Yes, I was thinking the same thing. However, you do not have to attend every argument you get invited to LOL!!!
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Interesting concept to think about - thanks for bringing it up!
Harm reduction is always going to be a trade off between those who take more risk because there is more safety equipment at their disposal vs the action protection they (the safety measures) provide.
But having the option to have an air vest/ body protector, a helmet, a seat belt, a condom, OSHA standards, … is worth having… generally…? I’m personally rather risk adverse, but I do understand the concept of taking on more risk the safer you “feel”.
You can still get hurt with safety equipment / protocol, and you can still have people that take additional risk because of the “appearance of some additional safety that absolves them of responsible risk assessment” - but harm reduction IS generally the purpose of safety measures and in HJ land - one can choose to participate in vests or not at least for now!
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That is an excellent thing to remember. Both in person and especially online! Lol.
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Just FYI. The rider who just got a score of 90 in the big equitation class at WEF was wearing a vest.
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I’ll give my two cents. I broke my back last summer and it happened to be the first ride in 5 months that I DID decide to wear my air vest (I used to save it for only jumping, but my horse was rehabbing and being silly so I threw it on).
I absolutely believe my back would’ve been SO much worse if I had not been wearing the vest. Could it fit a little further down on the tail bone? Probably. But I definitely believe my Helite vest saved me from a significantly worse break.
I recovered about a month a half quicker than the doctor thought and was able to ride sooner (of course I couldn’t wait to get back in the saddle).
My advice: buy it.
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I first started wearing a protective vest about 10 years ago after a fall left me with 5 broken ribs. The protective vest did not lead me to take additional risks. Rather, that “better and safer” feeling helped reduce my anxiety level so that I could ride again without having a near-panic attack.
I suspect that for many older riders and others among the “not fearless” crowd, the vest serves the same purpose. It doesn’t lead them to engage in riskier behavior, it just allows them to continue engaging in the same risky behavior (riding horses) that they used to.
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I’ll chime in: I have inflated my Helite air vests about 4 times from falling off in the past three years (other times accidentally, and once when I pop chipped so bad that there was major daylight between the saddle and me). I am a believer. I have a bad back and with the vest falls I have basically been unscathed. One of the falls was pretty major: I was approaching a two stride and my horse jumped the in, then spooked when the standard of the out fell-over from wind. I was totally launched into the air and landed on the jump. Horse jumped to my left over flying poles, broke his bridle and went for a gallop around the ring.
I have been doing smaller jumps this year because my horse is injured, but I still wear the vest. I wear it at home when jumping 2’6. I don’t wear it on the small and medium ponies I ride sometimes, because that definitively seems unsafe. I would say that about 20% of the people in the divisions I ride in wear vests. About 30% of the ladies in my barn wear a vest in the adult hunters and jumpers.
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Wear one if you want to wear one. We’ve got many members at our hunt who do. Certainly no one criticizes them, and I think we all like to see them on the hunting octogenarians especially. It may not keep you alive if it’s time to go, but you’d miss a lot of the season for a cracked rib. Tradition evolves.
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Can I ask how you landed and what you believe would have been worse without the vest? I’m still torn on wearing one!
It was a compound fracture so landed kind of on my tail bone/low back - basically felt like flat on my back. It without a doubt softened the blow to my back. My back still hurts a little bit, but I’m now jumping again and will never ever, ever get on a horse again without my vest.
Edited to add:
My horse is pretty flighty and can be spooky, but she didn’t balk at the sound. I have other friends who have accidentally dismounted with it (Helite specifically) & minimal reaction from their horses.
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I’m in my mid-60s, diagnosed with osteoporosis. I just do dressage- no jumping, but I always wear my air-vest. I’ve deployed it once—my then-4-year-old decided to lay down in the middle of the ring, and I stepped off, setting it off. He’s pretty quiet—just stood back up and looked at me. In about 4-5 years of owning it, I have never set it off dismounting!
You can always hook the air vest to a Dee ring on your saddle. I’ve done that before in a pinch
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I bet his insurance loves that.
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LOL I suspect that he doesn’t have any insurance. Having insurance would be like wearing safety equipment!
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Hi Ottbee, All
I’m assuming you are riding in an English saddle?
I can’t comment on the other air vests, but the HitAir connection setup for English saddles is a nylon strap that connects to the stirrup bar on either side. You have to slide the stirrup leather off, install the strap, and then replace the leather. As long as the fit between the bar and the saddle isn’t super close, this only takes a few seconds, and can be done with the saddle on the horse as far as that goes. If the bar is really tight; tight enough that it’s a struggle to fit the stirrup leather (I have an old Stüben that’s like that) try a dab of talcum powder maybe?
On a Western saddle, the connection is a simple loop around the pommel, and doesn’t take any special effort at all.
Either way, on most saddles you can install the connection piece before your ride, and pull it off again when you’re done with minimal effort. Hope this helps.
Edit to add: Connecting the tether to a saddle “D” is kinda iffy; I’ve seen them pull right out with just the pressure from a breast collar, so do test that dee before using it. Clip on a lead and put your weight on it.
One more edit: I think I recall reading that it takes a 75lb pull on the tether to deploy the HitAir. Others will probably be similar.
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I suspect this is true for older riders, yes. Anecdotally, I see more juniors wearing air vests than seniors. (Of the senior riders in my barn who wear a safety vest, more have opted for the crash vest/impact protector type than the air vest.) At the end of the day, people need to understand how a given piece of equipment impacts their risk level so they can make an informed judgment call about their safety. If you put your foot in the stirrup while thinking “I have a bad feeling about this,” you should probably take your foot out of the stirrup and put the horse on a longe line first, no matter what you’re wearing!
What bothers me about the air vests is that they may help you when you hit the ground, but once you’ve gone splat, it seems you end up on the ground sort of like an upside down turtle and your mobility is somewhat limited. So you can’t tuck and roll as easily to get away from flying hooves. Now, if the airbag cushioned your fall and you end up avoiding a broken rib, your ribs are still happier with your choice, so that’s not nothing. Most of the falls I’ve had in my life have fallen into one of two categories: “projectile over the shoulder” (thank you helmet) or “launched sideways” and in both of those categories I’ve needed to be mobile upon hitting the ground to avoid getting kicked in the head because I wasn’t launched quite far enough away from the horse. (I can only think of two falls where I did not need to get out of dodge.)
I think the air vests are interesting for the potential protection to the neck and hips, but I’d like to see more research on more types of falls before I say “This is a good idea for the context of my [or my mom’s] riding.”
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If I remember correctly, one of the concerns about the air vests was that they could make the body too rigid and unable to flex to absorb impact, therefore potentially contributing to fractures, etc. For the poster up thread who ended up fracturing their back with one on, I wonder if it actually helped or hindered.
Has anyone who has fallen in one felt whether it made their body rigid or allowed for a bit of movement to absorb impact?
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I’ve been riding for a while (like decades 
) And over that time I’ve fallen off my fair share. Most falls are minor, landing on your backside or feet. I’ve always gotten right back on from these, however with minor soreness. I recently had this exact fall, without the vest I’m sure I probably would have been fine (horse dropped shoulder and spun, all of a sudden no horse under me 
) BUT I did have my air vest on and honestly the impact to my body was notably less. I haven’t had a significant fall with one yet (hopefully never) but I never notice it impacting my mobility on or off the horse. And after a fall it didn’t restrict me in any unsafe manor while inflated (it deflates very quickly after). Hope that helps!
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In general, juniors wear vests because their parents want them to. Air vests are more comfortable, less distorting of the rider’s silhouette, and have a higher cool factor, so it’s not surprising to me that juniors, under parental orders to wear a safety vest, would choose an air vest if the budget allows.
In response to the rest of your post, every option has positives and negatives and the significance of those to any individual depends on the needs of that individual. For example, your concern about ending up like a turtle may be important to you, but it’s irrelevant to me. I’m an old fat lady. I can pretty much guarantee that I’m not going to be quick enough to scramble out of the way of anything immediately after I hit the ground. And, if I go off to the side or the rear, I’m going to be flailing around like an upside-down turtle with or without a vest of either type.
All anyone can do is conduct an honest, unbiased assessment of the options available to them in the context of their own personal needs. You have decided that an air vest would not meet your needs. 
That doesn’t mean someone else won’t come to a different conclusion.
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I personally feel like it all happened so fast I don’t know if my body did tense up. If anything I knew I had my vest on so maybe that eased things? No matter if you fall with or without a vest, you’re (g) likely to brace for impact without thinking about it. I think this is one of the biggest questions with vests. I can’t imagine my break would’ve felt better landing flat on my back without the cushion from the air vest.
My arena fades from footing to hard gravel and of course my horse bronc leapt into the graveled perimeter of the arena for me to land on. Body tending or not, landing on the hard of a surface wouldn’t have ended well regardless.
Also, my neck hurt very badly the next day and then completely fine after that and ever since. I’m so thankful for the neck stability the air vest provided me! I truly think my injuries would’ve been FAR worse without the vest for a myriad of reasons.
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