I’m considering buying a mohair or alpaca cinch for my delicate-skinned Paso, but all I seem to be seeing are cinches with no backing behind the buckle… For those of you who use these type cinches, does this pose a problem? I know there are cinch ring covers available, but wonder if they would create rubs…
I was just wondering about the same thing myself. Will be following with interest.
Ring rubs depend on the horse, how the cinch ring is located, how the horse is used, how tight he is kept girthed up during use. You can use the cinch for a few days, see if he seems to be getting rubbed before getting covers for the rings. An hour a day will probably not cause any issues. 6-8 hours out trail riding, every couple days, might create a problem.
If you think it will be a problem, you can find a string cinch with ring covers or add your own before using it. I had a thin skinned horse, always used ring covers with her cinch. She was used almost daily, a good working horse under saddle for a lot of hours, so the covers did protect her from rubs.
Other horses I have seen in use had no problems with cinch ring rubbing them, also in use for long hours almost daily.
The real sheepskin wool seems to be more protective, but the newer fleecy fabrics keep getting better. In either case, brushing the wool with a dog slicker brush keeps it fluffed, clean of seeds it might pick up, so horse doesn’t get rubbed.
The old fake fleece girth cover tubes also can work like the ring protector, easy to wash, might cover the entire girth if it is a short one. I liked them so I could wash it often, horses sweated a lot so it got dirty quickly.
With a string girth, do pull your front legs on horse after girthing up to get any loose skin out from between the strings. Pull legs again when you retighten about 15-20 minutes after ride starts, at mid-day when you stop for lunch, to keep girth snug.
I do wash my string girths about weekly, if horse gets quite sweaty each ride or is used for long days. Strings will collect salt, get harsh if not cleaned. Wash those Mohair, Alpaca girths in cold water, by hand, hang to dry so you don’t shrink them. Agitation is what makes natural fibers bind closer to each other, so hand rubbing, swishing around in cold water, keeps them nice longer.
It depends on the horse. My mustang wears a mohair string cinch and never has had any problems with discomfort or rubbing or pinching or anything.
I put a string cinch on my pony mare and she hated it.
The two horses have very different belly shapes/girth groves, and where it touched the pony’s sides it for whatever reason was uncomfortable for her. I went out and bought her a fleece-backed cinch and had no problems at all.
Thanks for the all the good information! I guess I’ll go ahead and try one and see how it goes, adding cinch ring covers if necessary…
Knock on wood, I haven’t had issues with the several horses I’ve issued them on, without covers. It does depend on the factors above. I love my mohair cinches.
I got covers for my mare. She is a little pudgy and I felt bad seeing the rings indenting on her skin. However she never seemed to mind, and never got any rubs before I got the covers.
I have never had a problem and have used string cinches most of my life. I am 49 and own ten horses if that gives you an idea of the exposure.
My pony gets rubs from anything BUT string cinches. As long as the cinch is the right length, and I stretch his legs after tightening the cinch, he doesn’t get rubbed.
I’ve tried a few different string cinches, and the one that has worked the best for him and his very round build is the Weaver Smart Cinch. The buckles seem to be a bit smaller, or at least rounder-edged, and don’t dig in the way another cinch with flatter/“sharper” buckles did.
I had problems in the recent years with string girths causing rubs. Mine were mohair, high end, high dollar girths. I tried washing them more frequently, rotating how many different girths I was using, using Body Glide on the horse, etc. to aliviate the problem. I ended up going to Weaver Air Ride girths and have had no issues since.
I did wonder if part of my issue is living in a humid climate, the girths were never full drying out. The nice part about the Air Ride girths is the dry very quickly and are good to go from day to day.
Any string girth used damp, will most likely cause skin problems on a horse. Skin of horse is not meant to be damp or wet for long periods of time. This means you start with dry equipment each day when you ride. A dry girth, a dry saddle pad to saddle up with on a clean dry horse.
It is not the fault of the girth or materials the strings are made of that cause the problem on horse. It will be the fact that you are putting wet stuff on horse skin and then using horse. I never had problems with cheap acrylic strings or nylon cord English girths on horses used hard, because they started this day with a dry girth and dry saddle pad.
Great if you want a good quality string like wool, mohair, but they do take longer to air dry than synthetic string girths. High humidity will add to drying time needed on natural fiber girths. Having several girths the same size allows you to put a new, dry girth on to start the day “fresh” with your horse. You would probably not put on the same damp clothing from yesteday, for working today. Damp feels pretty nasty sticking on you when trying to take it off, so putting that stuff BACK on is worse. Constant damp held against you is not good for your skin or horse skin.
Once you find a string girth horse likes, get a second one the same size to allow easy swapping to the dry one with daily riding.
We have cross-state trail rides covering 15-25 miles a day over a week or two. You can look at the picketed horses to see who is careful with dry girths and dry saddlepads. Girth sores happen fast, while sore backed horses can be equally obvious. If you want to double check, watch the rider try to saddle up or try mounting that sored horse the next morning.
Dry girth, cleaned fairly often, will remove many of problems folks get using string girths of any kind. Strings don’t have to be really expensive to work well for you. Having an expensive string girth won’t PREVENT problems on horse if you don’t take care in using girth as is needed.
I use that type of cinch and my horse is allergic to metals (actually all things non-organic). I got a sheepskin girth cover (tube shaped), cut off two pieces about 4 inches long and I slide that over the buckle on each side. Works wonderfully.
