my eldest daughter only wears hers if she has to, middle daughter always wears her,but then her pony went through a phase of dumping her. i dont have one but will have to get one for next year but like ash will only wear it when i have to
I wear one when i have too e.g competions. my mum made me wear one hunting yonks and yonks ago but my friends didnt so i soon didnt wear it! However, i might be wrong but I think theres a bit of a stigma attached to body protectors, i think some people think that riders who wear BP's are wimps.
my Mum bought it for me as a present because she has a colleague whose daughter broke her back in a fall. Until then I'd managed to go 19 years of riding without one and it did feel wierd but I've got used to it. I'm sure taht many of the same arguments were used about hats, hats with chinstraps etc when they first came out but most people would accept that wearing a hat is sensible.