Do you wear a helmet every time you ride?

[Foxhound lady]

I always wore a helmet when I rode. My brain is the most important thing to me functioning so it is protected. I went ot one barn where if you were under 18 you wear a helmet, jumping wear a helmet, trail riding wear a helmet.

The endurance rider down the road always wore a helmet and she was one of the top endurance back in the '90's

I believe all minors should wear helmets period.

As for adults its your decision, but listen carefully helmets save lives just like seat belts. Horses are animals and do stupid things even when they are dead broke and 30 yrs old.

Quite a few bull riders wear helmets and I just want to say kudos to them

 

[PortageGirl]

I didn't way back when, because it wasn't a consideration... (yes I'm old) but I sure would now. I am alive today because I had a bicycle helmet on in a wreck, and I see no difference between a bicycle, a motorcycle, and a horse... none have anything to stop my head from splatting on the ground.

Sure other things can get broken, including my neck or even still my head if things are bad enough. Someone mentioned in an earlier post about how there's nothing much in a helmet, but it's the air space and the cell-foam that absorbes the shock, that gives you the extra cushion... it's not about it being bullet proof, it's about that extra insular space that protects your brain...

Oh, BTW, I don't call them helmets, I call them brain-buckets.

Lots of people say things like, "We didn't have seatbelts way back when, and I'm alive to talk about it aren't I?" ...thing is, how many other people aren't alive? You can't prove a negative, so that so called argument just doesn't fly.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I grew up riding dressage and jumping and then riding hunt seat and dressage on the Arab circuit as a teenager. After graduation, I got a job at a ranch and wore my helmet once--got laughed at by the owners. Well, I was 19 and more self-conscious than now so I stopped wearing it. Took a few spills, no big deal, despite the fact that most of my riding time was spent galloping around hay fields bareback.

After I got pregnant, I began to realize that people were depending on me so I got one. It wasn't until I left the ranch and began boarding at a Tennessee Walker barn that I began wearing it. All of us who ride out there wear helmets on a regular basis, which is helpful if everyone's doing it.

I do endurance and only one or two riders per weekend ride helmetless. I always joke that in distance riding, the helmets aren't for falling off, it's for branches whacking your head when your horse is trotting 12mph.

 

[babalubird]

I wear my helmet riding my horse almost every time, a few times I realized I left it at home. It absolutely saved my life on one unexpected accident. I still suffered a concussion, went to hospital but I hate to think what it would have resulted if I had not. My very sweet arab, threatened by another horse, threw me 20 feet straight up in the air. The helmet took the brunt of the hit on the head. There was a deep dent on the helmet. It would have been my skull without the helmet.

Many other times I've gotten hit hard in the head with a tree branch but the helmet kept it from being any more than an annoyance.

Once I fell backwards trying to mount from a mounting block. I hit my head and bent my neck enough to really hurt for hours. Luckily no concussion thanks to the helmet whereas I know I would have without it.

My husband's horse lately has thrown him a number of times. The helmet has kept him in one piece.

A few times we've wound up trailering and realized I didn't have my helmet. I find I'm a lot more timid rider when I realize I don't have it with me, whereas I'm bolder and braver when I know I'm prepared.

Connie

 

[Wildsky]

Like everything in our lives, we should be given the pro's and con's and be allowed to make our own decisions if we're old enough to do so.

Making things mandatory is just plain wrong in my humble opinion.


(yes, as my post said on page 1, I always wear a helmet, because I do understand the pro's and cons' as they pertain to me personally, and if and when my kids ride, they do too)

 

[fowler_chick]

if your on one of my horses and under 18 year old you must wear a ridding hlemet

 

[unionwirewoman]

Do I wear one when I ride....NO .
Did I wear one when I rode bulls....NO .
Do I ever plan on wearing one or teaching my SD or niece to ...NO .

I was taught from an early age that things happen for a reason...we may not like it , but it'll happen no matter how many precautions or bubble wrap we put around us . I'm a firm believer that life takes it's toll . Are there ways to try to prevent things...YES . But I can't move in bubble wrap , and neither can anyone else . People die , they get hurt , life happens . Did I want to take care of my mom for a year after her accident...yes and no . I do believe it made her and I stronger people . No one wants to deal with death or injuries...but it is part of life . No one lives forever....it would be pretty crowded if we did . Good on those of you who feel the need to wear them....I might make fun of it , but if you feel the need to do it , then it's your choice . That's what makes us human...we're all individuals with different opinions . Just keep in mind that most people with head injuries are not from horse accidents , they're from knocking your head on the floor , table , car window etc . I don't know about you , but I'm not about to walk around my whole life with a protective suit . JMHO

 

[Terri]

of course i wear one, horse, bike, motorcycle, duh.

 

[Akane]

Course not. Half the time growing up I rode with no saddle either. About 1/10th the time I rode with no saddle, no bridle, in a pair of shorts, and loose tennis shoes. I fell off my pony about weekly from the time I was 8 because I was wandering about on her with no saddle and she was an ornery thing. I still occasionally hop on a horse from the fence with no tack in my jeans and tennis shoes. Sometimes whoever I'm on decides to take a run around the pasture. Frequently if the horses aren't in the front pasture I go out with a halter and rope or bridle of one of the herd leaders and ride them all in. I can't remember the last time I fell off but I can tell you last spring was the most recent time I pull every muscle up the inside of my leg trying to stay on a bucking horse bareback.

Aside from one exception my worst horse injury was a few sprained ankles and a dislocated toe from being stepped on while leading a mare that got chased by another horse. No comparison to the number of accidents I had on my bike where I shredded my forearm once. When I got home my mom said "now when you get a car remember that turning quickly on to gravel like that has even worse consequences". I've never lost control of a vehicle on gravel and know just how to get onto gravel from a 55mph paved highway with a semi on my bumper. Even better the night I went walking out to the truck to get my homework and fell on the black ice. Fall off horses all my life frequently at full gallops and I get a sprained ankle that I'm running around on 3 days later. Fall on the ice and I shatter the bone so I can't get out of bed for 3weeks. I really don't find worrying about the risk of something like falling off a horse worth it when I can get badly injured walking across the driveway. Some weeks I spent more time on a horse than on the ground so I'd have to live in my helmet and I feel just as likely to get injured walking around or riding in a car as on a horse. I'm not going to put on pads and helmet to go walk outside every day in winter.

I do tend to grab a helmet if there is a high risk of going off like getting on a young horse for the first time or running a new barrel horse for the first time but you can only live life so paranoid. I wouldn't trade my life for an injury free childhood. Where is the fun in that. Mountain bikes are meant to be tested and the fact 4wheelers can't go up plywood ramps without reinforcement was a valuable learning experience. Also important to know that should a 4wheeler or mountain bike come to a dead stop handlebars=broken ribs=pain. I told both my younger sisters that and only one repeated my mistake by accident. Just like my mom could tell me what happens when you only use your front brake while going down hill from when she was a kid and I always made sure to remember which bicycle brake was the back one.

Later on in life all those falls off horses, bikes, etc... have saved my life a few times and made me excel at a martial art that involves throws.

Now that 1 exception. I was on a horse I shouldn't have been on when I was a teenager. That was the main mistake not the lack of helmet. Someone should not have left me home alone with a new untested horse. He was mostly pleasure trained but I liked gaming events so I was trying to see how he'd run. He wouldn't. I got a riding crop not intending to touch him at all. He didn't care about it on the ground. I got on him, cantered a few laps with no problem, told him to move out, and then flashed the crop several inches from his skin. He took off for the gate ignoring my seat, legs, or pull on the reins and was in a full run which he turned out to be a fairly fast horse so maybe 30-35mph. I braced in the stirrups which lightened my seat a little and reached forward with my left hand to grab one rein hard and turn him. He slammed on the brakes hard enough to fracture his own hock. I found out years later he was trained to stop if his rider came off so he stopped the instant pressure left his back and bounced with all 4 legs stiff. I was not in a position for that. I got launched. The pommel of my western saddle caught both legs just above the knee at that 30-35mph speed forcing my right thigh bone out of joint, pivoting my right hip back, and rotating my body. My left hand caught in his mane tucking it in against my ribs so it was useless. I went up over 10' high so I was over his ears and came down head first. Again left shoulder forward so my right forearm can't reach and left arm tucked in with no momentum to roll. If I didn't have the reflexes I did from all those years going off then no helmet would have saved me. That was a guranteed broken neck and some part of me knew that although the only conscious thought I had while looking down at the ground was "This is going to hurt." Then without thinking about it I straightened my right arm so it could reach across my body taking the initial impact up my wrist which shifted the bones backward but bought me time to slide my knees in under me jamming the joint of the right one back into place. Again taking some injury bought me time to bring my left shoulder up. In the end my head barely glanced the ground and at an angle instead of direct on like it started. Actually if I'd been wearing a helmet with a visor it would have impacted first and despite the fact they come off probably put some force on my neck. The result of my horrible fall was a wrist that hurt every day for 5years despite physical therapy until I started martial arts training and a knee with cartilage damage that just started bothering me last year at 23. Wearing a helmet on an unknown horse like that when asking for speed is one of those times I've learned is definitely worth it but it would not have made a difference in this fall. I'd have been dead if I hadn't learned to react automatically in those situations. All those previous sprained ankles and bruises going off my pony are probably why I'm alive and not paralyzed today.

 

[gaited horse]

Every time I ride my horses other then the time I ride barback and bridleless but thats only in her pen on soft ground.