Several types of girth are shaped to allow ample room for the elbows. The Balding style is a flat piece of leather cut into three strips which are crossed and folded in the center, and the Atherstone style is a shaped piece of baghide with a roughly 1.5” wide strip of stronger leather running along the center. A variation on this is the overlay girth, in which the piece of leather in the center is the same curved shape as the girth. This overlay is often stitched in a decorative design.