Busting Myths 14 - You should always use the first and third girth straps on your saddle when girthing up

There are many myths that have been going around with regards to saddlery and the use thereof. In this series of posts, I endeavour to show most of them are without foundations and can, in some cases, be the opposite of the actual facts.

Pictured left is author Kay Hastilow, Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter.

 

The average saddle used to have just three girth straps each side – one just behind the front arch of the tree on one web, then two more behind this, stitched to a wider web. We were told that this was because there was always a risk of one of the webs breaking, which did happen when we used flax webbing and tin tacks, as the latter tended to rust causing the web to rot and often break. We were told to use the front strap and one other so that you had both webs holding your saddle on. The only exception that you really saw was the addition of point straps which were rivetted to the end of the points of the tree. These were to help prevent the saddle going forward and usually seen on pony saddles.

How things have changed! And I’m happy to say for the better. With the options available to us as saddle fitters now, we are usually able to achieve a good fit with the straps suitably positioned without having to take the saddle away and fit extra straps. Our task is just to make sure that you are clear on which straps you will be using.

To know which straps to use, we need to understand what we are trying to achieve and that is, when the saddle is placed in the correct position, that the most suitable girth straps will lay vertically to the girth groove and therefore to the girth. If they are angled forward or back the saddle will move until that vertical line is achieved which may well pull the saddle forward onto the shoulder or back onto the lumbar area, neither of which is desirable.

On this GP saddle, girth straps from L to R are:
Point Strap
1st strap on a conventional saddle
3rd strap on a conventional saddle
Self centering, V web, back pull / balance strap
NB. Ususally there will only be three straps
each side on such a saddle, the third or back
strap being removed depending on what suits
the horse best for fit. This is just for illustration.

With many horses this will correspond with the old advice to use one and three but that is  assuming that ‘one’ isn’t a point strap, as many saddles now have this fitted as standard. In some makes you will have a point strap, a standard positioned ‘first’ strap followed by two fixings to which you can attach a third strap. The first fixing generally is for when you are using the ‘first’ strap so that you would be using the equivalent of one and three on an older style saddle. The second fixing that your third strap can attach (or is attached) to is either on a fixed web angled forward, or on a V web where the fixing, and therefore the girth strap can find its own centre and not pull the saddle forward. These back straps are usually used when employing the point straps as these will tend to pull the front of the saddle down, causing the back of the saddle to lift, move and bounce. I find the fittings on the V web best for this as the fixed straps, in trying to get vertical are inclined to pull the saddle forward – just what we are trying to prevent by using the point strap! That rather defeats the object of the exercise I find.

Mind you, the other reason for having these back straps is to prevent saddle slip over to one side. Now the reasons for saddle slip are many and we can cover that in another post but if this happens, you have discovered the cause and there is nothing that you can correct in the horse, yourself or the saddle to prevent this, then you need a balance strap. Rather like with side saddles where the rider’s weight is more to the left side of the horse, a balance strap is fitted on the right side to prevent the saddle from moving over to the left. A fixed strap works very well as a balance strap, as does the strap on the V web, but must be used just on the one side, opposite to the way the saddle is moving.

On this dressage saddle from L to R:
Point strap through panel
Web for first strap if point not required
Self centering, V web back strap

Obviously the above is talking about saddles with short girth straps but we have similar options with many dressage / mono flap saddles. Most dressage saddles seem to come with a point strap as standard these days, which I suspect is because so many big moving dressage horses push the saddles forward that makers, especially I suggest those on the Continent, consider this essential. This really isn’t true though as many, especially thoroughbreds that are eventing not only don’t need these straps but positively hate them and will be restricted in their action because of this. I see that many British made saddles nowadays have webs fitted so that you can choose which front strap position is best for your horse – a great advantage I feel.

The point straps, where fitted, can lay in different positions but if angled back a little (as always used to be the case) they will just drag the saddle forward until the straps are perpendicular- just what we are trying to avoid. Once this was realised the point straps were either run through the front panel or under the knee roll, or a loop was sewn to the top of the front panel that the strap goes through, so holding the strap straight. So long as these don’t cause pressure beneath the strap where it crosses the panel this works well for those horses that need this help.

The rear straps are almost universally on a form of V web now, and all the better for that. They help to distribute the pull of the strap over a wider area and give better stability to the saddle, therefore the rider and the horse which, as we all now know enables him to work more easily. If a balance strap is needed this can be achieved by putting some stitches in the web so that there is slightly more pull from the back web fastening than the front but all in all, these options are a huge improvement on what went before.

Of course, none of this helps unless you are using a suitable and well-designed girth, but more on that another day.

 

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