighter because they mount from the ground. Not me, though - not if I can avoid it, anyway.

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

[QUOTE=kewpalace;7123364]
If your saddle fits correctly, no need to crank the cinch up on a horse so that it is so tight you can’t slide your fingers in there. I ride reined cowhorse, so do some quick moves on a cow. My cinch is like you described for your jumping saddle - I can slide a finger or two under it. I like my horses to be able to breathe a little bit. :yes:[/QUOTE]

Thanks. That’s what I was wondering - if there was something structurally different about a western saddle that required a tighter cinch for security. From the responses, I’m guessing the answer is “no.”

[whiskey]

Both my girth and my cinch are the same tightness. I cinch/girth up tight enough that the saddle is going nowhere. If I tighten it too much my mare gets grumpy and she’s got to be able to breath. I just don’t want the saddle to fall off.

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=gaitedincali;7123401]
There’s no difference between how tight my cinch/girth is with different saddles. Western, english…horse has still got to be able to breathe.[/QUOTE]

Same feelings here.

I would follow the same procedure that you do with your English saddle.

[Fillabeana]

If you are going to rope something, you cinch up tight. Like, REALLY tight.

You don’t get on, gallop off, and rope something, though. It is never appropriate or polite to just pull that cinch up as tight as you can get it, without the horse moving around, taking up a bit, moving around, taking up a bit more. So I wouldn’t tack up western like I would english…saddle up, lead the horse to the arena, take up the girth and get on…warm up a bit and possibly tighten the girth mounted. I’d tack up, and take up on the cinch four or five times before I got on, having the horse move around and get comfortable before I took up again.

My ‘withered’ horses, don’t need a western saddle quite so tight, even if I will mount from the ground or go up/down through steep country. My two beer-keg/propane tank, not-much-for-withers mares, you’re going to have to cinch up a little tighter for safety. And they also need to toughen their skin a bit, if they’re going to be ridden regularly, or they’ll get cinch sores.

I’ve got off the TB gelding, with a cinch that could ‘come up two or three holes’ if it were an english/elastic end girth, but the saddle fits very well and doesn’t move.

If you have (leather) latigo on both sides, the leather will stretch a bit to accommodate the horse’s breathing. A merino or alpaca cinch will also have some give, so even roping-tight, the horse can still breathe. The merino/alpaca fibers will also give a slight bit of grip to the cinch where it will interact with the horse’s haircoat, which will help a bit to keep the saddle in place.

I don’t like nylon web ‘latigos’ or thick ‘half breed’ offside latigos. They don’t stretch. I think the inexpensive rayon cinches will stretch a bit, but the nylon-core neoprene ones, or the felt-lined nylon ones won’t. So I wouldn’t use the nylon, or if I did I wouldn’t cinch up tight enough to rope with them. Neoprene, I might use if the horse were already galled a bit, or on a particular horse that was allergic/sensitive to wool or some such, but I haven’t come across the situation myself.

[gaitedincali]

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/12648/girth-strap-tightness

[Tee]

For arena riding, my cinches are the same regardless of saddle or horse (one’s got a lot of wither, one not so much). For trail riding, I might take it up an extra hole or two.

[SouthernYankee]

[QUOTE=kewpalace;7123364]
If your saddle fits correctly, no need to crank the cinch up on a horse so that it is so tight you can’t slide your fingers in there. I ride reined cowhorse, so do some quick moves on a cow. My cinch is like you described for your jumping saddle - I can slide a finger or two under it. I like my horses to be able to breathe a little bit. :yes:[/QUOTE]

^^^ this. I used to ride English and made the switch to reining/working cow a few years ago. Half the time you can almost see daylight between my girth and cinch, it’s snug but not tight. A good fitting saddle is key, I have to tug mine to get it off my very round geldings back.

I have noticed this same scenario with my western friends and the only thing I can figure is they don’t have the balanced seat that you get when riding English (not knocking on al western riders, just the ones I’m hanging out with).

[Fillabeana]

I think that definitely in the casual Western-saddle rider’s world, there are people who tighten their horse’s cinch up too tight, too fast.

You can make a cinchy horse pretty easily that way.

There are definitely english-riding folks who yank the girth right up, making things bad for their horse as well, but with elastic-end girths being standard, it is harder (but not impossible) to unnecessarily overtighten a girth.

[starrunner]

I grew up riding western and still enjoy it and I have never understood why people crank so hard on their western horses (unless, let’s say you are roping or some other crazy activity).

A well fitting saddle and a balanced rider don’t need it so snug. I switched onto an OTTB that someone was nervous about riding when we were rounding up/riding in a group of horses a couple miles out. I spent most of the way at a full gallop sideways as my steed was a little keyed up.

When I slid off, I realized that the original person hadn’t done up the cinch correctly…it actually was incredibly loose–as in, just looped through, not done in a knot at all. So essentially, I had just galloped a few miles in a saddle on a high keyed horse with no cinch. So it’s possible.

Then again, I have been stopped by more than one person while riding and informed that I must immediately tighten my cinch/girth (depending on whatever discipline) since it’s loose. I am not so worried. I prefer to try and stay centered first.

Rule of thumb that I was taught and used to teach kids was to be able to slid my four fingers under the belly between the front legs. Too many people tried to do it on the side and a slab sided horse could easily be overcranked.