Buying a girth is one of those jobs that looks like it should take five minutes and then quietly eats an afternoon. The sizes are in inches, sometimes centimetres, occasionally both. A dressage girth and a jumping girth for the same horse carry numbers twenty apart. And a girth that arrives two inches out is not slightly wrong, it is unusable.
The good news is that taking an accurate girth measurement takes about two minutes and one piece of string. Here is how to measure girth properly, a full size chart in inches and centimetres, the conversion between long and short girths, and how to tell whether the one you already own actually fits.
What Is a Girth?
A girth is the strap that passes under a horse’s barrel and holds the saddle in place. It buckles to the billet straps that hang beneath the saddle flap on each side, and it is the only thing stopping the saddle sliding sideways when you mount or turn.
Western riders call the same item a cinch, and the two are not interchangeable: a cinch attaches differently and is measured differently. Everything in this guide refers to English girths.
Two shapes matter for sizing. A long girth is used with jumping, hunter and general purpose saddles, where the billets are short and the buckles end up sitting under the rider’s thigh. A short girth, usually called a dressage girth, is used with dressage saddles, where the billets are long and the buckles finish far down the horse’s side and out of the rider’s way. Same horse, same measurement job, wildly different numbers.
How to Measure a Horse for a Girth
Do this with the saddle on. Measuring the horse alone gives you the wrong answer, because what you actually need is the distance between the billet straps, not the circumference of the barrel.
Dover Saddlery describes the method precisely: place your saddle and pad on the horse, have a helper hold a fabric tape measure on the middle billet hole on one side, then stretch the tape under the horse one hand’s width behind the elbow and read off the figure at the corresponding hole on the other side.
Three details make the difference between a measurement you can order from and one you cannot.
Use the middle hole, not the top or bottom. The middle hole is what gives you room to tighten as the horse warms up and loosen when it has been standing. Measure from an end hole and you buy a girth that only fits on one setting.
Position the tape a hand’s width behind the elbow, roughly four inches back. That is where the girth naturally settles, and it is a narrower part of the barrel than the point directly behind the foreleg, so measuring in the wrong spot adds inches you do not need.
No tape measure? Use string. Around sixty inches of baling twine works. Run it the same route, mark it at both middle holes with your fingers, then lay it flat and measure it against a rigid tape or a tape on the floor. This is genuinely how most people at a barn do it.
One thing that catches people out: girths are measured from the end of one buckle to the end of the other, not across the material alone. So the number on the label already includes the hardware, and you do not add anything to your girth measurement.
Girth Size Chart
Girths come in two-inch increments, which is five centimetres. If your measurement falls between two sizes, take the larger one. A girth slightly too long can still be used on a higher hole; one slightly too short cannot be used at all.
| Inches | Centimetres | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|
| 14″ | 35 cm | Small pony, short girth |
| 16″ | 40 cm | Pony, short girth |
| 18″ | 45 cm | Pony, short girth |
| 20″ | 50 cm | Small horse, dressage |
| 22″ | 55 cm | Dressage |
| 24″ | 60 cm | Dressage |
| 26″ | 65 cm | Dressage, the most common size |
| 28″ | 70 cm | Dressage |
| 30″ | 75 cm | Dressage, larger horse |
| 32″ | 80 cm | Dressage, larger horse |
| 34″ | 85 cm | Pony, long girth |
| 36″ | 90 cm | Pony, long girth |
| 38″ | 95 cm | Small horse, long girth |
| 40″ | 100 cm | Long girth |
| 42″ | 105 cm | Long girth |
| 44″ | 110 cm | Long girth |
| 46″ | 115 cm | Long girth |
| 48″ | 120 cm | Long girth, the most common size |
| 50″ | 125 cm | Long girth |
| 52″ | 130 cm | Long girth |
| 54″ | 135 cm | Long girth, large horse |
| 56″ | 140 cm | Long girth, large horse |
Notice the overlap in the middle of that chart. A 34-inch girth might be a long girth for a pony or an unusually large dressage girth, which is exactly why the number alone tells you nothing without knowing which type you are buying.
What Size Girth Does a 15.2 Horse Need?
There is no answer that holds for every horse, because girth size depends on the saddle’s billets and the shape of the individual barrel rather than height. A narrow thoroughbred and a round cob at the same height can be four inches apart.
That said, a starting point is useful when you are trying to work out whether the girth in a listing is even close. Solo Saddlers publishes this rule of thumb:
| Horse height | Long girth | Dressage girth |
|---|---|---|
| 14 to 15 hands | 42″ to 44″ | not published |
| 15 to 16 hands | 46″ to 48″ | around 26″ |
| 16 to 17 hands | 48″ to 54″ | not published |
So a 15.2hh horse most often takes a 46 or 48 inch long girth, or roughly a 26 inch dressage girth. Treat that as a sanity check on a measurement you have taken, not a substitute for taking one.
Long Girth or Dressage Girth? The 20-Inch Rule
If you already know one, you can work out the other. Dover Saddlery puts it simply: to switch between long and short, add or subtract twenty inches. A 48-inch long girth is about a 28-inch short girth.
| If your long girth is | Your dressage girth is about |
|---|---|
| 42″ | 22″ |
| 44″ | 24″ |
| 46″ | 26″ |
| 48″ | 28″ |
| 50″ | 30″ |
| 52″ | 32″ |
This is an approximation rather than a guarantee, because billet length varies between saddle makers. But it is close enough to shortlist a size, and it is far better than guessing.
How to Tell Whether a Girth Fits
On a jumping or general purpose saddle, with the girth done up to working tightness, the buckles should sit roughly halfway up the billet straps. Dover’s rule is to keep at least two holes above the buckles and at least one below, which gives you room to tighten later and to let it out when the horse has eaten. If the buckles are riding high enough to sit under your thigh, the girth is too long and you will feel it every stride. If you are on the very last hole to get it done up at all, it is too short and unsafe.
On a dressage saddle, the buckles should sit at the midpoint of the long billets, well below the saddle flap. Online For Equine suggests about three fingers of clearance between the bottom of the saddle pad and the top of the girth. Buckles that finish up under the flap mean the girth is too long.
Check the placement, not just the length. The girth should sit about four inches behind the elbow. If it has crept forward into the elbow itself, the horse will be rubbed and sore regardless of whether the size is right, and that is usually a saddle position problem rather than a girth problem.
Slide a flat hand under it. With the girth at working tightness you should be able to get your flat hand between girth and horse without forcing it. That is the traditional check and it still works.
Common Mistakes
Measuring the horse instead of the saddle. The most common error by far. Heart girth, the circumference of the barrel, is a useful girth measurement for weight tapes and blanket sizing, but it is not your girth size. What you need is billet hole to billet hole.
Measuring on the top or bottom hole. It gives a number that only works at one extreme of the adjustment.
Forgetting that the buckles count. A girth is measured buckle end to buckle end. People sometimes measure their old girth’s fabric only, add the hardware in their head, and end up two inches out.
Assuming one girth covers both saddles. If you ride the same horse in a dressage saddle and a jumping saddle, you need two girths, twenty inches apart.
Buying on breed or height alone. Two 16hh horses can easily be four inches apart. Measure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Put the saddle and pad on, then run a fabric tape or a length of string from the middle billet hole on one side, under the horse about a hand's width behind the elbow, to the matching hole on the other side. The figure in inches is your girth size. Girths are measured buckle end to buckle end, so you do not add anything for the hardware.
Most often a 46 or 48 inch long girth, or around a 26 inch dressage girth, but that is a starting point rather than an answer. Girth size follows the saddle's billets and the shape of the horse's barrel, not its height, so a narrow thoroughbred and a round cob at 15.2 can be four inches apart.
Both are used. Girths run in two-inch steps, which is five centimetre steps, so 48 inches is 120 centimetres and 26 inches is 65 centimetres. European makers usually label in centimetres and US and UK makers in inches.
A long girth is used with jumping, hunter and general purpose saddles, which have short billets. A dressage girth is much shorter because dressage saddles have long billets that carry the buckles down and out of the rider's way. For the same horse the two differ by roughly twenty inches.
There is not one, and any source offering arithmetic based on height or weight is guessing. Girth size depends on where your saddle's billets fall and the shape of your horse's barrel. The only reliable method is to measure billet hole to billet hole with the saddle on.
Take the larger one. A girth that is slightly long can still be used on a higher hole, while one that is slightly short cannot be used safely at all.
Tight enough that you can slide a flat hand between the girth and the horse without forcing it, and no tighter. Tighten in stages rather than all at once, and check it again after a few minutes of walking, because most horses relax and need a hole more.
Buying and Selling Tack
Reequestrian is the US peer to peer marketplace for buying and selling English equestrian gear. Riders list directly, which means the person selling can usually tell you the exact size, how it was ridden in, and what saddle it was used with. That last detail matters more for a girth than almost anything else, because it tells you which billets it was sized against.
Browse what riders are listing at Reequestrian.
Changed saddles and left with a girth in the wrong length? List it for sale and put it toward the right one.
