I just read a short blurb on an article published by Equus Magazine about horses bloating (or not) when the saddle is cinched up. It made the point to say that horses do not “bloat” by holding their breath, but distend their abdomen by tightening their abdominal muscles as a reaction to expected discomfort when being cinched up. Regardless of the way they do it, many horses have learned that if they will distend their abdomen when they are initially cinched up, they can then relax and the cinch will be loose and more comfortable. The article inspired several comments on facebook regarding the process of cinching up a saddle, some of which touched off thoughts in my little noggin about not only the process of cinching up a saddle, but also the effects of over-tightening a cinch and why that occurs so frequently.

Several of the facebook comments indicated disgust at the way some people will kick or knee the horse in the stomach to punish them for bloating. Many of these same people indicated that they cinch up extra tight, because when they get into the saddle their weight will compress the saddle pad and make the cinch loose. Both methods, in my mind, are equally abusive to the horse, and both just as unreasonable at treating the problem of bloating (no matter how the horse does it).

I thought I might share a little of my experience as a trail rider and pack tripper, who rides long days, sometimes for days on end.

As humans, we tend to ascribe human feelings and emotions to our animals, often falsely thinking we are helping them, when in fact we are doing the opposite. In this vein, I often see inexperienced horse people buying saddle pads they think would make a good, comfortable pillow if they were to lay on it. These same people often purchase expensive gear, such as neoprene cinches and pads, which they believe help the horse to be more comfortable under saddle.

Soft and fluffy saddle pads, regardless of their color, shape, or cost, are the poorest of saddle pads you can buy. They cause one to have to cinch a horse extra tight in order for the rider to mount without turning the saddle. Once the rider is in the saddle, these pads will “squish” down and, in fact, cause the cinch to be loose, which can become unsafe for the rider. The only way to compensate for this “squish” is to over-tighten the cinch while on the ground, because you can’t do anything about it after you are mounted. Many of these pads are made of materials that can bunch up and cause hard spots under the pad as they press down. They also tend to soak up and hold mosture against the horse, causing the horse to become hot as it sweats.

Most of us who ride for long hours will confirm that the best saddle pads are made of wool felt. Mohair is also an excellent material. Neither of these materials will “squish” down, so when you tighten the cinch before mounting, it doesn’t get loose after you’re in the saddle. Both wool felt and mohair will absorb moisture from the horse and pass it through, allowing the horse’s back to remain cooler on hot days. These materials don’t just soak up moisture, but they remain bulky when damp, allowing some air flow and heat transfer away from the horse. They do not pack down and deform, which protects your horse’s back from pressure points that can form from softer saddle pads. Back in the “old days” the U.S. Cavalry used a simple wool “saddle blanket”, which was folded in half for a double thickness, quite satisfactorily. I am aware of one pair of “Longriders” who are currently making their way across South America using simple wool blankets for saddle pads. Bulky, cushy, pillow-like saddle pads are simply, in my opinion, our effort to do for our horses what we think would make our backs feel better, if it were ourselves under saddle. You can read a short “test report” on the Five Star wool felt saddle pads Ben Masters and his crew from Unbranded used on their 3000 mile Mexico to Canada trip during 2013 here.

Mohair string cinches are preferred by most people who do a lot of riding and hard work from a horse’s back. A distant second are cotton string cinches, however they are more commonly used than mohair because of costs. Good mohair cinches are not cheap, whereas a good cotton string cinch can be had for under $50. Both materials are practically indestructible, can be washed, and will last for a very long time. I have seen mohair cinches that appeared to be contemporary with the century-old saddles they were attached to. Many people are now opting for neoprene cinches or neoprene wraps for their cotton cinches. I have tried them and found that on the trail neoprene will rub a sore on a horse or mule faster than any other material. In fact, the only cinch material I have ever used that caused serious cinch sores on a pack trip is neoprene. Due to my personal experience with it, I will not use neoprene in contact with my horses for any purpose. Neoprene makes great wet suits for scuba diving, and comfortable waders for fishing, but lousy cinches and saddle pads.

Now, I know there are endurance riders, show riders, and others, who will argue with me about neoprene and cushy pads. That’s fine. I’m just stating what I have learned from my own experience. They may work just fine for what you do, but I wouldn’t recommend them for any of the trails I ride.

Most of the facebook commenters to the above-mentioned article said something about how they cinch up in stages. First, they cinch up tight, then they do something else for a few minutes to let the horse relax, then they cinch up tight again before mounting. Many even said they cinch up a third time before they step into the saddle.

While cinching in stages is pretty much the standard method, I often see people over-tightening the cinch. I see them getting the cinch as tight as they can on the first try, because they are expecting the horse to bloat and know it will get loose when the horse relaxes. This is precisely why the horse bloats: It knows the rider is going to cinch it up tight and so he tightens his abdominal muscles (or holds his breath, whichever the case may be) in anticipation of the discomfort. So the rider who over-tightens the cinch right off the bat is unwittingly causing, or at least reinforcing, the bloating problem in the first place.

Here’s what I do, and it doesn’t matter at all whether the horse bloats or not. After brushing the horse and properly placing the saddle pad and saddle in place, I will check the cinch to make sure there are no burrs, knots, or stiff places that might make the horse uncomfortable. I then pull the latigo down through the cinch ring, then back through the saddle rigging, then pull it down again through the cinch ring, such that I have one complete loop through both rings. While doing this, I let the cinch remain loose, not touching the underbelly until I am ready to cinch up. Once I’m at this point, I will cinch the saddle snugly, but not tight. I just let the latigo hang at this point. In this way, I ensure that if the horse were to react violently to the cinch, as some horses will do occasionally, the saddle will likely stay in place and once the horse settles down, I simply continue with the process, whereas if one pulls the cinch up snug before having the latigo a full loop through the rigging and the horse reacts, the saddle will come off, possibly be damaged, and the horse learns a bad habit to get rid of a saddle.

Next, with the cinch snug and the end of the latigo hanging loose, I will bridle the horse, check hooves, apply fly wipe, and anything else that needs to be done before I mount. The, the last thing before I mount, I will go back to the cinch, and pull the latigo up snug again, then tie it off (or buckle it, depending on the rigging). I pull the remaining latigo up and through a keeper, to keep it safely out of the way. Resist the urge to thread the latigo back through the rigging multiple times to use up the remaining latigo. Thread the remaining strap through a keeper, or even through the rear cinch rigging ring, to keep it out of the way. Running it three or four times through the cinch rigging will make a lump against the horse’s side, right under your knee, and will be uncomfortable for the both of you. Ok, now I am ready to mount.

Notice I said I pull the latigo “snug”. Because I have a saddle that fits the horse well, and a saddle pad that doesn’t “squish”, I don’t need a tight cinch. In fact, there have been times on long trails where the cinch was hardly even snug on my horse. It simply isn’t necessary.  I use a 3/4″ wool felt saddle pad and a medium width cotton string cinch for most of my riding. There is no “squish” in the pad and when I snug the cinch up, it stays snug even after I mount. That is not to say that there isn’t some settling between the saddle, pad, and horse, just that I don’t have to over-tighten the cinch to compensate for a squishy, comfy, pillow-like saddle pad. Therefore, my horse is comfortable throughout the process.

One last comment I will make here, regarding cinch tightening, is about the “block and tackle” effect the rigging has on multiplying one’s strength. Many people over-tighten cinches for two reasons: Firstly, some people tend to be more of the worrying sort than others, just a natural thing, so they prefer a very tight cinch; Secondly, people sometimes over-compensate, because of their perception of their own physical weakness, when applying their strength to cinching a saddle. The configuration of the latigo being looped multiple times (usually twice) through the rigging and cinch rings, acts just like a block-and-tackle for multiplying strength.

Back before power lifts and winches, a block-and-tackle, was the normal rig for lifting loads weighing more than a man can lift. It consists of a line fed through a pulley block, hanging from a beam, and back through a tackle pulley attached to the load. The more times the rope is fed through, the more times the strength of the one pulling the end of the line is multiplied. Some block and tackle rigs are made up of pulleys with multiple sheaves, so that the rope can be fed through several times. With such a rig, one man can lift many times the weight he could lift with his strength alone. The same concept applies to the latigo fed twice through the saddle rigging. The multiplying effect, along with the holding power of the latigo working against itself, can allow even a small person to exert sufficient pressure on the horse to make the horse very uncomfortable, and far in excess of what is necessary to safely hold the saddle in place.

In short, if you use a good saddle pad and your saddle fits your horse correctly, you really don’t need to “screw that saddle down tight,” as the old cowboys used to say. It will stay where it should be and will keep you on top of the horse, where you should be. For trail and pleasure riding, prior to mounting you should be able to slide your hand under the cinch, just below the cinch ring, and easily pull it away from the horse’s side about an inch. Of course, for performance work, you may need it a bit more snug.

Here’s a link to a short video I made a while back about saddling a horse. Please forgive the less-than-professional script; it was an impromptu video, but I think it includes the essential information that a beginner should know to safely saddle a horse.