I haven’t been paying attention for a few years, but selfishly am interested in this research, given a recent fall. Is it still happening? Did it not get funded? If so I can’t believe it - there is so much wealth in the amateur show community. We should I get this done (at whatever levels people can give - $5 to 5,000 to infinity)!
I agree but until you or anyone can persuade people to part with their money, it won’t happen. Just because the amateur community is rich does not mean they are generous about funding things they think are unnecessary. Safety isn’t a huge issue for rich folks, they can buy safety. Or, at least, they think they can. Of our big team members, I think only Laura Kraut is wearing a vest, not McLain, Lillie, Karl, Kent, Aaron, none of them. It has to start from there or from USEF itself and that doesn’t seem to be happening.
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The problems started with not having a standard by which to measure the effectiveness of the vests to be tested. So money was needed to develop those standards. The money being raised for the vest testing couldn’t go to the standards research, so the financing is at a loss at the moment.
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But there are standards:
"• There are three international equestrian safety standards for foam-based body protectors: CE EN 13158, ASTM F1937 and ASTM F2681.
• There is one specification for air-inflatable equestrian body protectors: Satra M38."
The hard shell or foam vests have been tested with regards to equestrian safety and carry ASTM testing certification. The air vests do not have ASTM testing and the tests they have undergone have not been accepted as such for the VT lab to conduct their research.
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Isn’t there testing being done on the air vests in one of the European countries, or some organization over there? I thought I read something about that not too long ago.
“Ther are no US based standards for air vests”
is NOT the same as
“not having a standard by which to measure the effectiveness of the vests to be tested”,
which oresumably includes both air and “solid” vests.
I have been on the fence about buying an air vest, due to the lack of any supporting research. I have a very nice, comfortable body protector that I wear for every ride. But the anecdotal feeback on the airvests is very strong. Every single person that I know that wears one (and all of the social media first person accounts) swear that they have had falls in which they swear they would have been injured, had they not been wearing an air vest.
I’m on the struggle bus about whether or not to buy one. 
As a member of ASTM/ISO (medical surgical devices and medical 3D printing) I can say that developing standards for something like a safety vest is very complex. Multiple interconnected questions have to be answered and in most cases the medical outcomes have to be tracked retrospectively. That, by itself is very hard to do and to get IRB approved, given the data needed.
Where does one start in developing a standard?
First, what outcome do you want to measure? What constitutes a benefit from wearing a vest? Is it as simple as reduced broken ribs (See BETA3-2018 standard)? Or reduced clavicle fracture? Reduced hemothorax/pneumothorax? No internal bleeding? Reduced axial spine compression?
That is not an inclusive list, but each has different mechanics and outcomes. One can rip apart internal organs without ever breaking a bone. One can cause spine compression fractures without even falling off a horse.
Second, as alluded, the injury to be prevented must be mechanically understood and characterized in order to know how to test.
Now, most medical standards are developed through patient records AFTER the product is on markets, funded by the device manufacturers. This is an epidemiological method that can reduced costs but risks that what is found is that all of the anecdotal stories are false and true effectiveness is not there. Then new standards are developed to account for failures in the original standard. An example is modular versus monolithic hip stems for hip replacement.
This is not an easy or cheap task.
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Becoming a parent is what pushed me to purchasing one.
