Body Protectors! When do you wear them?

[equestrian7474]

Just out of curiosity, when do you all wear body protectors? Would you wear them in the school, hacking? Or do you wear them at all?

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I have a hit air which I wear every time I ride. I use a body protector and air jacket for xc.

 

[Cocorules]

Whenever I ride. We only ride out and don't have access to a school. I put it on just like the rest of my gear.

I started riding long before body protectors became available at first it felt odd to use one, but now I don't think about it.

 

[Annagain]

I wear an air jacket every time I ride. I put my body protector on underneath when I'm jumping.

 

[AandK]

I only wear mine for XC.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

After decades of hating them, I now wear a race safe almost every ride-even schooling

 

[Surbie]

Body protector every time I am hacking, jumping or on a fun ride. I had a nasty accident 8 months ago that I am still recovering from. The BP saved me from adding more injuries to the list.

 

[countryal]

I wear mine the majority of the time. Always for my 6yo, but sometimes don't on the 16yo

 

[magicmoments]

I use it for hacking, and jumping, not for flat work.

 

[humblepie]

Hacking out and quite often schooling at home as well. Never when off site for a lesson or show. Go figure as they say.

 

[Skib]

I bought one when I began to hack and never hack without one. I wear it in lessons too but dont worry about riding without it except for canter. My great regret is that I forgot to take it to my final dressage lesson at a specialist centre and thus never cantered there.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Only when I ride XC

 

[abbijay]

I use it on XC, on new horses when I'm getting to know them and ALWAYS the time after I've fallen off

 

[atropa]

XC and most times when I ride my ISH - she's big and sharp. I dont tend to bother with it when riding my WB or native

 

[milliepops]

i sense that the people opening this thread are mainly BP wearers... for balance... i don't own one any more.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

I wear a racesafe level 1 at work because I have to.

At home I barely even bother to put a hat on beyond a baseball cap and boots generally don't exist either as its trainers in summer so a body protector would be going no where near me when I don't have to wear one!

 

[Red-1]

Just for XC with my current horses (not that Rigs does XC LOL) but with some previous horses I have done more often.

If not doing XC where it is compulsory, I just put one on if I fancy it, as I would be fed up if I thought of it, then didn't, then had an accident.

 

[Tarragon]

I don't own one either!

 

[Tarragon]

I rode a friend's horse once and she made me where an air jacket - which I forgot about until I dismounted!! Oh dear - I did feel stupid.

 

[Skib]

May be we should have added our ages? I am 82 and when I fell heavilly 4 months ago, I am sure I would have broken a few ribs had it not been for my bp. As it was, I was quite sore afterwards.
Ones bones get more fragile as one ages and I used to ride with someone younger than me who had to stop riding for that reason. So I look on a bp not as an imposition but as something that has enabled me to enjoy things that are a tad higher risk. Not just hacking but canter in dressage tests and riding bareback.

 

[equestrian7474]

I’ve always felt so stiff in them and watching videos of me riding them, my position goes out the window. I only ever wear them XC and hacking my pony who tends to spook a lot, but I don’t understand how people can ride properly in them!

 

[Fjord]

I only wore mine for jumping, until I moved yards. Now we're still getting used to the new hacking routes and I feel a lot more confident with it on.

 

[humblepie]

Lol to the age thing. Yes older ride here too.

 

[Sossigpoker]

I wear my air jacket every time I ride. I broke my back wearing a BP so don't bother with that now.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I put on hat, gloves and BP before I get on anything these days.

 

[Maryann]

I wear mine for all jump training but not in show jumping competitions.

 

[Rumtytum]

Racesafe and I wear it for hacking, jumping and bareback

 

[TheSubwayDino]

Race safe and when XC mostly. Tho I'm starting to wear them more often regardless of what I'm doing since I'm around riding youngsters

 

[PeterNatt]

Wear mine when hacking.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I would need to wear one to do TREC, so started wearing one in the arena just to get used to it.

Then I had a problem with the zip (pin wouldn't go into the pin box) and Covid stopped all TREC training and events, and right now I don't have the spare cash to take it up regularly.



But I've fixed the zip: the stitching between the tape and the shell of the BP had come apart and the slider body must have been crushed a little by something, because it was far too difficult to get the pin through it... so I stitched it back and used a small screwdriver to open up the body a little and now it works.

I hope that after July I'll have a fairly substantial increase in salary, and be able to take up TREC again in the Autumn, so this might be a good time to start wearing this BP again while the weather is cool.