For those of you who where air vests under your show coats. Which one do you have and what do you like and dislike about your particular vest?
I wear a hard shell Tipperary Eventing Vest. Mine is canary yellow and correct attire under my hunt coat (fox hunting). I had my jackets made bigger to accommodate the vest. I LOVE how warm it is in the winter!!! Battle Creek goes out all winter long. Don’t like that it adds 10 pounds (visually) in every photo and video …
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Do many people wear an air vest under their jackets? I would think it would be rough on the jacket if the air vest inflated underneath it.
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Not to mention - if the zipper didn’t give or something, it would be hard on the body. If the inflation can’t go out, it will go in. Hello broken ribs!
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They make jackets specially designed for use over your air vest. Horse Pilot, for example, has magnetic “snaps” so when your vest inflates, the jacket just opens.
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Some jackets are meant to accommodate a vest underneath and are designed to expand should the vest go off.
I agree you don’t want to be shoving a vest under just any jacket though, it has to be designed for it.
ETA Rumor and I posted at the same time 
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@Rumorhasit93 and @fivestrideline I understand they make coats suited for the purpose, but IMO that’s not how the OP read. It read as if he/she is putting “an” air vest under “a” showcoat. Not a system designed for that purpose.
It’s possible that I read it wrong though!
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Yes, I read the OP the same way. I know there are jackets designed to be used with vests.
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Maybe I was confused!
I would like to hear about the compatible jackets though - if I’m buying an airvest I want it to go with my jacket, and I hate the look of black air vest over colored coat . Call me vain but it really ruins the whole look.
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I’m a little surprised nobody has thought of making the air vests in different colors to go with jackets. Maybe not every color under the sun, but at least a navy option or something.
I know I’ve seen a couple of riders wearing red vests over their red coats, but maybe those are special orders.
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Or a cover or something, in lots of colors!
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I used to wear a vest under a specially-designed coat for the blow up vests. I wore the Dada coats. Unfortunately they are quite short and quite hot with the vest under. You can see below how it looked as far as bulk. I’m super tall and long-torsoed so the length is more of a me problem.
They do! Dada makes a navy cover, so I started to wear that over the vest and then wear a navy showshirt and from far away, it looked ok? Still not long enough and the zipper is quite visible. But much less hot.
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No shade for those that prefer the vest under the jacket, but personally I think they look better over the jacket. Also, you don’t have to be locked into wearing a specific jacket.
Vests are common enough now that I think the look of a vest over a show coat is perfectly normal and polished looking. I think that vests look fine even over jackets that are not plain black.
The air vests are clearly extremely popular in the h/j world, but I would add a note of caution. There is excellent data that hard shell vests are protective, but that is not the case for air vests. If you are wearing a vest for safety reasons instead of fashion, I would recommend taking that into account.
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They have… I feel like one of the Nations Cups teams had it… or someone in Miami had one at Longines. Definitely saw an orange or red one that matched their coat and it was only noticeable when rider made a big move and jacket/vest moved in each a slightly different fashion.
Ehhh… I somewhat dispute this as there has been significant data and analytics on impact falls from motorcycles with these same or similar air vests. I believe there’s studies that are being created and investigated to do additional equestrian driven data in the next year.
Much like in riding, there are factors in a motorcycle accident where a vest won’t save you. If you hit a tree while going 75mph on a bike… you will die. That’s just a fact. The impact to your head and neck alone from hitting the tree or being ejected onto the roadway will make it very hard for you to survive.
Similar to having a 1200lb animal fall on you or landing on your head in such a way that your head gets bent awkwardly backwards or forwards with too much force. These are also factors where a vest cannot save you. BUT… and this is a big but…for your butt, some might say… it is a start and if it’s a few broken or bruised ribs vs a crushed back bone, I think it’s a well-invested item.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
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Please link the studies and data because as far as I was aware there was only one study done and it didn’t show air vests to be any safer but rather they caused more damage. The study was also done in a manner that wasn’t really relative to how one falls off or with a horse.
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Here you go:
In both studies, it was shown that at lower speeds, impact injuries could be lessened based on usage of the vest vs riding without one. The first study highlights that it was significant in speeds lower than 25mph/40kmph, which one would hope that you’re not traveling that fast on horseback or jumping a large oxer going that fast.
If you don’t want to use one, that’s fine, but it’s useful for others to consider. It’s not caused more damage to the many folks that I’ve watched them pop off on this winter and last year.
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Not sure why anyone would wear a vest for fashion. But weirder things have happened, or even been deemed fashionable, so who knows.
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I find myself commenting my unsolicited personal experience on every post regarding air vests that I come across.
TL;DR I broke my back while wearing one and firmly believe if I hadn’t had it on, the outcome would’ve been SO much worse. Break was very minor (no surgery) and I had neck pain for exactly 1 day.
I fell directly on my back onto hard gravel from a bronc like buck session.
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A- on a motorcycle you are MUCH closer to the ground than on a horse, even on the flat, and much closer than when going over a jump. The distance you fall has as much, if not more, affect on the force of the fall than the speed you are travelling. (I have (see my avatar), on the racetrack, dropped a motorcycle going 80+ mph with only my leathers and a solid back protector (plus helmet, gloves, boots). I had no injuries at all, though my leathers had a bad case of road rash.)
B - You may not go that fast show jumping, but Advanced level eventers need to AVERAGE 570 mpm on cross country. Because the terrain will mandate some slower sections, you can be quite sure that the riders are going over 25 mph (670 mpm) on part of the course.
In fact, a few years ago they instrumented a number of Prelim riders (the rules say 520 mph on cross country) and almost all of them were faster than 800mpm (30 mph) on parts of the course. ( @RAyers knows more about that study - AND more about the physics of airvests - than I do.)
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