Can you break a horse's ribs by doing up the girth too tight?

Question

I ride english

my horse has a wide barrel and barely any withers

someone told me if i do the girth up too tight it will break her ribs so i never did.. but the other day it flipped totally over and i fell off :P

i have a double elastic girth if that makes a difference.. :)

Answer 1

Maybe if you tighten it with a d**n backhoe... seriously, how friggin' tight would you have to get that thing??  You don't need to make the saddle touch itself under her stomach, but at least get it snug enough to be SAFE.  I seriously doubt a 150lb (+/-) human can tighten a girth enough to crack the rib of a 1,000lb+ animal.

Also, make sure you tighten the girth a few times as you're working in case your horse is puffing up to evade the girth- my horse does this sometimes and after I get him to let his breath out I can get another couple inches on the girth, it makes a big difference.

Answer 2

lol that's funny I wish I could've seen that. I don't know a thing about riding horses I've always been scared to ride a horse since they have scary mouths. I almost got got by hand bit as a kid