Special Short girth

For Icelandic horses, Native ponies and smaller Arabians: The Mattes Special Short Girth is designed to suit the body shape of these horses with a slightly curved shape. This generally prevents the girth from slipping forward and impeding elbow movement. The lack of the centrepiece is great for the narrower chested horse/pony as well that may experience discomfort from the Standard Mattes Crescent girth.

With the traditional MATTES quilting or top quality leather and lambskin. The Mattes Special Girth is also available in the Long Version.

Welcome

From Mattes:

These girths were developed in co-operation with riders to accommodate horses with very narrow-standing front legs, small and/or short backed horses with rounded bodies.

The girths are featured with stabilising loops at the girth ends and spring loaded stainless steel buckles. With their slightly curved shape, they fit themselves to the built of these horses. Thus preventing the girths to shift too much forward into the movement area of the elbow. Because of the short distance between the front legs the girths have not got a wider centrepiece.

Sizes start from just 35 cm long

Because these horses often have a narrow distance between their front legs and to avoid restricting their movement, MATTES has designed its special short girth without a wider centre section.

Extra short: This girth is available in sizes starting from just 35 cm long. Design your special short girth to suit your needs and preferences: The outer material with the distinctive quilted pattern and super premium quality lambskin are available in more than 30 colours. The special short girth is available with or without elastic buckle straps and with or without removable lambskin. Replacement girths and lambskin are available separately.

Care Instructions

MATTES® lambskin items should be washed frequently. Correct care and washing (see MATTES® special MELP detergent) is very important and will provide you with many more years of enjoyment from your product.

Download washing instructions (PDF, 53 KB)

As a Saddlefitter and rider of ponies

I tend to head this way with our smaller keg shaped ponies (Shetlands and Welsh) as the centrepiece is large. We have been using them since 2017 and are slowly moving the kids girths over to Mattes (trying not to fall for their demands for 'pretty colours')

Of course, different strokes suit different folks, but for value for money these are a good option over the Crescent.

Our thanks for Mattes and Thomas Hartig for the Professional photos!