English girth sizes?

So my western girth is a 34in which is on the larger side. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will fit my new horse. We'll find out this weekend!!! But I was looking at English girths on eBay today and saw one or two listed as mediums that were 50in! I've never had to buy an English girth before so I have no idea what the average sizes are but that just seems like it would be huge! I know in English the girth attaches to the saddle a little bit higher up the horse's sides but still! I'm hoping either the BO or one of the other borders will let me borrow a girth to try on her so I can get an idea of what size she needs, but if not...


How do you measure to know what size girth you need?

Oh and while we're at it how do you measure for bridle size. I'm guessing she'll be standard horse size, but she does have a little head so I'm thinking I might can get away with a cob size bridle?
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English girths are longer than western cinches, except for dressage saddle, those are shorter. As far as measuring, sorry can't help you there, I kinda go by fitting to the horse & then keeping on buying the size that fits. Sometimes manufacturers for bridles have their own standards, Sometimes a horse can wear a cob size bridle, then on the same horse, a full size will fit.

Depends on the size of halter that fits your horse best. If your horse is standard size.. then horse size will fit. Small horse would be cob.. etc. XL is oversized... anything bigger is most likely draft. You should measure your horse's head and then take them to a tack shop or look online at some brands and try to find measurements that would best fit your horse.

As for girths... well saddles usually have billets and girths have buckles. Dressage saddles have VERY long billets usually, and call for smaller girths. Saddles like jumping or all purpose have short billets usually and so there calls for a longer girth (some people call them jumping girths) that go from one set of billets, under the belly, all the way up the other side.. so they have to be long to reach, and fit, properly! :P

Western cinches will probably (probably guys.. not always!) be closer to how a dressage saddle is.. but instead of billets, you have the cinch.

Ink, you can place a saddle on horse, take a string (or rope) and measure around the barrel from hole to hole.

BTW, the length you need depends on length of the billets, so it's not quite, say, Western + 10 or whatever else you can find on-line sometime. As an example... I had Western 32", my CC one is 48", my dressage is 24".