Re: Helmets

["superpat" <superpat@gateway.net>]

kat writes:
> Let me see if I can explain it to you.  You say that you don't
> care what the chances are, if you could suffer a serious head
> injury you would wear a helmet.  But unless you wear your helmet
> in the shower--this is just plain false. People have been known
> to slip and fall in the shower and sustain serious head injuries.

My shower floor has never "spooked" from under my feet. It has never done a
sommersault and thrown me to the floor.
If that had been the case, or if that were even a probability, Koheler would
be selling and the public buying "shower helmets"


> Because, in the situation of wearing helmets (for any activity),
> the chances of sustaining a serious head injury are
> unquantifiable, people must make "judgements under uncertainty."
                                      and
people systematically overestimate the chances of something
> happening if they have just recently seen it happen or heard
> about it happenning.

 I fail to understand how knowing the probability of serious injury in the
event of a fall or blow to the head while not wearing a helmet is "over
estimating the chances........
Having fallen many times in my relatively short riding career, and having
hit my head *hard* more than once, and having found a dent in my helmet
after having my horse's hoof graze it, I would happily accept the charge of
over estimating my chances of injury.

> Then consider how many thousands of people spend thousands of
> hours on the ground around horses and compare that against the
> number of serious head injuries incurred during those
> activities, and you will get a better idea of the chances of a
> serious head injury while being around horses.  Then you will
> understand that even horse people who do wear helmets everytime
> they get on a horse but not every time they are around a horse
> also do not "wear a helmet because they don't want to take even
> the slightest chance that they could suffer a serious head
> injury."

Actually, kat, I have read admonishments of very respected horse trainers to
always wear a helmet even when ground training horses. As I gain in my
experience with horses, I do not take these admonishments lightly and in
fact do often wear my helmet when on the ground.
>
> People who wear a helmet while on a horse but not around a horse
> (probably most of the preachers here who sanctimoniously prate
> about not wanting to take the slightest risk) also evaluate
> their perceived risks and decide that the risks aren't high
> enough to warrent the cost.

See above. I happily also accept your title of "sanctimonious preacher".
Call it whatever you wish, if I can encourage people to protect themselves
from serious consequenses of head injury, then my "preaching" is worth it.
>
> Now, if wearing helmets were "free" (i.e. there were no cons)
> then we would all wear helmets all of the time.  Since wearing
> helmets isn't free

Depends on what your head is worth to you....


> And it is quite clear that riders and helmet manufacturers are
> very aware that wearing a helmet while riding is not "free"

aye yi yi,
Simple logic would tell one that we will always strive to find increased
comfort and dependability, and visual appeal. And the manufacturers
.....yada yada, yada

> You want to evaluate those risks differently, go right ahead--
> but don't be naive enough to believe that the only cost there is
> associated with wearing a helmet is that you don't "get to feel
> the wind in your hair."  It may be something that you consider
> to be the only relevant cost (personally, I think that one,
> while true, is TOTALLY irrelevant).

Thank goodness....something upon which we definitely agree

> Many people claim to "not even notice" the helmet--until they,
> of course, get to the stage where they notice that it isn't
> there and "feel naked." (If you can notice that it ISN'T there,
> then you gotta know that it being there is different than it not
> being there--mostly because you can feel its weight).

Surprisingly, not the case. After wearing the helmet for only a couple of
minutes, at least for me, I do forget that it is there.
And because for some of us it seems so light, it is very easy to not realize
that it is not on the head but in the trailer. That is why, for me, wearing
a helmet has become a habit. The sudden realization that the helmet is not
on the head is, in my opinion, an intellectual one, conditioined by the
habit of never riding without it.  I have seldom ridden more than a few
minutes when I realize that something very important is missing.

>And nobody likes to have to re-evaluate the religious convictions.<

If feeling strongly about an issue is having a "religeous conviction", OK,
you can pin that one on me, too.
I will, however be willing to re-evaluate my position as soon as someone
shows me that I can slam my unprotected head against a rock and get up,
brush myself off and continue on my way with not much more than a few stars
in front of my eyes for a few seconds. ( that did happen at a ride last
year. Several of us were at a water trough, chatting and enjoying a break in
the ride when someone's horse tried to step over the trough and when his
rider pulled him back, his foot tipped the trough into my horse whose head
was down drinking. The reins were "on the buckle" and when my mare realized
that a monster was about to eat her, she wheeled in a nano-second and dumped
me. I saw the watermellon sized rock as I floated in slow motion to the
ground. Immediately afterward, a rider who witnessed it said she heard a
"crack" when my head hit the rock. I was stunned and was slow getting up and
had a headache for the next half hour.) Now it is my religeous convictioin
that had I not worn my helmet, that particular endurance ride would have had
a stunned populace as the news of the terrible accident reached camp. It is
my religeous conviction that I would not be sitting here in a discussion
with you about the "costs" of wearing head protection.

> I have far greater respect for people who are aware of the
> other, very real, costs associated with wearing a helmet and
> have decided to take their chances with wearing a helmet because
> they think the benefits outweigh the risks than I do for those
> people who blindly assume that there are no risks.

I do not wear my helmet to earn your respect. I do truly hope that you never
have to experience my type of fall without a helmet.

Pat Super