[RC] Helmets - Carolyn Burgess
<<<It probably isn't the "getting dumped" that results in the accidents
that can kill or maim, its the crashes. >>>
I have tried to stay out of this discussion, because I think it is silly to
debate wearing safety equipment. I do disagree with the statement above,
and I have two examples that are not crashes, but getting dumped. I think
you should wear as much as you need to feel comfortable. I personally wear
a helmet, except in the western show ring, where I would like to but will be
penalized if I do. I also got dumped at a gallop and considered body armor
for a while, but never did. I wear gloves, boots, half chaps and chaps,
where appropriate. I wear long sleeves if in heavy brush.
For those of you who are against wearing helmets for safety reasons, I'd
like to hear about the person killed or severely injured because they had a
helmet on. You don't give examples because it doesn't happen. I wear a
helmet to protect my head. I am not complacent when riding because of it.
Do I think it will protect me from everything, no. Does it make me not
worry about my brain, no, but it allows me when I am in a difficult,
potential head injuring situation, to figure out how to get out of the
situation, not to be focused on my brain.
I two examples of helmet protection that I witnessed myself. The first one
was a rider who never wore a helmet before this time. She was a bad rider,
riding a crazy Arab. A friend had given her a beautiful Troxel velvet
helmet for her birthday (ASTM approved) and she put it on. She mounted the
horse, the horse reared over backwards and dropped her onto the tines of a
tractor. Her head (with helmet) smacked the blades and she split the helmet
open. She got up, an cursed that her friend would be furious that she
damaged the helmet. I told her that her friend would probably be happy to
spend another $70 to be able to get her another helmet. This is the kind of
injury that helmets can protect you from.
The next injury that I have involvement with almost killed the person. She
was wearing an ASTM approved helmet, she was an experienced rider. She was
riding one of my horses for me, one who had been difficult in the past, but
had been retrained, but could still buck from time to time. No one saw the
accident, but from reconstruction of the accident, it appears that she
either fell off, or the horse did a small spook. The only reason that this
girl was almost killed was because of what she fell on. She came of and
flipped over in the process and smacked the back of her head, below the
helmet (her brain stem area) on a cement post, and then landed on a concrete
pad and broke her hip. The brain stem is one area that is exposed in a
helmet. Most of them do not come down far enough to give you protection.
Actually, most of us who ride with helmets would not tolerate those that do
cover the brain stem because they would restrict our movement too much.
This accident happened more than a year ago. After 6 weeks in the hospital
and several months in rehab, this girl is back riding and working on her
balance. The only residual she has is some short term memory loss, which
should recover.
I'm sure that there are more out there that have stories like this, or the
ones where your were fine and had to go replace your busted helmet (I've
replaced 2 of mine from spills, one was a crash at a gallop - a horse that
tripped). I'd like to here from those of you that are saying that helmets
are dangerous and specifics as to why they are dangerous.
Carolyn Burgess
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
|
