Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I wear both. Doesn't matter how hot it is either (and I'm in FL). I can count on one hand the # of times I've ridden without my vest since breaking ribs in 2004. One incident was behind my vest?wearing: BIG spinning spook. I broke one right side?rib on impact and 3?left ribs?in 2 places each when?I?failed to let?go?of the reins, causing my horse to spin around and step back on my left chest, using it as a springboard.?You can bet I let go of the reins then! ?I can only?think of 2 times I've ridden without a vest since my recovery from the rib injuries--once I hauled out to local trails in a friend's rig and forgot it; the other time was the first loop of a ride when I couldn't get the silly zipper to work and I ran out of time. I got the zipper to work for the 2nd loop. I've come off a couple of times and landed in positions that I feel the vest helped. Unfortunately, most of my falls result in me landing on my bottom or hip area; probably a gravity thing for me! I can only think of 2 times in 34 years of riding when my head hit the ground but it was well after the rest of my body hit. I've always been a helmet wearer, even back when the helmets we had were the useless velvet covered ones.

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The way I figure it, there are so many ways to get hurt around horses and in order for me to continue to hang out with 900# animals, I have to do whatever I can to prevent damage to myself. Protective equipment may not totally save you but at least you have a chance of having a better outcome. Unfortunately, there will always be instances that nothing will help or your protective gear actually worsens the situation but I think it's like seat belts--far more are saved by wearing them than die from wearing them. And the older I get, the more risk-adverse I become.

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Debbie

On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 1:28 PM, k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Susan said:

> When it comes to my health I will do everything possible to
>?protect myself. I wear a helmet mountain bike riding and
>?horseback riding.?
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I am curious to know.? How many of the people here who have said that they would never get on a horse without a helmet on, also wear a protective vest?
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I hardly ever see people with them on at endurance rides.? So there aren't very many people riding endurance who "do everything prossible" to protect themselves.
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Me?? I consider a protective vest to be a far more important and effective piece of safety equipment than a helmet with far fewer downsides to it.
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And I consider a cowboy hat to be a more effective piece of "protective head gear' than a helmet, as the cowboy hat protects you from the sun...all the time (except at night), while a helmet only protects you if you hit your head, which face it, compared to exposure to the sun, hardly ever happens.
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kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)
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P.S. My opinion about this may be skewed as the riding injury that almost killed me (a fractured liver) could pretty easily have been prevented if I had been wearing a protective vest; while, on the other hand, in the same accident, the neurosurgeon who attended me told me (and winced while he was saying it) that had I been wearing a helmet at the time, I would now probably be either dead or a para/quadrapalegic, instead of "getting away with" a mild concussion.

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