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 Poop & Alternative Energy

Posted by rji | Filed under Equestrian News, Worth Mentioning

Any horse owner that maintains their own stable yard is only to well aware of the problems created by horse poop and how to dispose of it and muck heaps can grow to very large sizes, very quickly, if you have two or more horses to look after.

horse manure The old DIY disposal system was to give it away to gardeners and rose growers but gardens are being turned into car parking spaces and governments are legislating more and more against the dispersal and DIY use of what could be a valuable natural resource.

Well there may be a little light on the horizon.....

The state of Florida has just awarded Dr. Jose Sifontes, a biofuel researcher, roughly $500,000 to pursue efforts to create a facility that converts horse droppings into fuel for vehicles and generators as well as a peat-like soil additive.

Florida's Marion County alone, generates 400,000 tons of horse poop from its 50,000 horses so there should be no supply shortage. The dung and bedding from stabled horses, which represent about half the 50,000 horses, could cover a football field 200 feet high.

An average 1,000-pound horse produces 9 tons of manure a year, all of it contains valuable fertiliser, which could enrich the soil in your garden or your vegetable patch.

Maybe, just maybe, the UK government in their urging to have farmers diversify into equine livery yards and riding or hacking centres, will consider the local use of waste products and encourage the composting and sale of this resource rather than the bureaucracy that seems to be building around keeping a muck heap?