I have asked this same question to the AQHA, since we have an under 14 safety helmet LAW. They contend that the law only applies to riding schools. I have read the law on the NYS Horse Council page and it is REQUIRED of ALL riders 14 and under esp those riding on state owned property. (Most QH shows around here are at fair grounds) I don’t know how they get away with it but they do. That is, until they get sued for several zillion dollars for some kids injury and we in NYS will foot the bill. It really gets my goat but they sidestep the issue everytime I bring it up. I think they are setting themselves up for BIG trouble!
There’s a helmet for sale now from a British designer guy I think (might be in catalogs for next season though) that looks unapproved but is approved. Comes with a price tag though… don’t remember how much but I wouldn’t pay it! (More than the $90 troxel)
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>In fact, during the summer I require that she wears her helmet when cleaning her mares hooves and working on her legs, you know how quick a horses leg can be when they go after a fly. I set an example by doing the same<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Very good point! Just today, I accidentally got bonked in the head by my pony (he threw his head in response to something, I forget what), but I had my helmet on, so I felt nothing. I just felt my head get pushed over about an inch. By the way, I feel good in stating again that my helmet is an approved, tightly-fitting Troxel!
Largeponylover, I agree that rude responses aren’t necessary. Sometimes, though, people can get pretty defensive about certain issues, particularly those like safety. I think you can cut Inverness a little slack – she does have some good points, just ignore the hotness.
Well I’m sure that will be great relief to your grief-stricken family.
But what if, instead of being killed, you suffered from a debilitating head injury that has them spending the rest of their lives feeding you, bathing you, changing your diapers, etc?
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Inverness:
[B] Sarcasm aside, LPL, I still maintain that age is no excuse for stupidity. I often respond with “sardonicism” when confronted by an illogical argument. You cannot expect to express a controversial opinion without anticipating that others will find your position to be ill-conceived and irrational. The First Amendment applies in both directions.
As far as sarcasm is concerned, I find it an effective vehicle for responding to a position so fatally flawed as to be undeserving of serious response.[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Don’t you go messin’ w/Inverness, Largeponylover. She’ll squash you like a bug.
Hey Jessica,
How is your little colt(!) Hope the half chaps have been useful. I think wearing an approved helmet, on the ground, is a good idea. I read a horrifying story of an accident that happened to an experienced woman while lungeing her horse. She happened to be still wearing her helmet because she had just dismounted from a lesson and hadn’t bothered to her helmet off. A freaky spook out kind of thing happened. The long and short of it was that the helmet saved her life.
I had a beautiful Miata and used to often think that I should wear my helmet when driving it… especially with the top down!
Tons of jumper riders were the GPA helmet! I would too if i did the jumpers, but I show hunters…
OMG, you have a convert here AAJumper. I have never worn an approved helmet but reading that story has convinced me. The older I get and the higher I jump, the more I think about what could happen.
I tried on one of the GPA helmets at Dominion the other day but I looked like a mushroom in it. I think I am going to get one of the ones like Mark Leone wears, but I can’t think of the name of it. It has a brown leather harness…
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RagsRules:
[B]OK I have started a lot of helmet topics on this board and here is my last statement for awhile ont he subject. Atleast those of us (including me) that wear uanpproveds wear a helmet! There are tons of people that don’t even wear a helmet, and even those unapproveds aren’t as safe as a well fitting approved, they are safer than nothing! well ttyl…
Ryan 
[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not necessarily. I have been told the unapproves may actually be unsafer than NO helmet. Something about you head slamming into the plastic of an unapproved verus just the dirt. So more than just non-protective, they may be malignant. This is not proven, but neither is the other way around. I am a junior rider, as most of you know, and I do think the looks of an unapproved are much better. There was one point in which I wanted nothing more than an unapproved helmet. That’s not the case now…its not worth it. I see so many junior riders that are mad about this new rule. Stupidity…wearing an approved helmet isn’t going to kill you, pardon the irony.
[This message has been edited by Paige (edited 11-22-2000).]
Thanks, Lori. I shall celebrate (because I do celebrate Being Alive every year on 11/24) today by not riding. Thanksgiving when I was 13, fell off while jumping and wound up in the hospital with a concussion. The accident five years ago was the day after Thanksgiving. Since I am very superstitious, I don’t want to tempt fate and try to fulfill the Bad Things Comes In Threes theory!
I did not mean to start a fight. However, if you go to any grand prix warm-up ring or most professionals barns, for that matter, you will most definitely see these pros riding in baseball caps or no helmet at all. I am not saying you will not get hurt from not wearing a helmet. The majority of trainers and grand prix riders do not ride in helmets for schooling, and mainly ride in the ring with a helmet only because it is required to have one.
~Emily
Chanda:
The Consumer Products Safety Commission has a surveillance system which keeps statistics on emergency room admissions. Among other things they track how the injury occurs; those categories include “horse-related”.
But what they don’t track is whether a helmet was worn or not. For whatever reason, those of us in English riding have had our accidents studied in some detail, with the result that it has been found that 70 to 75 per cent of the head injuries happened to those without anything described as “protective headgear”, which includes vanity helmets we know cannot protect the head in any meaningful way. To be fair, depending on the study, 15 to 20 per cent of the total horse-related injuries were non-mounted injuries, some of them head injuries.
That fact alone is responsible for a recomendation from the U.S. Pony Clubs’ Safety Committee that helmets must be worn when longeing a horse, and that riders should consider a helmet when working around the horse in general. (The stats on that kind of accident to vets and farriers makes me believe personally that age, size, and experience make no difference!)
There have been two studies reported in the AMEA News by the Justin Sportsmedicine Program, which oversees emergency medical care at rodeos. Their last study showed an increase in head injuries, for whatever reason.
If you’d like a retrospective look at helmet/injury studies, go to
www.law.utexas.edu/dawson/
scroll down to American Medical Equestrian Association, scroll to the newsletters section, and you will find information back several years.
The available state medical examiners information over the years suggests that the vase majority of the deaths were to unhelmeted riders. How many were Western riders ? No way to know, without knowing what percentage of each state’s dead rode in a Western saddle, presumably without helmets.
And yes, there ARE Western discipline riders who routinely ride in helmets. They are, of course, mainly female. Women have a higher percentage of the accidents, which you would expect because of our higher percentage of the total riders.
But men have a higher percentage of the deaths. Logic says we aren’t allowed to draw
a conclusion from this. Do more men than women ride Western ? Do the percentages match ? Interesting question, and one I don’t think anyone can answer.
No other sport with protective gear has been forced to design its products to cater to the unwillingness of its athletes to change out of costumes which were outdated at least a hundred years ago. It’s almost enough to make we learn the words to the song “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof” so I can burst into song to drown out the howls of outrage when I bring this up !
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by largeponylover:
[B]Hi!~
You guys complain about how all the World Cup and Olympic riders don’t ride with all the fluff, but they HAVE GROWN UP WITHOUT THE HELMET. Most grand prix riders are 35+, maybe in their late twenties, but I think they know enough about their sport to be safe enough.
Thanks for letting me rant.
~Emily[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I’m 41 years old and grew up in an era without skiing or cycling helmets. It is now the year 2000. The helmets are available. I wear them. Age is no excuse for stupidity.
It is as simple as that.
Let’s take this a step further shall we? I was riding in cars before there were seatbelts and airbags.
Therefore, following Largeponylover’s logic, I will refuse to wear my seatbelt because it wrinkles my blouse, and I will disengage my airbag b/c I have lived this long without one and I’m used to driving cars with smooth dashboards.
Oh yes, and as soon as I get off this BB I’m going to run downstairs and unhook the carbon monoxide monitor from the furnace, b/c they weren’t around when I was growing up.
. . . and as for that safety guard on the circular saw in the garage. Well, that’s gotta go. I never saw one before I was 25.
While I’m at it, I’m going to disconnect that silly smoke detector in the front hallway - that blinking light has always annoyed me.
[This message has been edited by Inverness (edited 11-26-2000).]
I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and they should be able to make their own choices. If they are passing the rule, it shouldn’t just be for juniors. I hear of more adults falling off than juniors! I’m NOT saying that kids ride better, sure some might, but your age is irrelevant in my opinion. If they’re making kids wear approved, the adults should also have to.
ALSO~When you fall, you might not be killed by hurting your head. What if your heart was crushed by a horse landing on you, but your head was fine. Many accidents are head injuries though… I just think that people should be allowed to choose what they wear on their heads. If they feel they want the extra protection, thats great, but if someone doesn’t think they need it(for whatever reason, there are many), then that is their choice. My point is basically 1) people should be allowed to make their own choices and 2)if they are making a new rule, it shouldn’t just be for juniors, it should affect everyone. How would the adults like it if the AHSA passed a law that said “all adults have to wear regulation boots that stop your foot from being broken if it is stepped on”(JUST AN EXAMPLE). The adults would probably say that it should affect juniors too.
Thats just my opinion, and since I’m only 13, I don’t think it will affect too many ppl…Gotta go
K
[This message has been edited by ChildsHnt (edited 11-27-2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by coreene:
[B]Well I’m sure that will be great relief to your grief-stricken family.
But what if, instead of being killed, you suffered from a debilitating head injury that has them spending the rest of their lives feeding you, bathing you, changing your diapers, etc?[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
They know not to resuscitate me and that i would never want to live like that. . . unplug me or call Dr. Kevorkian.
Remeber this is my opinion and you are entitled to yours.
Here’s a good one for you all: My old eventing trainer was schooling a horse one day. WHen she finished, she realized she was late for an appointment, and the horse’s owner had just arrived, so the owner said, “Go, I’ll groom and put my horse away.” The trainer jumped into her car WITHOUT REMOVING HER HELMET. Two blocks away, a car ran a stop sign and plowed into her. She was thrown into the windshield, despite her seatbelt (small car); She walked away with a mild headache and bruises because she had still had that helmet on.
Perhaps we should never take them off??? (Not an anti helmet statement: Just an acknowledgment that merely walking down the street can be dangerous.)
Heels – then your beautiful hair wouldn’t flow out behind you …
The cherub is wonderful. What a gorgeous boy!
Why would you cut the straps off of a troxel…?
Just caught the Gift Mart issue of COTH which features an ad by Royal Crowne (Paty hat distributors) which boldly proclaims that theirs is the unapproved hat that stays on, and they have the stories to prove it.
It seems that a number of people who value vanity over safety apparently DO NOT ride well enough to stay in the saddle or ride horses that stay on their feet, so they FALL OFF. By luck (and an expensive custom fit) their hats stay on!! I’m sure the people are anxious to tell their stories to justify the huge $$ they spent buying an unapproved hat. Made me wonder if Regal Crowne collects stories of when the hats DIDN’T stay on. But maybe those are lawsuits not stories? 
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RagsRules:
[B]OK I have started a lot of helmet topics on this board and here is my last statement for awhile ont he subject. Atleast those of us (including me) that wear uanpproveds wear a helmet! There are tons of people that don’t even wear a helmet, and even those unapproveds aren’t as safe as a well fitting approved, they are safer than nothing! well ttyl…
Ryan [/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not necessarily. I have been told the unapproves may actually be unsafer than NO helmet. Something about you head slamming into the plastic of an unapproved verus just the dirt. So more than just non-protective, they may be malignant. This is not proven, but neither is the other way around. I am a junior rider, as most of you know, and I do think the looks of an unapproved are much better. There was one point in which I wanted nothing more. That’s not the case now…its not worth it. I see so many junior riders that are mad about this new rule. Stupidity…wearing an approved helmet isn’t going to kill you, pardon the irony.
And for a question…GPA helmet in the hunter ring? Yes? or No?
