The Equestrian Blog

Saddle Girth – How tight is too tight?

Are you guilty of doing up your horse’s girth as tight as you can in the belief it gives your saddle and you the best security? Well Australian researchers have found that a girth done up too tightly can have a negative effect on your horse’s performance.

The usual tension applied to a saddle girth to keep a saddle on a Thoroughbred racehorse is around 13kg but researchers found anything over 10kg could alter the horses performance.

Although they still have to work out why, it’s thought that it may force the horse to adopt different breathing patterns involving a greater use of the diaphragm which in turn affects performance. Alternatively, the soft tissue and fluid in the thoracic wall (the part between the neck and abdomen, enclosed by the ribs) could be displaced during exercise.

As yet, no-one knows for sure. Some horses don’t seem particularly affected by girth tightness but others do. Saddle placement also played a part, so more research is needed. Whatever the effects of your saddle girth just make sure you don’t leave your girth too loose.

Horse World Equestrian Centre

Posted by admin | Filed under Equestrian Centres, Equestrian News, Reviews, Show Jumping

Horse world what a great place, took my mare to their show Sunday, in which we took 2nd place in the indoor show jumping only beaten by 10th of a second. Had a fantastic time and what an excellant turn out dispite the weather.

The Facilities are excellant, indoor and outdoor warm up area, with a lovely big indoor arena for the jumping, onsite cafe looking onto the arena.

Very well run and eveyone had a wonderful time, pretty rosettes to 6th place and medals to 3rd including prize money.

A big thank you to Horse world for a exciting and fun day, so looking forward to the next one, many thanks from Sheila at Lincoln Equestrian.

Tags: horse world equestrian centre, horseworld events, lincoln equestrian
No Comments » | December 6th, 2007

Caistor’s cross country course

Posted by idex7 | Filed under Equestrian Centres, Eventing, Reviews

caistor x country Caistor Equestrian Centre was somewhere new to me i'd never been before, they were holding a cross country event so thought i'd pop along to have a look.

Im so glad i did what a fantastic course they have, their fences cater for eveyones ability, can't wait for their next event I'm definitely taking my mare, as well as getting a group of friends together and hiring the course.

caistor x country

The event was really well run and people were very friendly, i was very impressed by their pedestrian walkways, which kept the public out of the way of competitors.

This is a great idea, as I've noticed a lot of cross country events allow people to walk wherever they like, even if a competitor is approaching a fence.

They have a great water complex on their fab x country course, caistors water complex with lots of different options to take. Have a look at some photos from their event in the Lincolnshire photo galleries

Have you been to Caistor's x country? Then tell us what your experience was like, we'd love to hear from you.

Tags: caistor equestrian, cross country course, lincolnshire
No Comments » | November 24th, 2007