# front strap on saddle



## deb4goats (Aug 18, 2010)

Should I have a pad on the front strap of my saddle? I guess that would be the breast strap.


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## Hasligrove (Dec 10, 2008)

Here is my 2 cents. The only strap that is absolutly necessary is the girth strap. This should be padded and tight. It holds on the saddle. Breast and rear straps are to help with the shifting of the load when you are going up or down steep hills. Normal hiking they both should be slightly loose to alow for movement. When hiking uphill you would want to tighten the breast strap to keep the load from fall back on hips and going steep downhill you would tighten the rear strap to keep from shifing forward on shoulders. 

So do you need padding?? Maybe ...if you do lots of up and down steep hiking. Mine do not have padding and they are just fine. I don't do real major hiking...not yet at least.


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

Most folks do not use padding on the front breast strap. The problem would be with the strapping material you use. If you use the thin stiff strapping then a cover of some sort (not necessarily a pad) will help prevent hair from being rubbed off. If you use the thicker and softer strapping then there is no issue with hair rubbing so the cover is not needed. Not knowing what you have I'd just recommend that you watch your goat for signs of hair being rubbed off and go from there.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

Hello,

just found this threat.

I have found that I need to add some smooth padding to the breast strap for some goats in winter to avoid chaving.

And as I use the saddle to pull travois, too, I need to add a wider and padded cover to the breast strap so that the goat can use the breast strap as a help to pull the travois. I also leave the breast strap longer and connect it in the middle with the girth so that it forms a "V". It can't compress the trachea that way and the goat can pull better.


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## jross (Dec 20, 2008)

Sabine, could you post some pics of your travois? How much weight do you put on the travois. I think this would be a very handy thing at times. You probably have to use it on level ground tho. I would be very interested in seeing what you have done.


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

I only have one video where I used it for the first time (I had used one several years ago but forgot about it, so I started from scratch again).

You can see in the video that I had to open the front strap (it would hinder respiration when pulling the loaded travois) and that I placed the load too low.

I mostly use the travois in winter to transport pine twigs from the woods back home.

[youtube:2twqxpyv]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_g8k27v1cc[/youtube:2twqxpyv]


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## art in ny (Feb 6, 2010)

what do you use the twigs for


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## sanhestar (Dec 10, 2008)

I feed them to the goats.

And it's branches - just couldn't remember how to say that in English.


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