The issue with the vest that now deploy around the neck is hyper extension and it knocking your helmet. You can’t prove something that didn’t happen. There is no statistical evidence based on numbers that air vests prevent broken necks etc. It is hypothetical, anecdotal “evidence” whatever gets people thinking about safety, but it is a false sense of confidence and factually untrue that “they saved my life” “I would have had a broken neck”.
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Until the scientists actually test it out, you are correct. However, in my instance, my horse fell on his face and I went over his head so quickly I had no time to even put my hands out. I landed on my head/helmet. The airbag worked and I had it up to my ears, even tipping my helmet forward over my eyes. I felt like the pillsbury dough boy until I could get organized. It was NOT me who claimed it saved my neck, but the ER doctor. When I arrived, she put me in a neck brace and immediately did X-rays. She was the one who said after viewing the X-ray that I was lucky I didn’t break my neck. Anecdotal evidence actually is useful for scientists, they just wouldn’t say it was based on science. Until NTSHA or someone else does testing with dummies and air vests, we can only rely on anecdotal evidence. It’s certainly better than magic or wishing. My air vest has now over the past 8 years been helped twice and I believe it is well worth the $500 I paid for it and the 2 seconds it takes to put on and off. To each his own. . . . .
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Woof over a decade ago developed a body protector (the Exo) that was literally designed for that scenario. Hardly anyone bought them and they did not remain in production. Maybe Samshield isn’t exactly wrong if they’re calling equestrians on our bluff when it comes to prioritizing the utmost in safety…
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Yes, if I could find one, I’d buy it. I ride with a back protector or eventing vest for every ride.
I haven’t bought an air vest yet. I’m waiting for more research.
That was a hunter rider and that was about 5 years ago.
Quite honestly… and coming from a medical family… I’d rather have a few broken ribs than a broken back or neck. It’s a small price to pay for a lot more protection. Yes, I understand that it was her profession and set her back for a bit, but overall, I would be interested to see how many potential professions that it’s saved and spinal injuries that it’s prevented.
Every safety precaution has a “what if”. We’ve all heard stories of seat belts that have had adverse results (ie people get trapped in them, the buckle gets compromised and won’t unlatch, etc), but I think the majority of people would be hard-pressed to not use them on a daily basis and heck, now there’s even laws requiring it! Helmets aren’t fool-proof either but they’re a requirement. The idea is that we keep adapting our safety equipment the same way that we adapt technology… not that we totally disregard it and wait for a perfect solution. Make no mistake, an inflated vest isn’t a great time. It can make you feel quite claustrophobic for those moments after it fully engages, but it’s creating a safety balloon around your toros, so I’ll suck it up. Pun intended.
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Really? Where? I have been to countless shows and competitions and have yet to see a horse that actually cares. I’d like to know where you’ve seen this… you seem adamantly against these vests, and although that’s fine for you to make that choice, I’m curious how much you’re riding and showing?
I’ve waited to see the total freakout and it simply doesn’t arrive over and over again.
There’s a different between reacting like putting their ears forward and leaping into the sky.
Actually, I watched a horse dump its rider a week ago and the horse didn’t blink when her air vest went off… what he did react to? The pro walking next to her out of the ring that had the show number strings that were swinging and brushed against him. So, to that effect, should we wait for more research on show strings? Or accept that safety items are a tool but not a perfect science?
But we don’t yet know that air vests do prevent a broken back, do we? I remember some discussion of the vest potentially reducing the spine’s ability to absorb impact by immobilizing it.
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As someone who wears an air vest and has landed on her back/side with it inflated, that comment seems crazy to me. Yes, it cushions you, but it doesn’t prevent your spine from flexing. Think of it like jumping in one of those bouncy houses for kids. It might not be the most comfortable to land flat on your back, but your spine still flexes.
Since we are being anecdotal, Karen O’Connor broke several vertebrae in her neck falling in an air vest, so there’s that… If I remember correctly, they were burst fractures.
@RAyers described the mechanism of that type of fracture for us.
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That would be me. I work in ortho spine research. There are several cases where the spine was fractured when the airiest was inflated.
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But was the cause of the fractures the air bag or the fall? It does make a difference and perhaps the air bag reduced the actual damage.
For those of us cave dwellers who are unaware of the history, is there any place you could suggest to get the details here?
Can you elaborate on this? Were the riders in these accidents wearing standard cross country vests under their air vests or were they wearing air vests alone? Did the air vests inflate as designed or were there problems with the inflation or lack of separation from the horse that were factors?
It is not allowed to ride without a body protector under the airvest.
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Really? I know that is true for eventing competitions, but I did not think that body protectors were required for hunter jumper shows, even when air vests are worn. And I have seen lots of people school with only the air vest and no body protector underneath — I don’t know whether these accidents occurred in competition or while schooling.
I was thinking of Eventing, sorry.
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On can never prove an indeterminate outcome based on the observed injury. Saying an airvest “reduced” injuries is a misleading statement because we can’t know what would have happened when not wearing a vest.
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The biomechanics of the spine is highly complex and not easily explained. For instance, I have videos of a competitive climber in a gym fall from about 10’ onto a mat and fracture their front lumbar vertebra even though they landed flat on their back. In that case it was how the legs folded that caused the fracture and not the impact.
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Military studies show that when soldiers with body armor are in an explosion, the initial explosion does little to damage the spine (e.g. direct force). It is when the body is thrown and the spine is in a more rigid state due to the body armor that the spine is broken as they land. The primary reason is that the forces of impact have to go somewhere in a torso and they are transmitted axially up and down the spine. However, since the spine is not a straight column, these forces can cause a myriad of fractures. It is similar to how a person in motor vehicle accident can have compression fractures while still being belted in and even having an airbag.
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An airvest changes how the biomechanics of a fall occurs as well as where the impact forces have to go. It is very rare that spine fractures occur due to perpendicular impacts. In the UK a rider in a rotational fall had her neck broken even though her airvest deployed because her neck was both restrained but free enough to move when she impacted the ground. There used to be video of it. The same goes with Karen O’Conner. There were multiple fractures even with a vest in both the thoracic and lumbar spine (if I remember correctly).
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In the world of auto and motorcycle racing, it has been determined that to protect the neck a HANS restraint must be used, e.g. a rigid bolster that transfer forces from the head to the shoulders, bypassing the spine. In MotoGP, air bladders are used over select portions of the body based on decades of research instrumenting all riders and characterizing their crashes. However, the impact mechanics are inherently different than falling off a horse.
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I would not say that I am “adamantly against these vests” at all.
I just recognize that there are some drawbacks to using them, as I mentioned in my previous post. I also recognize that so far, there has been no scientific evidence about their effectiveness.
I’ve also been to countless shows and competitions, and I’ve seen quite a few horses who reacted to the noise in a negative way, from spooking to taking off to occasionally spinning around and kicking as they were leaving the vicinity in a hurry.
There are other horses that don’t seem to care at all. I’m guessing that perhaps they’ve had lots of practice with the safety vests making that noise.
I was at a show two weeks ago and saw somebody who fell off the horse with an air vest and landed on the ground in such a way that she could not move until someone came to help her up, and I’ve seen that happen several times over the years.
Between USEF, IHSA, IEA, and unrecognized shows, I probably attend about 35-40 competitions a year.
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I’ve seen horses not care and I’ve seen horses spook at the noise. As with everything else it really depends on the individual horse. I saw a particularly unfortunate chain reaction standing by the in-gate at one show when one girl dismounted and forgot to unclip her vest first. She spooked her horse and the one next to them and she wound up on the ground between the two and was very close to getting trampled. I was the next-closest and the horse I had at the time didn’t care at all but he was pretty unflappable in general. My current horse I would want to desensitize first but man those canisters are not cheap.
We don’t really know if it makes a difference, that’s the problem. You can’t say for sure that it helps anymore than others can say for sure that it hurts. At this point there’s no research available either way.
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That thought has definitely crossed my mind.
Maybe there’s a less expensive option to somehow train them with cheap firecracker poppers. Lol.
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