Long girth or dressage girth, and which way does an anatomical girth go?

Dressage Today puts it this way: depending on the billet length of your saddle, you need a short or a long girth, and long billets are designed to be used with short girths. The LeMieux girths page says the same thing from the maker's side: girth length follows the saddle, so a dressage saddle with long billets takes a short girth and a jumping or all-purpose saddle with short billets takes a long one.

That is why a "dressage girth" is simply a short girth, named for the saddles it was built for. For measuring and sizing, see What size girth does my horse need?. This page picks up where that one leaves off: which kind, how to check it once it is on, and what to make of the shapes.

It is one of the questions riders ask us in a few different wordings, and a lot of the answers floating around are either "never" or "sure." Neither one is quite right.

Take a short girth first. It is made for saddles with long billets, so it will not reach the buckles on a saddle with short ones. The LeMieux girths page is blunt about it: a short dressage girth does not turn into a jumping girth, so pick the girth that matches the saddle you ride in.

A long girth on a long-billet saddle is the less obvious case. Dressage Today notes that long girths are considered old-fashioned in dressage but that some top riders, among them Catherine Haddad Staller and Ingrid Klimke, are still seen using mostly long girths, and that the appeal is stability. The trade-off it names is bulk under the rider's leg, especially if the length is wrong. If you are tempted to try it, ask your trainer and your saddle fitter first, and check the rule book for any event you ride in.

Dressage Today says most dressage riders prefer short girths for the first reason, and warns about the second: because the buckles sit farther down, directly on the horse's body, choose a short girth with adequate padding under the buckle area to prevent bruising. It adds that a plain string girth, with no padding, can be a problem when you use a short girth on a long-billet saddle, because the buckles are in direct contact with the horse.

The other side of the trade is stability. Dressage Today says the farther the girth is from the saddle tree, the less stable the connection to it. So even with a short girth, the advice is to use the longest short girth you can, with the buckle section sitting higher than the horse's elbow so nothing interferes when he moves.

A long girth reverses the compromise. Dressage Today says long girths provide the best stability, and the disadvantage is bulk under the rider's legs. The fix it gives: when the girth is tightened, the buckles should be no more than two or three holes up from the bottom of the billets on both sides.

Horse & Hound gives two simple tests. On a short girth with long billets, you should have about three fingers between the top of the girth and the bottom of the saddle pad, which keeps the saddle stable and helps the straps avoid pinching and the elbow avoid hitting the buckles. On a long girth, if the buckles are so high under your thigh that they feel bulky, the girth is on the long side, and you should have at least two billet holes above the buckles and at least one below.

Dressage Today gives a slightly different number for a short girth, about two fingers between the saddle pad and the top of the girth. Treat the two as a range rather than a rule, and let the saddle's behavior break the tie: it should stay steady, nothing should pinch, and the elbow should not catch the buckles.

One more thing from Horse & Hound: some dressage girths have set-back buckles, which can make them measure slightly longer. If you are comparing a new girth to an old one, compare the same measurement, buckle to buckle.

Dressage Today describes four. Here is its breakdown in a table, with the horse each is meant for:

That is worth saying out loud, because rules of thumb are easy to find and sometimes contradict each other.

What the sources do say is useful. On a girth with cutouts on both long sides, as Dressage Today describes an anatomic girth, flipping it does not change the contour. Other features can still have a front. The LeMieux girths page describes the maker's Gel-Tek anatomic girths as having gel-impregnated pockets on the leading edge, so that is a girth where the front edge matters.

On an asymmetrical girth, the cutout is on one long side only, and Dressage Today says it is for horses whose girthing area is closer to the elbows. Check the maker's tag for which way it goes. Crescent shapes are described by Dressage Today as designed to take up the rounder shape of the rib cage and keep the girth from moving forward into the elbows, and the curve is built for a reason, so the maker's marking is the place to look.

Then test it on the horse. Tighten in stages, walk, and look at the elbow area. The girth should not collide with the elbow as the foreleg swings forward. If you see bunching, a rub or a saddle that keeps creeping forward, don't keep flipping girths. Horse & Hound says narrow-gauge girths suit horses with a narrower rib cage, such as when the flat area between the elbows is under 20 centimeters, and that horses with a forward girth groove are likely to benefit. That same page also notes that a forward girth groove can still pull a saddle forward, so the girth is one part of the answer. Have a saddle fitter check how the saddle sits, too. For what a fitter is looking at, see How do I measure a saddle gullet?.

It is a question that turns up in our questions in several forms: my horse wears a 58 in a long girth, so what is the short size? Horse & Hound gives a very general guide of about 46 to 48 inches for a long girth and about 26 inches for a short girth on a 15 to 16 hand horse, with the warning that it depends a good deal on the saddle, the girth type, the breed and the condition of the horse. That is a ballpark, not a formula.

The gap between the two numbers is the billet length, which belongs to the saddle. So put the saddle and pad on the horse and measure the way What size girth does my horse need? explains. For reference, one maker's range on our LeMieux girths page runs from 18 to 32 inches for short girths and from 40 to 57 inches for long ones, which is why sizes that look nowhere near each other can both be right for one horse.

If a listing does not say whether the size is for a short or a long girth, or which saddle it is for, ask before you order. You can also browse both kinds on our girths and cinches page.