Health and Safety gone too far?

[SirenaXVI]

This may be a little contentious but I am absolutely amazed at the number of adults wearing body protectors for a walk/trot test! Now if they were on scatty youngsters then I could perhaps understand this, but no, the majority are on sensible looking horses (who look half asleep actually). If you are THAT worried that you need to wear a BP in an Intro dressage test, why ride?

As an aside, dressage is as much about body movement and BPs seriously restrict body aids.

I suspect I will be lambasted for this post but I really don't give a monkeys backside!

 

[Doncella]

I'm with you.

 

[SirenaXVI]

Thank God I am not alone then

 

[mytwofriends]

Yes, I agree with you!

 

[SirenaXVI]

Yay! Thee of us

Actually I would really like to hear the other point of view too

 

[RuthnMeg]

Yep, Iam with you too. Adults / big teens wearing bp over their hacking jackets also look wrong to me. (I've been slated for that before but my Iam sticking with my opinion).

I do appriciate why if scatty youngsters or naughty horses, but as you say most are the opposite.
H&S has gone way over the top, look back 15 years + and it wasn't like it is now!

 

[Hullabaloo]

If someone wants to wear a body protector for a walk and trot test then I don't have a problem with it. I wouldn't feel the need myself, but if someone chooses to wear it then I really don't see what harm it does or that its any of my business.

At that level most people are going out to have fun and if they feel happier wearing a body protector where's the harm.

Now if it became compulsory, then I would have an opinion about it!

 

[SirenaXVI]

God the thought of them becoming compulsory for dressage makes me shudder

 

[RuthnMeg]

God the thought of them becoming compulsory for dressage make me shudder

Agree.
Its bad enough in the PC and at RS when they say 'bp are recommended'. And as for helpers having to wear a hat to lead a lead rein pony - thats another story!

 

[Hullabaloo]

God the thought of them becoming compulsory for dressage make me shudder

Me too - although it would give me yet another excuse not to do dressage (aside from being pants at it)

 

[ilovecobs]

I ride in a BP at home but wouldn't dream of in a show or a dressage test lol, i happily ride in a top hat at shows so to wear a BP would look pretty funny

 

[cbmcts]

I won't get on a horse without a bp - I damaged my back years ago and still have problems with it and if I was to fall at the wrong angle (more likely at slow speed funnily enough!) could end up having to have the vertebrae pinned. I appreciate that it may look really wimpy of me and I'll admit to being a wimp quite happily when it comes to trying to avoid a major op!

Also the real bonus of always wearing a bp - I no longer have to buy sports bras that resemble scaffolding

 

[SirenaXVI]

I won't get on a horse without a bp - I damaged my back years ago and still have problems with it and if I was to fall at the wrong angle (more likely at slow speed funnily enough!) could end up having to have the vertebrae pinned. I appreciate that it may look really wimpy of me and I'll admit to being a wimp quite happily when it comes to trying to avoid a major op!

Also the real bonus of always wearing a bp - I no longer have to buy sports bras that resemble scaffolding

Now see I can completely understand your wearing a bp, there was actually a lady in the test I judged on Sunday in a bp, she was paralysed from the legs down and was in a wheelchair, (she rode a good test too!) I can also see why she rode in one.

 

[Laafet]

QR - well my two penneth worth. I think it should always be on your own choice. My friend wears one for walk-trot with her recently out of training ex racer which I can understand and never jumps without one. That is her choice. Personally I only wear one for cross country and never for hunting as it won't fit under my jacket. This is because I think it restricts me too much (I have a racesafe the only type I find comfortable). I believe it prevents true tuck and roll in a fall and having spent years riding breakers and my own dodgy horse I feel better without. It would be a crying shame for it be compulsory for having to wear one at all times on a horse. As for a hat, I would never sit on a horse without one.

 

[SirenaXVI]

Again I can understand your friend wearing one on a just out of training TB! It is the ladies/large teenagers on half asleep neds that I can't understand!

 

[caitlin95uk]

well i have never wore a body protector to ride, only once for xc but took it off as i couldnt ride in it! LOL
i dont see any point in them at all.
maybe cos i believe that if you die it was meant to happen.

and due to the fact im a teenager :')

 

[SirenaXVI]

See I don't have a problem with BPs in general and actually think they are a very good thing XC, it is people wearing them in dressage tests, in particular walk/trot ones that I take issue with

 

[JessandCharlie]

QR - well my two penneth worth. I think it should always be on your own choice. My friend wears one for walk-trot with her recently out of training ex racer which I can understand and never jumps without one. That is her choice. Personally I only wear one for cross country and never for hunting as it won't fit under my jacket. This is because I think it restricts me too much (I have a racesafe the only type I find comfortable). I believe it prevents true tuck and roll in a fall and having spent years riding breakers and my own dodgy horse I feel better without. It would be a crying shame for it be compulsory for having to wear one at all times on a horse. As for a hat, I would never sit on a horse without one.

Agree with the restricting tuck and roll. I know somebody who broke their back in a fall (full recovery thankfully) because they couldn't bend to break their fall and roll with it because of a bp (I expect it was poorly fitted mind you)

 

[Cedars]

I dont see why you have a problem with it, its nothing to do with you!

Personally, I ride in my BP when I'm jumping or xcing. I also always wear it when hacking. I don't wear it when I'm only ever doing flat work. HOWEVER - if someone wants to wear it all the time, thats great for them. Its actually nothing to do with you.

 

[QueenDee_]

I'm with you on that one, Agreed if they were riding half crazed young thoroughbreds just off the race track, but they are mostly riding sensible and half asleep horses- however Im not one to judge people, and it is their choice, they could have had a bad fall and lost their confidence for all we know, but I personally find it harder to follow the movement of the horse with a body protector. And as I always tell my mum when I refuse to wear it -I bounce better without it on

 

[Shutterbug]

I only wear mine for XC but I know people who wear them for everything and to be honest I have never given it a second thought - how can I possibly lambast someone for being over safe - I dont know their history or reasons for wearing a BP so who am I to judge?

Each to their own and all that - maybe they just feel safer with a BP on - I used to know a German guy who would only drive his car while wearing a full motorbike helmet he was that paranoid about getting his head hurt in an accident.

 

[SirenaXVI]

I dont see why you have a problem with it, its nothing to do with you!

Personally, I ride in my BP when I'm jumping or xcing. I also always wear it when hacking. I don't wear it when I'm only ever doing flat work. HOWEVER - if someone wants to wear it all the time, thats great for them. Its actually nothing to do with you.

OK why so defensive? I AM entitled to my opinion and I AM allowed to discuss my opinion.

Health and Safety affects us all, and I (and it seems many many others) WOULD be affected if they were made compulsory for BD as they have for the PC etc so it IS something to do with me actually!

You can wear what you damn well like - no skin of my nose, I just think that if someone is soooo scared that they have to wear a bp in a bleddy walk/trot test (AND I am not talking about children or adults with genuine reasons) why bother doing dressage!

 

[benson21]

I think its personal choice. If someone at these walk and trot tests decided not to wear a BP on her horse because she felt people would think she was silly, then her horse spooked, chucked her off and she injured herself badly......then I for one would feel quite bad for saying its silly to wear one.

 

[Alyth]

I won't give my opinion of the posts as you won't want to hear it!! The opinion is not complimentary....

However I wear a bp all the time, on every horse I ride. I am old enough to have enough sense to realise that I don't have time to spend recovering from a bad injury. I had to spend a year in pain and unable to ride due to a fall from a walking pony that was frightened and I catapaulted off suffering a stress fracture of one of my vertebrae. And that was a quiet pony too!. I also wear a safety helmet and harness and firm protective boots.

I agree with the poster who said it is none of your business if I chose to wear a bp even when riding walk/trot on a quiet horse. I sincerely hope that none of you ever regret not having one on.

Alyth

 

[SirenaXVI]

I think its personal choice. If someone at these walk and trot tests decided not to wear a BP on her horse because she felt people would think she was silly, then her horse spooked, chucked her off and she injured herself badly......then I for one would feel quite bad for saying its silly to wear one.

Hmmm well, the majority of the riders I see wearing them are actually riding dead from the neck up beasts who can hardly put one foot in front of the other!

The fact of the matter is that riding is a risk sport (and I realise that you know this more than most), we are in danger of becoming so mamby pamby that we are at serious risk of losing the whole point!

 

[benson21]

I think maybe you are over catagorising there! I would say someone wearing a BP because they feel safer riding in it than not is certainly not dead from the neck up! Actually may have more sense than the gun-ho people that think 'it will never happen to me so I dont need to wear one'!

 

[Thelwell_Girl]

Agree.
Its bad enough in the PC and at RS when they say 'bp are recommended'. And as for helpers having to wear a hat to lead a lead rein pony - thats another story!

Eep! If that were true, Id be wearing a hat from morning till night almost!

 

[Mabel98]

Those riders wearing BP's in W & T tests are likely to be less experienced and so more at risk of falling off if quiet horse tripped, fell over, spooked (ok, less likely but you never know) put head down to eat grass etc.. That's how I see it anyway

 

[SirenaXVI]

I think maybe you are over catagorising there! I would say someone wearing a BP because they feel safer riding in it than not is certainly not dead from the neck up! Actually may have more sense than the gun-ho people that think 'it will never happen to me so I dont need to wear one'!

Having judged their dressage tests I can confirm that the horses were most certainly 'dead from the neck up'

 

[Holly Hocks]

I have two ex-racers and I do not even own a BP. Does this make me stupid? I have thought about getting one for when I teach my youngest one to jump and when riding her out hacking, but the ones I have tried feel extremely restrictive. A local tack shop fitted me for one and the one which apparently "fitted" me made me feel like the air had been sucked out of my lungs. I felt like I couldn't inhale properly. I was more likely to die from suffocation than being chucked off.
HOWEVER, I do not have an issue with anyone else riding in them, they're just not for me, at least not until I find one that I can breathe in and where my boobs aren't so squashed that they feel like they are under my chin!