Does anybody have the course sheet with distances? Who was the course designer? I tried looking it up but couldn’t find it.
Thank you
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My choice of vocabulary “working” on it wasn’t the best, but yes training or medically aware. Vests with neck rolls should be made part of safety equipment for everyone. After coming off with one on I felt better having it. The same as with better helmets that are not hot to ride in. I wonder if the FEI is keeping stats to point out problem fences. I prefer lots of flowers/shrubs even if fence is airy to let the horse know.
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The jury is still out on whether or not air vests do more harm than good.
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Yes, I’d really like to see more research on them. I do wear a protective vest every time I ride and would buy an air vest if there was more than anecdotal reports on their effectiveness.
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If you want anecdotal evidence. Almost 4 years ago I was trotting in my air vest on flat ground. The horse’s front feet collapsed (into a ground squirrel’s tunnel I think). He fell right on his face and I did not even have time to put my hands out before my forehead smacked the ground hard. My airvest expanded up to around my ears, my helmet came down low on my forehead from the hard brim smacking the ground. I felt like the Michelin man in my airvest and had to tilt my head back to see. Went to ER, where the doctor was certain I had a broken neck. I did not. Nothing, no broken bones, no real soft tissue injuries, nothing. The airvest saved my neck. I NEVER get on a horse without an airvest. It’s not “scientific” but it’s as close as one can get without actually conducting experiments of those kinds of horse/rider falls. Just saying. . . .
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This has no bearing on the safety of the vests.
But I saw a kid at a show the other day who fell off her pony in a very benign way. The thing I really noticed was that when the vest popped, there was no reaction whatsoever from the pony.
He didn’t even flick an ear at that noise, which really does sound a bit like a gunshot. Especially if you’re not familiar with it. He just stood like a rock and waited for the kid to get up.
So something tells me he’s had some practice with the vests. Lol.
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Not true. My horse had no reaction to the pop and it was the first time,he’d been around it. How do I know? Because I owned him long before there were air vests.
I watched a vest go off the other day when someone came off a young green horse. There was absolutely no reaction from the horse.
I’ve seen horses have no reaction and I’ve seen horses spook and make a bad situation worse. Really just depends on the horse and the situation.
I was waiting by the in gate once when a rider decided to dismount but forgot to unhook her vest. The noise spooked her horse and the one next to her while she was mid-dismount, and she wound upon the ground between them. Luckily she didn’t get stepped on but it was close. Of the other horses around, a few reacted and a few didn’t.
This is why I’ve switched to helmets with soft or detachable brims. I love this feature on my Arro, no risk of overextending the neck if you hit face-first. I’ve only had it come into play for one fall so far but it saved my neck.
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