Cinch

The new saddle is now mine. The woman who had it for sale traded me straight across for the Alta (she was very happy with how her mare liked the saddle and found it very comfortable for herself). The new saddle is a Circle Y Park and Trail with a Flex 2 tree. The only issue has been the attachments for the cinch are dropped down on both sides, which makes most of my cinches way too long.

 Nice profile for my boy's short back

 This is how dropped the cinch attachment is, which for such a small girth circumference is a lot.

Not a lot of room between his elbow and the D ring on his cinch.

I replaced the nylon latigos with leather ones and then started trying to find a cinch that will work. I am trying the mohair string cinches, either straight ones or the ones with the widened area across the bottom of their belly, with the leather holder for the off side and double roller ends for easy tightening.

The straight style

The one with the widened area across the belly

My biggest issue is that the cinch that allows more than a couple of inches on either side between the D ring on the cinch and the D ring on the saddle is a 26". The draw back is the D ring on the cinch is too low and causing issues with his elbows. The 28" places the D ring on the cinch in a great spot, but only allows a couple of inches between the two D rings. 

I tried a 26" straight cinch on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was okay (we did a group lesson that was so much fun) but on Sunday, Ashke gave me a ton of attitude and began fighting me at any gait over a walk. After about ten minutes I finally got smart, jumped off and ran into get the 28" cinch. Ashke was so much happier afterwards.

This is what he gave me after the cinch change.