LOL this is why we have baseball caps. 
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I witnessed this accident. It is the most serious horse-related accident I have personally seen and the victim stopped breathing twice while we were waiting for the paramedics. It’s a miracle she survived at all. I cannot even describe how awful it was just for those of us at the barn that day, let alone her.
I don’t always wear a helmet on the ground myself, but it is the rule for 4H and it’s the rule for the lesson barn where my daughter rode for many years. If you are planning on getting on the horse anyway, it’s not that much of an imposition to do so to start. I don’t think it’s overkill.
If you’re handling a horse and you’re not planning to ride, it’s far more of an imposition. Balance in all things.
But, when it’s the rule of the facility or organization, I respect it and am happy to do so.
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I am at home so I only have my own rules.
The helmets nowadays are nothing like the clunkers we used to have to wear. To me they feel no different to a baseball cap.
I wear my helmet for lunging and riding. If I am working 3 horses I put it on for the first horse and take it off after the last horse.
it is no biggie and Queensland in Australia is quite hot with humidity.
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I believe the US Pony Club requires the kids to wear helmets all the time around horses. and I agree that today’s helmets are very light - coming from a motorcycle rider!
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I wear a helmet on the ground.
I pretty much put it on when I get out of the car at the barn. In this weather my head is going to be sweaty and disgusting within 3 minutes anyways so I may as well just jump-start that process, and in the winter it is a welcome warmth!
More than once I have seen someone either mount or be about to mount and then realize (or be reminded) they aren’t wearing their helmet, so I think it is good to put the helmet earlier in the process, making it harder to forget.
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so why not require protection vests also, my kids worn them when riding in addition to helmets
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No, they haven’t gone that far yet. USPC recommends that kids wear helmets when handling horses from the ground. They only require them while riding, longeing, or doing soundness jogs at rallies.
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Horses do dangerous things, even the most saintly ones. The Little Grey Princess could be a therapy horse, she’s normally so sweet and sane, but when she was coming off of four months of stall rest, she was a wild child and out of her g-d mind. Multiple times she forgot her manners and stood up, dragged her handlers, broke cross-ties, launched the trainer, etc. We all wore a helmet working around her until she “normalized” - even getting her to and from her little turnout paddock.
At a lot of lessons barns, helmets are required at all times usually for liability reasons. I find my peripheral vision is not the best in helmets - can’t see things coming from above - and if i’m working around a horse’s legs, I’d like to have a sense of what’s going on above me. Situational awareness has saved me from injury around horses more times than I can count.
SAME! And she used to tell me between drags, “Smoking is a filthy habit. Never start.”
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yes insurance companies have realized just how many freak accidents happen around horses…plus I think it also instills a general vibe of being safety conscious ie people may be more likely to put that pitchfork back exactly where it is supposed to be stored or double check a latch. I do try to wear my helmet the majority of the time I am at the barn and always did when I had to enforce the rule with students…honestly walking in the door and right to the helmets kind of ensured they A) remembered and B) actually took a moment or two to select one that fit properly rather than rush in and grab the first one they could reach.
A friend, come later in life to being a pro (dressage), was attending some instructor certification clinics. They required helmet at all times, even when lungeing. She’d never bothered with that, but…whatever. They gave her a horse to lunge and she did everything correctly, i.e., she wasn’t sloppy with the line or inattentive or anything like that, but the horse did come in on her slightly and did kick out, and while it didn’t come hear connecting, she said it made it clear to her that, yup, she was going to wear a helmet when lungeing from then on! FWIW, she used to NEVER wear a helmet at all except at shows, but I just about had a stroke one day when I saw her get on a strange horse she was trying out for a student. She wasn’t wearing a helmet, and was going to take this strange horse for a trail ride which involved riding down a two lane road before you got to the trails. I just said something to her about, “you’ve got kids, think about them and your husband, you don’t know this horse, etc.” and to my amazement and gratification, she went back and got her helmet, and she’s been wearing once ever since when riding, and now, due to that clinic, when lungeing and doing ground work.
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Last year, I gave myself a concussion while cleaning up the garage. I considered wearing a helmet on future garage-cleaning endeavors, but ultimately decided that garage-cleaning is just too hazardous for me. :lol:
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When I am introducing beginners of any age to horses, and especially if the beginner is a child, I ask for helmets and boots when around horses and grooming. Munchkins don’t have great coordination and beginners haven’t learned to read horse body language. It’s helpful both for the kid who gets bumped into the wall when the horse puts his foot down quickly, and the kid who goes rump over teakettle tripping on the concrete aisle.
I don’t generally do this myself around my own horse but certainly do with horses I don’t know. Or which haven’t been ridden in a week and look like kites waiting to fly.
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One of my teenaged students got a concussion when leading a horse- she started to lead the horse to the wrong stall out of habit, and as she corrected what she was doing the horse stopped short and whacked her in the head. Her doc told her the worst concussion he’d had at his practice was someone who HIT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD WITH THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR.
I don’t require my students to wear helmets when unmounted. I see why someone would want to, but it’s definitely not a common practice among lessons barns.
So yesterday I was the poster child for why some people wear helmets even on the ground around horses.
It was pretty hot in our area yesterday. We had fans going on each stall and a bigger fan in the aisle. The entrance to the stalls are metal gates and tend to be noisy to open. I went into one of the horses stalls to remove his fly sheet. He was facing away from me with his head out the window. The stall gate is offset from the window so I was not coming in directly behind him. I walked up next to him and was standing at his rib cage. When I touched his surcingle to unhook it he cow kicked me in the left thigh. I literally was thrown across the stall, hit the stall wall and slid to the ground. By the time I realized I had been kicked I was on the ground.
I hit my head pretty good on the wall. Even though I was next to the horse I don’t think he heard me come in over the noise of the fans. I doubt he even realized I was a person. I just startled him and he reacted. This horse has been in the barn for 8 months. I handle him at least 3 times a week. He has lovely ground manners and just is delightful to be around. I probably should have said Hey Dobbin when I came in but I am used to the gates making enough noise that they all know when we come in. I just didn’t take into acount the extra noise of the fans obscuring the noise of the gate adn gate latch. He had just come in from the field so wasn’t sleeping or anything.
I have a bit of a goose egg on my head, a lovely thigh bruise and a few other assorted bruises this morning. I got lucky in more ways that one.
I have been working around horses for 40 years so I am not exactly a newbie. Sometimes we are reminded how strong and fast horses really are.
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It is amazing how later in life we come to the realization that sometimes what we did when young thinking we are infallible we do some stuff that isn’t the brightest. I only started really doing it when I round penned young horses. Now I do it all the time. I just don’t want to risk it.
Sorry for late reply. I get busy and not the best about checking COTH.
I keep one in the car for exactly that purpose when I leave the barn
I always wear my helmet when going into the field to catch my horse. There are a few more aggressive horses in his field and I don’t know then very well. So wearing a helmet just helps me feel more confident being out there!
I agree with the poster who said she generally puts helmet and boots on prior to tacking up. And FWIW I absolutely wear one every time I work with my giant 2 month old baby. She isn’t great at picking up her feet yet and has actually almost fallen over. Getting crushed to death by a fat foal isn’t how I want my obit to read.
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I put my helmet on before I grab the first horse and take it off after I put away the last ride of the day. To be honest, it’s because I’m incredibly lazy and don’t want to keep taking it on and off and redoing the hair etc etc. :lol: However, it’s definitely saved my melon when things get hairy on the ground in the in unexpectedly dangerous grooming/lunging/theatrics/turnout situations.
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Along with helmets while handling horses, I would make it mandatory to wear boots or closed toe shoes around the horses. I can’t believe the number of people I see wearing flip flops or sandals while handling a horse. It makes me cringe.
