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Summary: Watch as a seasoned horseback rider demonstrates how to cinch the tightening straps on a Western saddle in this free online video about horseback riding.
Views: 2,751 | Tags: western, fit, horse, horses, saddle, saddles
About the Expert
Kelli LaBar Kelli LaBar is a practicing aesthetician and makeup artist in Wilmington, NC. She graduated from Miller-Motte Technical College as a certified aesthetician, a... read more
Hi, I'm Kelli on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to show you my tips and techniques to saddle your horse with the western saddle. So now that we have placed our saddle on the horses back and we have straighten it, we made sure that it is sitting square and straight on her back. We are going to tighten up our cinch. So what I'm going to do is go around here to the other side. I'm going to let down my cinch on this side. Make sure that it is laying flat against her side over here. Come back around to this side, I'm going to take my billet strap which is this here. I'm going to take this stirrup and sit up over the horn so it is not in my way. I'm going to reach under, gently pull it through. I'm going to take my billet and pull it through the buckle in our cinch. We are going to pull it through the ring of our saddle. Pull it all the way through and then we are going to pull back through the ring of our cinch. We just going to pull it up and make it a little snug. We don't want to make it too tight, we don't want it to be uncomfortable for her or surprise her by tightening it up too much too fast. We just going to buckle it, we are going to pull the cinch out so the buckle lays flat. We are going to take our billet strap and pull it up here through the rein. We don't want to dangle, where the horse could step on it or have it slapping the horse and have it be annoying. Then we would let our stirrup down and the girth is a little snug. We would probably would have to tighten up a little more before we get on. Most horses have a tendency to kind of inflate their selves or hold there breath when you try to tighten the girth. So we would give her a little bit of time to kind of relax and let her air out and then as we walk to the ring that is when we would tighten it a little bit more. That is how you would want to buckle your cinch on your western saddle.