Do you always always wear a hat?

I used to ride without a hat all the time as a teenager, hacking, jumping etc but now would not do so, although I have shown in a beagler on my hunter who my vet likens to a big armchair so minimal risk of falling off! I think that the hats available now are much less hot and more comfortable than they used to be and I guess I care less what I look like now on the horse and more about my own safety!
 
Always. I feel naked without it, and can't bring myself to actually move. Having a sister with severe brain damage makes me a little head protective!
 
Always. I don't have my own horse so I have to wear mine but don't imagine it would any different if I had did have my own. Had a fall a few years ago and saw the cracks on my hat which would have been my head had I not been wearing it.
Always wear a cycling helmet too. It might be more predictable than a horse but you can't predict what your head would hit when you fall off
 
Just got home from hospital with my daughter who came off yesterday in school and landed very hard on head! She's fine but very sore thank god she had a hat on, wouldn't let her ride without one or a back protector !
 
Nowadays yes, i used to ride without a hat when i was younger (along with bareback in a headcollar etc) but since having children i'm a lot more risk aware
 
For some of us it was the accepted thing to do though. I started riding 45 years ago. You borrowed an aging greying black velvet hat held on by a knackered piece of elastic that dangled under your chin from the RS, they were probably older than most of the riders and had been on the floor goodness knows how many times. Once one got one's own pony hats were kept for best - PC rallies, hunting, shows. Hacking and schooling at home you just didn't. If it was an occasion when you wore tweed you wore your hat, that was about it.

I had 25 years out and in that time hats became the done thing, rather than the exception. It still feels odd to wear a hat. What brought it home to me was my daughter coming off on our Fenland peaty soil and hitting her head on probably the only stone on the field. It put a hole in her hat. She always wears a hat, I make myself do it too.
 
My answers to the reasons for not wearing a hat as per this article.

http://horses.about.com/od/choosingandusingtack/tp/Why-People-Don-t-Wear-Hemets.htm



1. selfish comment when family have to deal the the consequence
2.. cr4p you wont be penalized for wearing a hat
3. rubbished falls are not planned no amount of skill guarantee you wont fall
4. a cracked skull is more of headache than just a normal headache
5. it will mess up your hair a lot more with your skull split and bl**d through and you wont be alive to brush it
6. no matter how experienced you are vulnerable to fall
7. no its more uncomfortable having your head split in two
8. no its not but falls can still happen
9. so is looking at a rider with head injuries
10 loosing your life is a bigger expense
11 wear the right helmet for the right sport.
 
I don't understand why you wouldn't. It could save your life. Even if you don't have a family or friends who would be upset about you dying (unlikely) presumably you have a horse who needs you to be alive! Just seems stupid not to, regardless of circumstances i.e. abroad or pootling back from field.
 
I can honestly say hand on heart that I have never ridden without a hat. I feel my life too precious to risk plus I don't want to become reliant on people at an early age because of my stupidity. I have to look after people like that and the pain and depression in their eyes said it all. Also I have a child that depends on me and I cant risk ruining her life too. Also I want to enjoy my hobby for as long as possible.
 
Yes, I do mainly so as to influence teenagers. As a child, I usually only wore one for lessons but quite honestly the hats then, were as much use as a chocolate teapot. Much like a Patey or top hat is today. People didn't wear hats at home so much 50 years ago.

However, of the two most recent accidents involving friends where they fell and had brain injuries, both riders were wearing hats. One of them has been in hospital for 9 months.
A hat does not prevent injury, it may lessen the damage but even then, not always. The best chance of staying safe is to ride competently on a well trained horse and use well fitted tack.
And if you really don't want to inflict your brain damaged self on family and the NHS, stay away from horses. Its a high risk sport.
 
Only once have I ridden without a hat but that's because I'm an idiot and forgot it. I got off and walked him home red faced when I realised. If I hop on bareback to the field I don't but that's about 100yards around the house I'd jump off if needed.
 
I didn't for years but then in Belgium people only 'hatted up' for competing. Even when a friend was thrown out galloping in the woods and hit her head and was killed outright I didn't wear one. I moved here and everyone wears one so I did too when out hacking and of course competing. I rarely wore one when at home unless jumping and then not always.

Before you shoot me; I have been in England for 20 years later this year so we are talking mostly before the days of avid H&S.

I then started working with people with acquired brain injury and/or high level spinal cord injury. 'Nuff said.

Hatless is not an option for me now and it does p*ss me off to see local professional riders out hacking without a hat whilst on their phones and no reflective gear on them or their (owners!) horses.
 
Nicnac said:
Hatless is not an option for me now and it does p*ss me off to see local professional riders out hacking without a hat whilst on their phones and no reflective gear on them or their (owners!) horses.
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While hats are important, hacking out without reflective gear annoys me more. At least if you come off without a hat, you only hurt yourself, not the horse and any unfortunate motorist.
What is the rationale of wearing a hat and even a BP but not hi viz. Yet it happens all the time.
 
dogatemysalad said:
While hats are important, hacking out without reflective gear annoys me more. At least if you come off without a hat, you only hurt yourself, not the horse and any unfortunate motorist.
What is the rationale of wearing a hat and even a BP but not hi viz. Yet it happens all the time.
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True and if I were an owner I'd be mightily p*ssed off if my horse was being put at risk by somebody I was paying good money to to look after it.

Actually there was another thread this week about somebody who wanted to insist on a pro rider wearing a BP to back their youngster. If I had a horse with a pro I'd want it written into the contract that the horse (and rider) were Bertie Bassetts when out hacking unless totally off-road.
 
Until last Friday I would have said yes yes yes.....but for the first time in 25ish heard of riding, last Friday I got halfway round my hack (quiet village and field) and thought something isn't right....caught a glimpse of my reflection and I had my woolly hat on rather than my riding hat...how stupid! First time I have ever done that, think I was is such a hurry to get out whilst it was still light after work I just didn't think. Luckily it was all ok tho but it's not something I would choose to do!
 
100% yes! I only have one head. I once refused to go out on a hack with a friend when she decided she wasn't going wear a hat too xx
 
Yes. I was brought up with a lot of freedom (been riding for 50 years) but there were 2 non negotiable rules in our house as I grew up 'No hat, no horse' and 'No seat belt, no car'. Dad was a surgeon and he knew the consequences of doing without either.

Having said that, the thin velvet hats with home sewn on elastic chin loop that I wore, were probably nigh on useless!
 
Always. You never know what's around the corner... literally. I've fallen off my boy plenty - always when jumping - but since he stopped that 5 years ago (due to bad feet, hence the stopping and falling off) I've stayed on board pretty easily.

He's the yard rock out hacking, the one to babysit all the youngster and nervous horses and proved why just last weekend when he went past several lorries, horse trailers, a bus, a JCB and even an ambulance with lights flashing and sirens blaring on the main road. He then went round the corner onto a really quiet lane, spooked at beer bottle :eek: in his path and, not expecting it (and turned round talking to my friend:o) I came off. No more damage than a soggy bottom thankfully, but he's the sort of horse that some people might take a risk on. It just goes to show no horse is totally bombproof.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Having said that, the thin velvet hats with home sewn on elastic chin loop that I wore, were probably nigh on useless!
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I've still got one of those! I keep it for old times sake I hasten to add, not for riding now! Yes and you didn't even have to wear the elastic round your chin, that was optional. Mine has also got a sharp metal bit on the top inside of the hat (think it was to keep the round velvet bit at the top in place??) Either way it wouldn't have been good if I'd landed upside down ....... ouch!
 
I wouldn't dream of getting on Kali without a hat - he is just too unpredictable . . . I sat on Nell once without a hat - Em was riding her and she was napping (she used to plant) and Em couldn't deal with her and got off - I didn't want to leave the schooling session like that so hopped on Nell hatless to get her through her planty/nappy tantrum and once I had "won" I got off. I did feel a little naked/vulnerable, but my girls were absolutely horrified . . . rightly so. Have never not worn a hat - done up - when on board a horse (even a plod) since.

However . . . I NEVER wear a hat when handling or loading or turning out my boy . . . I know he leads beautifully, that he loads like a dream and even at his naughtiest/most stressed he has respected my personal space . . . but, you know, he is still a horse and perhaps I should consider it?

P
 
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