BZHorseMomE
Hunter/Eq. Trainer :-)
True it doesn't matter how nice a helmet a rider wears. If they don't understand how to ride and communicate with their mount they open themselves up for all types of situation.
Parents: Helmets!!!! FYI
- Thread starter duchess1
- Start date
True it doesn't matter how nice a helmet a rider wears. If they don't understand how to ride and communicate with their mount they open themselves up for all types of situation.
Are we still talking about this?Thank you, exactly my point! If your horse got stung by a bee, a sudden strange noise, or sight, any horse could lose "focus". Enter. . . the "HELMET"! I can't stand a helmet! But there are some parents who don't believe that falling off a horse is part of riding. UGH!
IntegritysDream
New Member
someone once told me that if you fall of a horse, you are a bad rider... i looked at them and said.. "no if you never fall off a horse then your not a rider at all" 
CountryLady
luvmyponies
CountryLady
luvmyponies
someone once told me that if you fall of a horse, you are a bad rider... i looked at them and said.. "no if you never fall off a horse then your not a rider at all"
It seems to me, that the more horses you ride, the more likey you will fall off at some point. Especially if you are riding a variety of them that are trained a different levels (or minimally trained).
SOMEBODY has to do the training. Ususally its me....I dont think many of the ones I have ridden have been trained to the hilt. THEY almost all needed training for something. And come to think about it I guess that would be kinda boring getting a horse that someone else did all the training on. I have never experianced that, myself. But where is the excitement in that. OHHHH! Maybe the excite ment comes in NOT WEARING A HELMET!!!
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CountryLady
luvmyponies
The title of the thread suggests that as parents and or responsible adults, that we should ensure that our children wear helmets while riding. This is a sore spot for a lot of adults that have never been trained to think of their safety, due to the type of riding, namely western. TIMES ARE A CHANGIN’ people.
We ALL try to justify and rationalize the decisions we make, even the not so smart ones.
I only just recently started wearing a helmet as an adult. I have been guilty of putting my kids on a back yard horse with out a helmet more times than I would like to admit. But I made a conscious decision to change my way of thinking. To rationalize my way out of making the RIGHT decision, just wasn't the smartest thing to do. I implemented a little RISK MANAGEMENT.
WE ALL, I hope, would agree that there are inherent risks associated with equestrian sports, regardless if we are riding in the ring in a jump class or riding on a back yard pony.
Risk Management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events.
Risks can come from uncertainty, accidents, natural causes, yada, yada, yada, etc….
For the most part, these methodologies consist of the following elements, performed, more or less, in the following order.
1. identify, characterize, and assess threats
Hmmm, horses by nature, kick, rear, buck, bolt, spook, stampede, just to name a few….and when riding them and these things happen, you could be unseated from your steed unexpectedly. They could get scared at that point and even trample you. NOT to mention that if you trail ride sometimes you horse could get spooked by an animal in the woods (sudden movement) and take you under a low limb and unhorse you. Or you could be riding on a trail with a low ceiling.
On a trail I frequently ride there is a section of it with a low ceiling. With all of the rain we have been getting, it has gotten overgrown with vines it seems like over night. I was riding through this stretch of the path, kinda ducking down and my helmet just wacked a branch. The sound made my boy spook a bit and he lunged forward about 6 feet where my head hit the next branch a little harder. With out my helmet, it would have hurt, and would have probly required a little ice. I laughed about it at the time. It was hot out that day and I just knew the helmet would make me sweatier. But my son was with me. I made him where his, so I couldn’t be a hypocrite. I am glad I wore it that day.
2. assess the vulnerability of critical assets to specific threats
The critical asset is your body! The threat is injury! If you fall and are UNLUCKY you could break your neck, crack your skull, break bones, sprain joints, and even worse, be paralyzed or killed.
Could some of those things happen to you regardless if you wear your helmet, of course?
For the many years that I didn’t wear a helmet, I never once landed on my head. I WAS LUCKY! (luck eventually runs out). However, I have been trampled by a spooked horse when someone else wacked him hard on his rump unexpectedly ( I wont tell you what with) and I was on him bareback. He reared and bolted I eventually fell off. The odds were NOT in my favor. The horse stepped all over my legs and my back. He drug me about 20 feet on the gravel road, before I managed to let go of the reins. I was 16 or 17 years old and had been riding since I was 5. I was retraining an auction horse that my uncle bought. The horse was a TB, and he was just one of about 30 horses that I rehabbed for my uncle. I had been working with him for about 2-3 months on a daily basis. My uncle was VERY horse savvy, raising and training pulling horses since LONG before I was born. I would have never expected anyone to do that to a horse someone was sitting on let alone one that a teenager was sitting on bareback. I was pretty upset at my uncle that day! The moral of the story, UNEXPECTED THINGS HAPPEN!!!!
3. determine the risk (i.e. the expected consequences of specific types of attacks on specific assets)
Consequences of injury! I shouldn’t have to spell this out, but if you are an Adult, and you work for a living and you get a concussion, you could conceivably be out of work for a while. If you don’t have good Insurance, it could also be costly. I have a good friend that was injured and can no longer be insured due to the type of injury. Injury if bad enough could be burdensome on your friends and family. WHO would you get to take care of all the things you do to care for your horses while you are laid up due to injury…..and even if you could find some one to do that for you, would they do it the way you would like them too. I have a problem finding someone I trust to care for my guys for a week’s vacation. Suppose you are laid up a month or two. A lot could happen in a month or two. I hate to even think about it.
4. identify ways to reduce those risks
Full body armor - NOT SO PRACTICAL. But a $60.00 helmet to protect your noggin from a concussion, very practical and not to bothersome considering the potential risks and the consequences associated with them.
5. prioritize risk reduction measures based on a strategy
Could probably live with a broken arm, and could probably still ride horses once it heals and could probably do most of the caring for them while it heals. Concussions are NOT COOL!!!!! I had one once because I was 18 and a safe driver and was only driving a few miles down the road at low speeds. I didn’t need a seatbelt for that!!! FAMOUS LAST WORDS!!!! A vehicle stopped in front of me suddenly and his break lights didn’t work. I barely bumped him. My cars impact did no damage to his truck. My slight concussion left me with vertigo for 3 months. I was so sick (nauseous). I would get dizzy and fall down. NOT COOL! I could not work, or pay my bills or do any of the things that a 18 year old would like to do. I lost a good part of my memory. Some of it has since come back, but not all. This was before the annoying seatbelt laws, some 20+years ago, but since then, I ALWAYS WEAR MY SEAT BELT, and make sure that the adults as well as children that ride with me do the same. In choosing to drive a motor vehicle, some risks have to be accepted. Someone else could loose control of their car and run into you. BUT you wear your seatbelt and the risks of you getting seriously or fatally injured are diminished quite a bit. The same goes with Equestrian sports. NUFF SAID!!!
The strategies to manage risk include transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk.
I am still guilty for occasionally forgetting my helmet. But I am getting better at remembering.
This is not meant to BASH anybody in the decisions they make to choose to wear or not to wear a helmet. But I hope it gets people thinking. I agree that parents should encourage their children to wear helmets, even the young adult children. :-/
I thought the Blurb about the AQHA was pertinent because the part (b) excerpt under Attire of the RULEBOOK, is a new addition this year. I just thought it to be interesting that AQHA finally is making the transition to help ensure safety of their participants.
HERE IT IS AGAIN:
AQHA rulebook ATTIRE excerpt:
(b) It is mandatory for riders in all hunter, jumper and
equitation classes, including hunter hack, where jumping is
required and when jumping anywhere on the competition
ground to wear properly fastened protective headgear that meets
ASTM/SEI standards or equivalent international standards for
equestrian use. The helmet must also be properly fitted with harness
secured. It is optional that an exhibitor may wear a hard hat
with harness in all classes; however, it is mandatory that all youth
and recommended that amateurs wear a ASTM/SEI approved hard
hat with harness in all over fence classes. It is mandatory that all
exhibitors wear a hard hat in all over fence classes and when schooling
over fences.
They (AQHA) still has a long way to go. A lot of old judges out there I'm sure still awards points for style of the attire forgoeing safety. I think we will soon see this change. Same goes with dressage and the derby. GOTTA START SOME WHERE!
HAPPY SAFE RIDING TO ALL!
GallopNTec
New Member
Well said CountryLady!
i like my brain inside my skull so I always wear a helmet when I ride now.
i like my brain inside my skull so I always wear a helmet when I ride now.
CountryLady
luvmyponies
CountryLady
luvmyponies
The British of Columbia's Medical Association (BCMA)has published the following facts:
A fall from 2 feet can cause permanent brain damage. A horse elevates a rider 8 feet or more above ground.
A human skull can be shattered by an impact of 7-10 kph. Horses can gallop at 65 kph. Children's skulls are most vulnerable.
Ages ten to fourteen, are the children most likely to be involved in an accident with a horse but all ages are at risk.
A rider who has one head injury has a 40% chance of suffering a second head injury. Children, teens and young adults are most vulnerable to sudden death from second impact syndrome. Second impact syndrome is the severe swelling of the brain caused by a second head injury before recovery from the first head injury.
Racing organizations require helmets and as a result jockeys now suffer less head injuries than pleasure riders.
The U.S. Pony Club lowered their head injury rate 29% with mandatory helmet use.
Britain's hospital admission rate for equestrians fell 46% after helmet design improved and they became in routine use.
VERY INTERESTING!
A fall from 2 feet can cause permanent brain damage. A horse elevates a rider 8 feet or more above ground.
A human skull can be shattered by an impact of 7-10 kph. Horses can gallop at 65 kph. Children's skulls are most vulnerable.
Ages ten to fourteen, are the children most likely to be involved in an accident with a horse but all ages are at risk.
A rider who has one head injury has a 40% chance of suffering a second head injury. Children, teens and young adults are most vulnerable to sudden death from second impact syndrome. Second impact syndrome is the severe swelling of the brain caused by a second head injury before recovery from the first head injury.
Racing organizations require helmets and as a result jockeys now suffer less head injuries than pleasure riders.
The U.S. Pony Club lowered their head injury rate 29% with mandatory helmet use.
Britain's hospital admission rate for equestrians fell 46% after helmet design improved and they became in routine use.
VERY INTERESTING!