So is the EXO completely out of existence? If so - uhm, why? I NEED to upgrade my vest (sad to admit it’s a cheap a$$ one that was $80 brand new from eBay, it will not do anything in a fall, certainly not a bad fall). Sorry if this is a stupid question but shouldn’t this still be on the market ?
ETA - apparently forgot to refresh my browser, I quoted this then realized there was almost 10 pages following it. My apologies!!
I’m a believer.
@Black Points - what size is your vest? [/QUOTE]
GNEP pretty sure it is an A6 the largest available I sent some measurements in and that was the recommendation.
bounced down 4 stepsWish I had had it on 2 weeks ago when i slipped on icy stairs and bunced down 4 on my shoulder. Recovering from wicked surgery now
Mary in western NY
If you haven’t posted the video of the EXO on this thread yet, I’d like to see it.
If you have, pardon me—I’m still catching up, and I’ll find it.
Thanks.
You are limiting your imagination to just the activity. A lawsuit doesn’t have to go after a particular jump, or even the venue. Look at what we “think” we know from the last death. A rider that wasn’t set down after a dangerous go (galloping into the field that had caused a death years earlier). Riders that may be on a ‘watch list’ that isn’t shared or known to other ride managers, etc. A family doesn’t need deep pockets to hire an attorney, they could find one that would work on a percentage. And they wouldn’t need to win their case, lots of cases are settled out of court. Ask for 10 million, settle for two.
I’ve shared this before… in 1987, I had a jumper named Rocky Raccoon, who, BTW still holds the high jump Puissance record with Debbie Stephens - 7’8 1/2”. We had a rotational fall over a 4’6” Oxer — last jump of a (then) Table III speed class in the Jr/AO Jumpers. Rocky broke his neck and died immediately on course. I was lucky. Shattered collarbone (throwaway bones anyway… shattered nose, concussion). This was before all of the safety helmets were even around in the H/J world. My fault. I didn’t see a distance, so I relaxed my hands. He left the ground. We’d had a perfect trip — cut a lot of corners, roll backs, and this was the ONLY jump with a galloping approach… Even the best horses can have a split second mistake…
Coloredhares, I remember him. I’m very sorry.
I checked in with a friend who is an FEI TD. She told me the watch list info is shared, but not public. FWIW.
I did not ask beyond that as we have an unstated agreement to stay away from specifics about riders.
Presumably the watch list is a single database that both national and FEI officials have access to??
Don’t know. Can ask her when I next see her.
We know since years which accident is the mostly deadly or crippling. Every discussion circles around the how to prevent it and not how to survive it. The simple fact that one can not prevent accidents of any kind is just left out.
Yes active prevention is great, but passive protection is even greater, because it can truly saves lives when every other prevention fails.
Both work hand in hand.
But first you have to protect the very fragile human body from the crushing forces of our horses.
When I heard of the Exo, I had one with in 4 weeks, bought it in the UK.
I made it work for me no matter what. Bulky, hot, the problems with the locks, those were all minor problems.
Price, I never got that one, people have to buy a vest, $ 200 or so, than they by the balloon thingy, what is it $500 or so, that’s about the same as for a Exo and they do duddly, when it gets real serious…
I never got that.
A real live saving piece of equipment should be mandatory by the rules.
If it prieces some folks out of the sport, big deal, who cares.
This makes me wonder how many of those on the death list were crushed by their horse. That stat might prove valuable.
There are some head/spinal deaths on the list - no vest or helmet can protect from that - but I suspect the majority are crush or blunt force trauma.
It’s like Motorsport with the HANS device. It can’t prevent all injuries but it can protect against basal skull fractures, which was something that was killing drivers. After the HANS was mandated, there were very few deaths on the track.
In a similar thread many years ago we discussed the black hole of statistical knowledge of accidents at home or at the training facility. There is absolutely none.
I became a safety freak at my place after a rather unusual accident, till than I had be rather lax, old fashioned.
One of the kids I trained, 15 at that time, did her trot conditioning intervals. They are dead boring. 60 acres and going around and around and around for 45 minutes. I was cleaning stalls, looked at my watch and than I moved rather fast, because the girl was not back. I found her sitting on the ground and her horse grassing nearby. She was stunned, concused, just sitting there, for nearly 15 minutes !!!.
Naturally she had to go to the hospital. There was not dirt on her helmet. She remember that her horse stumbeled, probably half a sleep as her rider, 90F outside. She just flipped over the side of the horse and hit the ground like a wet sack of oats, on her back. Knocked her flat out and stunned her system.
Nobody ever road on my property with out having a observer. If I could not do it they had to bring one. Nobody could ride with out proper safety equipment, if you left the sand box, a vest and a XC helmet was mandatory. Helmet was mandatory.
A observation I made on myself, schooling and training has not the intensity of a competition, you are not as raiser sharp focused. You go out there warm up and than you pop over some jumps at your leisure, simply explained.
There is not this built up, like waiting to go in the start box and than waiting for the go and than having to nail every jump after jump for minutes at very high speeds, fight the clock.
Sloppy little mistakes, nothing serious, by horse and rider. At one point that might catch up with you.
The accident of the young Lady happened at a let up jump. I did not look at the course, but probably there was a interesting combination before. She was very pleased to have that one mastered and than this run of the mill spread, before the next challeng.
It always happens at those fairly ease spreads, the let up jumps. The rider lets up, the horse lets up.
Bang
I had jumped that jump probably 150 times, easy straight forward, just let my guard down, sloppy, not 150% focused.
A jump is a jump
A jump is a jump
A jump is a jump
repeat and repeat………………………
Forget it, it will bite you
Any fracture needs a blunt force of a kind, a twist can do that, too. I would wager a bet, 6 pack of Corona ( that stuff is a virous), that something like the Exo would lower the risk. If you have something solid you can develop something like a Hans to attach to.
Like the air vest, a little blow up collar, just of my head.
Helmets, they are a joke. The guys in Motor Cross do as much and more action on their bikes as we do in a XC on a horse, their helmets are far more stronger and protective than those flimsy riding helmets. If the weight of those helmets eliminates some of the competitors, or the heat in them, no big deal.
I used in the 70s a down hill ski helmet for a while. It had just one problem. I could not hear my horse, which is important, we judge speed with all our senses, hearing is one of them. Than I tried a hang glider helmet, very solid piece, but it had cut outs around the ears, they have to hear the fabric, for speed and stalls.
At that time you could jump on a riding helmet with both feet and the shell would brake, you could not do that with those other helmets.
I still have my skull, was very expensive, just out of curiosity, I will take a carpenter hammer and hit it and before that check how it deforms in a 10 ton press and than do the same to my old Motor Cross helmet
Interesting
I dug around last year for a friend trying to figure out the current state of the secondary market. It’s out of production, but they made a bunch and they turn up on ebay or the like with good frequency, often new with tags, and they’re scattered around tack stores here and there too. The local SPCA charity tack store (which often gets used as a dumping ground for slow-moving stock) had a bunch donated which makes me think there are still a fair number kicking around in various inventories, slowly being cleaned out. Keep an eye out, they’re out there. Sadly they pretty clearly did not sell.
I like the vest I wear now, and I do think some of the above conversation undervalues just how much help even some spreading of impact (both in area and time) can do, but I’ve also had the experience of hitting the dirt and having 1200 pounds of horse slam down next to me and it’s entirely sobering. The first time I handled an EXO it dispelled a lot of misconceptions on my part, and I’d use one if there was one that fit me.
@JER Is the Allen wrench necessary to get the EXO off only if you have to dismantle it after an accident or to take it off after normal use?
#woofwear
#bringbacktheEXO
The Allen key is only for emergencies. Normally, you just undo the side clips.
Is anybody having just a complete out of body experience deja vu? It’s like it’s 2007-8 all over again repeat one more time do over.
Motorcycle racing has its own equivalent of the FEI. The FIM met last week and is going to mandate air vests for all riders in two years. It looks like the federation is going to be directly involved with the companies making the vests.
http://www.fim-live.com/en/article/rally-security-meeting-in-lisbon/
It seems like most people believe that better vests might help. Why not augment inflatable technology with exoskeleton features. The hardened cage lays flat and out of the way of the rider when the vest is empty but the rings of safety pop into place as the airbag is deployed.
Not a perfect analogy but kind of like a porcupine which is sleek and streamlined under normal circumstances but turns into a sphere of spikes in the face of danger. Hoops of carbon fiber lay flat in a loose manner but spring into a cage when the vest gets turgid.
@Gnep Not sure carbon fiber would offer benefit over a lightweight metal -
Metal deforms when its design stress is exceeded.
Carbon fiber cracks and shatters, leaving knives behind to provide more damage to internal organs.
Just my thoughts. Would probably be best to stay with a metal variety… [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10594262}[/ATTACH]
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