Problem Solving: Girth Issues
| April 13, 2014 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
This is a horse.
Specifically, this is Farley.
Today we are going to have the conversation that I intended to have when I got distracted on the whole 2 horse thing.
Where were we? Ah yes. A Horse Of Course.
My biggest issue with Farley on long rides is girth rubbing.
If she was wearing a saddle, this is where my girth would lie:
If you look at the picture at the top of this post, the girth lies well behind the shoulder in that ruffled hair portion.
Let’s take a closer look.
In the past on a really hilly ride with lots of downhill trotting (think Tevis), her girth area outlined in red below would be sensitive – lots of skin twitching when I would pass my hand over, and later on increased skin dandruff.
Putting a crupper on her completely solved this issue, which was probably caused by the saddle moving forward on the down hill and then back again on the up hills.
Historically, when she has her winter coat I can get away with any of my girths – wool, cord, nylon, PVC or otherwise – with no issues.
On her summer coat I can ONLY use mohair.
The issue comes in that tricky transition time when she is dumping hair faster than my german shepherd.
Every single spring, she gets girth sores.
Every single spring I completely beat myself up on not switching to my wool cord girths fast enough and giving her a girth sore.
Now I’m not sure that my girth is the issue…
Imagine my dismay when I saw this a couple days after derby:
See that little sore? 
When I pull the skin from the inside of her elbow towards the outside you can see another huge bare patch of skin that was previously hidden. These pics were taken several days post ride.
In the picture above I asked her to hold her left foreleg as far forward as possible. The bare patch is hidden inside the elbow but you can see the bare patch on the underside of her chest.
This is the inside of the LEFT foreleg, with the foreleg stretched out, taken from the RIGHT side. See the bigger bare spot as well as the smaller patches missing skin on the “wrinkles”?
Here’s what I think.
I think that these sores and rubs are way too far forward to be a girth issue.
I think that sweat+shedding hair+friction of the skin against skin is causing these rubs.
I made sure that this area was meticulously clean (I’m lazy about grooming but not stupid) and that all of the hair that I could get to shed out did prior to the ride. I used a wool cover my girth during the ride and made sure it stayed out of her arm pit.
So…..while the attention I’ve paid to the girth and to her armpit area was certainly not a waste of time….I’m not sure it’s doing anything to fix THIS problem.
It’s not an issue in the Summer when she’s totally shed out. She will get a bit of dandruff there after a ride, a quick spray of show sheen in her pit is totally preventative.
It’s not an issue in the Winter time when she has lots of hair and isn’t shedding.
It’s an issue every single spring if we go on a ride lasting more than one hour. Showsheen seems to prevent it on shorter rides (no issues on our 18 mile conditioning ride) during the spring time….but not at a 50 (used show sheen in her pits at Derby).
Normally the answer is NOT to clip hair off of a thin skinned, rub prone arab – but I’m wondering whether in this case, where it appears that shedding hair is causing the rubs in this wrinkly pectoral area whether preemptively shaving this area in front of the girth when she start shedding would actually help prevent this? Along with show sheen?
Any other thoughts?
I saddled her up a day or so after taking these pics because I needed to pony Tig out and double checked and these rubs are no where near the girth, even accounting for the girth shifting up and down hills.
I have little experience with rubs, but I did end up shaving Q’s girth area this late-winter. I’d been noticing discontent in her expression every time I girthed her up once her winter coat had come in. Finally, when a friend shaved her princess gelding to help him, I buzzed Q, too. Immediate resolve and no issue since. It may be worth noting that the hair/skin in the areas where Q was clipped through the winter are now (while she is shedding) less dandruffy and scraggily looking than the rest of her shedding coat! Time will tell if they stay healthier looking as her summer coat continues to come in. (Its been about 2 months since I buzzed her; she started shedding about 2 weeks ago.)
Tristan has an odd bald spot just forward of the girth area right now. After much discussion and staring at it and looking at where the girth is we realized he had somehow rubbed it off himself – probably while tucking a hind foot up underneath while sleeping.
So I wonder if the long rides are exacerbating a springtime problem that is also being worn while she’s lying down. Skin & hair are so sensitive right now for so many horses!
That’s a really good thought (the laying down).
I think the coincidence of the long ride, and with shorter rides being eliminated with showsheen – and it appearing on both sides (I only showed pics from the left side but it’s on both) makes it more likely that it’s exercise related. But since this won’t be my last horse (and likely not the last girth issues I have) I will keep the laying down and “pen-related” reasons in the back of my mind. She does have rubs on the outside of her hocks that I am absolutely sure I from her resting and laying down! A show horse she is not…..
Have you ever tried slathering some Desatin in that area? I finally switched over to it this past year after using Body Glide on my guy with only so-so results. Desatin is messy to apply but once it rubs in it will stay all day and prevent rubbing and the ingredients in it seem to be soothing.
I’ve tried body glide, desitin, and show sheen. Of the 3, body glide was the worst, show sheen was the best. I used desitin before finding showsheen. Desitin did OK but on longer rides was too hard to keep from “collecting” stuff (dust, dirt, etc) that would end up rubbing and I found I had to reapply it – once it “rubbed in” I would start seeing chafing and would get scurff in the area. BTW as an fyi for people: it REALLY pisses the vets off when they don’t see desitin in the armpit area (greys are the worst) and they put a hand or stethoscope on a desitin slathered area. :). Was told this at my last ride.
However, for people looking at this post for ideas of how to prevent rubbing – do try desitin as well as showsheen – I know people that have had success for both!
When soft skin chafes like this, I was told to apply meths. NOT when there is a ‘wound’ of any sort of course. More as a preventative. Once you know where the skin will chafe, you would rub it on the area daily (or as often as practical). So if it’s an issue in spring, you’d start applying just before spring. I used a spray bottle, but in my experience you still need to rub it in (otherwise it just sits on the hair). I have had qualified success with this, and have been given this advice by several ‘old school’ horse people. It is ‘supposed’ to toughen the skin up (like ballet dancers feet), but I cannot say for sure whether this an old wives tale or the real thing.
What the heck is “meths”?
I like the reasoning & think you may have hit on it.
Are the area painful for Farley? Bica has similar shed issues between coats & I have seen some bald patches. But they did not seem to bother her so I just kept an eye in them. I am so going for the show sheen solution.
She does get bald there durng shedding season and doesn’t get ouchy if she’s not being asked to work, but long rides (anything over 10 miles) and especially endurance rides will cause her to become sensitive. She was definiately painful when I took these pictures!