Cinch

Hello, I'm a greenhorn rider. Bought my horse 2 years ago after having not ridden in several years. I grew up with horses and as an adult often rented for the day, lessons, or seasonal lease off and on for about 20 years. As a child/teenager, I was lucky that my grandparents took care of the horses and all I did was ride. I learned to ride western and prefer trail riding. Now I own a lovely buckskin quarterhorse gelding and am relearning to ride again without an instructor - which are hard to come by in my locality.

I've been using a fleece girth with guards, yet after 2 years it has given away a bit and recently caused a few sores behind his elbows, which luckily healed w/in a week. I've been told a mohair girth is best. Thus I ordered a really nice 31 strand, 100% mohair girth made by Classic Equine, 32 inches, with stainless steel roller buckles. I've only used in 2X and it has pinched my horse on the "on" side. Also, cannot seem to get the cinch perfectly centered - where the center "D" is centered on his belly.

Could I be doing something wrong with regards to alignment and tightening the cinch?

Would using leather cinch guards with fleece lining help? Weaver Leather makes them and sales in pairs. I imaging I should use them on both sides?

Many thanks, I'd appreciate ya'lls advice.

In my experience the roller buckles make it really easy to overtighten the cinch. Make sure that the cinch isn't too tight you should be able to put two fingers under the cinch.

I never did get along with a mohair cinch. It seemed like it stretched while I was riding and the saddle got a bit loose. Of course, I'm a coward, so it could have just been my imagination working overtime. I worried and fussed trying to get it even, too.

However, back in the day I was doing a lot of riding, we always used the fleece supercinches and didn't have any trouble with them - except for the occasional influx of sticktights. (Hubby and I spent a few pleasant evenings combing the sticktights out of the fleece with the dog's slicker brush! ) I digress - I guess my point is that I don't like the mohair cinches. The fleece supercinches are kind of hard to find any more, except maybe for Ebay. There is a felt lined cinch on the market, though, that looks like it might be okay...

I've had problems with girths rubbing sores on my gelding. My neighbor gave me a girth cover for him... I've only used it once, but I think it's helping because there were no rub marks when I was done riding. Maybe look into one of those?

Every horse is different. I use mohair, hospital felt or traditional string.

No matter what type of cinch though, it should be washed every so often. Fleece can pill and cause sores.

You also need to measure for the correct length. 32 is on the long side for larger barreled horses. How big is your horse?

I always use fleece, but like mls said, cinches, like pads, need routine washings. Otherwise they will cause sores.

Thank you, the cinch was clean. We did some hill work that weekend and that might have caused the scratches behind his elbows re: fleece cinch.

I will try cinch guards on the new girth and see how that works.

Welcome to the forum, SeabiscuitMustang.

I use a roper style mohair cinch by Weaver and I love it. It will stretch a little the first few times you use it so not having the "D"s centered at first is OK. After using it a 1/2 dozen times, then you need to take the cinch up a little on each side until it is right. Since I very seldom remove the cinch from the right side, it is always centered when I take up the left side.

Where is your cinch pinching? If it is just behind his elbows, you may not have the saddle in the right place. I've never had a problem with pinching and I've used my cinch on quite a few horses so I can't really help you. Maybe a few pictures will help.

The new 31 strand mohair cinch with rollers pinched him, so I placed a cinch guard over that buckle (don't need it on the "off side" b/c no roller buckle). Yet, using the cinch guard a 'lump' is present after riding. I cold hosed and for good measure cleaned with betadine and it is gone the next day. With the cinch guard the metal is not touching his skin. Thus, I wonder if a cinch with roller bucker that I may be tightening the cinch too much? The leather strap seems to move quicker through the roller buckle. I only make one through the cinch buckle and and the rigging D once, then make my loop and slipknot. Wonder if I should go through the cinch buckle and rigging D 2X? I'll try that tomorrow.

I contacted the maker (Classic Equine) and said they have never heard of this type of galling from their cinch; however, recently I've spoken with two horse owners recently (local neighbor and a Weaver Leather rep) that the roller buckles do pinch. The Classic Equine rep suggested looping the latigo 2X rather than 1X. I'll try that and pray!

My father-in-law had a cinch with the roller buckle and he was cinching his horse so tight MY eyes were bugging out. I mentioned this to him and he cut the roller part off and paid more attention to how tight his cinch is and the problem went away. You might want to try taking the metal roller off.