Air vest not deploying - horse pilot

I sold my first Helite to a friend because it was too small. Used, but never inflated from a fall or otherwise :woman_shrugging:t3:

I’ve seen others advertised online. Not sure if they’ve sold.

Edited to add that I made sure the warranty was transferable. It’s good up to 4 years and I maybe owned it for 6 months. I guess it all depends.

This happened to one of our barn mates in VT last week. She was in a brand new, never-deployed HP that failed to inflate when she fell off. Everything was placed correctly prior to her unplanned dismount: canister, lanyard, etc. My daughter and I ride in Helites, which have always done their job so far.

Point2 has you do it every year in support of their lifetime warranty. I don’t mind, since it is mechanical safety device you should have it checked by the manufacturer on a regular basis.

Glad to hear that. They do not make it very clear on their website.

I had no problems selling a used air vest. I can recommend a few people who will buy them

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There lies the issue with the lack of scientific studies regarding air vests.
Someone else might ā€œbelieveā€ that if they hadn’t worn the air vest, they may not have broken their back at all.

Until the vests are properly studied there no way of knowing .

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I know :roll_eyes: I just can’t imagine landing flat on my back on hard gravel would’ve gone better with no cushion. I’m grateful for my vest and will never ride without it. YMMV.

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If everyone donated $20 to the proposed air vest study (as the article below indicates), the project would be funded, and we would have scientific data on the subject.

link to article:
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/fundraising-efforts-for-safety-vest-research-off-to-slow-start/

to donate online:

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What I don’t understand is why people who are paying hundreds of dollars to buy air vests are also being asked to fund the study.
What is wrong with this picture?

Why haven’t the companies selling the air vests done the research? Why are people so willing to pay to be crash test dummies, twice?

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Horse &Hound reports this week that a new Standard for equestrian air vests is ā€œin the pipelineā€. The incoming standard features a combination of requirements, including inflation speed, maximum pressure, deflation rate, parts of the body it covers and lanyard length. This involves a complex table to take into consideration the differences between a child falling off a pony and an adult coming if an 18hh horse. The final draft has been submitted and it is expected that it will take two to three years to go through the consultation process, approval, publication and harmonisation process. Slower than one might wish but it involves a lot of stakeholders, from manufacturers to Governments. You Americans are also doing your own thing with the US Hunter Jumper Assoc and Virginia Tech Laboratories currently running a two year project on air vests. It wil be interesting to see the similarities and differences between the end results. All research is good.

But, for both body protectors and air vests, it is getting the correct fit for each person that matters and that requires educating riders.

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I would want a third party to do the study and not have the manufacturers fund the study. I do agree that there should be a way for manufacturers to donate but not have any say in how the study is conducted.

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The third party funding/conducting of safety studies should not be left to the people who are paying hundreds of dollars to buy the air vests in the first place. I can’t imagine anyone thinking that this is an acceptable manner in which to fund the study of the efficacy of safety equipment that has already been marketed and sold for years.

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It is the fastest way to start the research. Don’t trust only industry funded results. To get government involved would take even longer.

Actually this is probably the fastest way to get government involved since some research will have been done and can lead to a standard.

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The Horse Pilot air vest is the only one that uses more than 1 air canister, 4 to be precise. I wonder if that leads to more people not setting them up properly.

Wow, really? That’s definitely seems like it provides more opportunities for something to go wrong.

The other side of that coin is, what are the chances of someone putting four canisters in incorrectly? I would think they would get at least some of them in there right and some of them should have activated. If installing the canisters is do technical that the average person could install four of them wrong, then there needs to be a design change there.

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I think theirs just clicks in, in one panel? I replaced my canister in my Helite jacket very easily by myself. It doesn’t seem like you could really do it incorrectly.

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