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.

Compete In Dressage Competitions – Online ?

Posted by rji | Filed under Equestrian News

Well now... if they don't own a horsebox or trailer is this every dressage riders dream. Or maybe your horse just doesn't like to travel to shows.

Don't worry, because you can now compete online by videoing your dressage test at home and sending it to Interdressage.

This is an online competition host that judges your dressage test using a video you submit. It costs you £10 to enter a class and promises up to 20% of the total entries to be shared between winning entries, up to 12th place.

COMPETE MONTHLY VIA
VIDEO FOR FABULOUS
ROSETTES AND PRIZE MONEY

You can watch the video entries online and make your own mind up about the standard of marking.

It really does sound like quite a good idea but as we all know, everything is relative and it does seem as if your marks will depend more on the quality of your video than the quality of your riding and turnout.

Oh nearly forgot.... here's the link Interdressage

Tags: dressage competition, Dressage Riding
No Comments » | December 18th, 2007

Olympia Grand Prix Dressage Results

Posted by rji | Filed under Equestrian News

Olympia Dressage - Example Arena WORLD number one Anky van Grunsven (NED) and IPS Salinero won the grand prix dressage at Olympia, London, on 17th December with 78.042%.

Britain's Laura Bechtolsheimer was the best of the British, with second on Mistral Hojris. She scored a personal best of 75.33%. The highest score any British rider has achieved in international grand prix.

Third place went to Holland's Aat van Essen and Premier. The former carriage-driving champion turned to dressage six years ago and Premier is his first international grand prix horse.

Top placings and points :

1. IPS Salinero (Anky van Grunsven) NED 1873 points

2. Mistral Hojris (Laura Bechtolsheimer) GBR 1808 points

3. Premier (Aat van Essen) NED 1733 points

4. Max (Kyra Kyrklund) FIN 1704 points

5. Luxform's Nimbly (Alex van Silfhout) NED 1684 points

6. Afrikka (Anders Dahl) DEN 1667 points

7. Mr President (Stephanie Croxford) GBR 1661 points

8. Dolendo (Carl Hester) GBR 1640 points

9. Paganini (Jeroen Devroe) BEL 1631 points

10. Zancor (Anna-Katharina Lüttgen) GER 1611 points

14. Dream of Heidelberg II (Emile Faurie) GBR 1563 points