A Canadian study suggests that horseback riders are more likely to suffer serious injury than motorcycle riders and that the majority of serious accidents happen to the most experienced riders on well-trained horses.
A research team from the University of Calgary found the most serious injuries involved the heads and chests of riders when they were thrown or bucked off their horses.
"With the impact from coming down that far off a horse and travelling at speeds, there was a lot of chest injuries like rib fractures or collar bone fractures," said Jill Ball, an occupational therapist in the trauma program at Calgary's Foothills Hospital.
The study, published in the American Journal of Surgery, said horseback riders were hospitalized with injuries 3½ times more often than those who were hurt riding motorcycles.
Horse-riding injuries requiring hospitalization occurred at a rate of 0.49 per 1,000 hours riding, while the rate for motorcycle riding was 0.14 per 1,000 hours, the research showed.
The research team reviewed the charts of almost 8,000 trauma patients treated at the Foothills between 1995 and 2005. It found 151 people were severely injured while horseback riding, with almost half of those requiring surgery.
Those riders had an average of 27 years experience at the time of their injury.
As well, the study found most accidents happened in "wide open spaces" on dry, flat land on sunny summer afternoons.
"Previous studies assumed that major accidents on horseback were caused by rookie riders on untrained horses or bad weather ? something we now know is simply not true," said Dr. Rob Mullroy in a news release.
The team behind the study recommends riders wear protective vests and helmets.
"Deaths in our study were completely related to head injury, so the use of helmets in the study was low. The number of riders wearing helmets remains low," Mullroy said, noting most accidents were preventable but only nine per cent of injured riders were wearing helmets.