Prolite dressage girth review

For what feels like the longest time, I've been looking at different ways to improve Vallu's comfort when riding him. I've blogged several times about how much I love the WOW saddles and how totally I believe in them being one of the most comfortable saddles for horses for many reasons such as the Flair Flocking System where the panels of the saddle are filled with air which has been proven by pressure testing to be the best out there. WOW's also have the biggest range of changeable head plates as most saddle manufacturers will only supply trees with angles from 80 degrees (narrow) to 110 degrees (extra wide) whilst WOW has a range of 73 to 143 degrees - the list goes on! This saddle has been a godsend for a sensitive creature like Vallu, but I've felt like there's been something missing to help his comfort even more  🤔 I even got Jins last summer in the hope that they would help me keep my heels down and get my legs to be more still (and they have helped with this!) to ensure that I don't affect him as much.

But even after all of these, I felt like there was something missing and I ended up doing quite a bit of research on different girths by plenty of different brands and talking to a few good equestrian friends. I ended up going for a Prolite dressage girth that is manufactured under license from Fairfax Saddles Ltd's intellectual property rights.

What drew me to this girth was that the design of the girth is apparently scientifically proven to dramatically increase the horse's freedom of movement. On their website and what everyone who I spoke to about this girth said is that this girth helps to increase front leg extension and to increase hock flexion too so I was incredibly excited to see if it made any difference to Vallu. And from get go of my first ride with this girth being used I found that it honestly does reduce pressure. After a week of riding with in a friend saw me riding and was gobsmacked with the massive difference in Vallu's way of moving in trot. I also feel like the girth stabilises the saddle which in turn then makes me feel more relaxed. So all good so far! ✅ 

I knew that it wasn't made from leather, but seeing that it was made from 'technical material' made me a little bit worried. At 120€ I didn't want to receive a girth made from a weird material that would break after a few rides in the cold Finnish winters, but it turns out this material is actually a highly technical and has properties to keep it cool, dry and breathable as well as being antibacterial and hypo-allergenic. AND most importantly, the material feels really really nice! It's super soft and has not rubbed Vallu at all, which is insane considering that everything that I have tried before apart from a neoprene girth has rubbed him. Even on the coldest of days (e.g. -17°C, my absolute limit of how cold it can be for me to ride) the material somehow has managed to maintain its temperature which has meant that there's been no tucking up and I have a generally much happier Vallu when tacking up - although he does still try to eat all the sugar lumps out of my pocket when I'm doing his girth up!

Another really pleasantly surprising thing about this girth was how easy it is to take care of it. Honest to god I was expecting a long list of to do's and what brands to use and what not to do etc etc. Instead,  it can just be sponged down after use with warm water and then I just towel dry it. No soaps, no deep conditioner which pleased my inner lazy side to no end!

So if anyone of you are looking to upgrade/change your dressage girth I can highly recommend these Prolite girths. Even with good reviews and recommendations from friends, the girth has still managed to surprise me with how much of a difference it had on Vallu. It's got a bit of a hefty price tag (massive thanks to Henri + Senta for getting this for me as a Christmas present 😘) but it's a lot cheaper than the original leather FairFax girths and I honestly do think it is worth the price.