Hunt Staff Wearing Patey's

[Christmas Crumpet]

I wear a Patey hunting which is my choice and if I fall off and land on my head I have noone else to blame but myself.

Hunt staff are all expected to wear Patey's - I don't think I've ever seen any not wearing them. Surely under today's Health & Safety Employment rules that shouldn't be allowed and they should be made to wear crash caps.

I would be interested to know whether they get given the choice of their own headwear or they HAVE to wear Patey's.

Its just something I've wondered about for years!!

Any ideas?!!

 

[tractor]

They are all given the choice, and now have to sign a disclaimer if they choose not to wear the available safety gear, ie a proper hat.

 

[k9h]

I have not been given a choice of wearing a crash cap & have not signed a disclaimer either.

I would still wear a Patey though if I was!

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

k9h - I thought that was the case for most hunt staff - certainly it is taken as red down here in Dorset that all hunt staff wear Patey's and wouldn't dream of wearing anything else. I don't think I have ever seen any huntstaff wearing crash caps or the like. It would look very strange!!

 

[k9h]

Obviously I can not speak for all hunts but the ones I know haven't.

I know one particular Hunt in Northumberland which can be very H&S had harnesses put on the staff Patey caps. But the new Huntsman there wears a traditional Patey as does the Whip.

 

[RunToEarth]

not all of our hunt staff wear them.

 

[LizzieJ]

No, nor ours

 

[CastleMouse]

Everyone, bar one of our whipper-ins, wears a Patey...

 

[tractor]

There was a discalimer from sent to all hunt secs this year definitely. I agree that I've never seen and hunt staff wearing a crash hat not a Patey, but the MFHA is trying!

 

[k9h]

Well I have never seen that form!

 

[icemaiden113]

If there is a disclaimer we have never got one! It is personal choice to wear/not wear a pateys.

 

[WFL]

Personally I would ban Pateys. You might as well war a baseball cap for all the protection they give. Open-faced motorcyle helmets were banned years ago, so why not ban these useless things?

 

[winterhorse]

it still has a lot to do with tradition, my husband wears one. i worked in a number of dressage yards and these people often ride without a hat at all.
yes they may not be jumping, but these are often highly strung animals and a fall is a fall anywhere after all.
they still compete in top level in top hats.

 

[CastleMouse]

Personally I would ban Pateys. You might as well war a baseball cap for all the protection they give. Open-faced motorcyle helmets were banned years ago, so why not ban these useless things?

Actually, a well fitting Patey will probably offer you more protection if you fall off than one of those nasty GPA helmets for example...

 

[druid]

CM - I'm afraid that's complete bollocks. (I own and wear a Patey ocassionaly) Despite what people say about them not coming off in fall then do sometimes and even if they don't then they offer NO protection when your head hits the floor

 

[oakash]

I would be extremely nervous if I were to wear a conventional 'safety helmet' instead of a Patey's fitted hat.
I remember when the new helmets with chin straps came in, and I saw a young man nearly hanged by one when his head went into the 'V' of a branch in a wood. I've been upside down in a fall with a Patey's hat on my head and no probs. Sure, the hat came off as I hit the ground, but I didn't suffer a broken neck as I almost certainly would have done with the increased leverage of a hat strapped to the chin! ( Sods law says next week I will!)

 

[WFL]

it still has a lot to do with tradition, my husband wears one. i worked in a number of dressage yards and these people often ride without a hat at all.
yes they may not be jumping, but these are often highly strung animals and a fall is a fall anywhere after all.
they still compete in top level in top hats.

It will only take 1 rider to suffer a serious fall in a competition whilst wearing a compulsory top hat, and the injury lawyers will descend on the organisers and BD/BE like vultures. Their insurers will then stipulate proper safety hats, and that will be the end of Pateys, top hats, stetsons, etc. in competitions.

 

[Hersom]

Extraordinary isn't it that millions of pounds have been spent in designing highly technical safety hats for every sport from cycling to rock climbing. Yet hunting uniquely doesn't need such things though its close cousin - eventing - has espoused those despised hats along with body protectors.

Wake up! It isn't just personal choice - you have a responsibility toward the people who witness or are involved in your tragic injury along with the poor sod who has to look after you if you become a vegetable.

Trouble is that everyone likes to fit in to the norm. I admire (but don't follow) the people who turn up at my hunt with body protectors. And practically everyone - except the hunt servants - wears a proper hat. And that includes a couple of field masters.

 

[Eagle_day]

"Yet hunting uniquely doesn't need such things though its close cousin - eventing - has espoused those despised hats along with body protectors"

Eventing has had 11 riders killed this year. I really don't think eventing should be boasting about its safety record to anyone.

(Fingers crossed for tomorrow.)

 

[Hersom]

I don't think anyone is happy about the stream of deaths amongst event riders let alone boasting about safety records. I merely said that they recognise the risks which is a prerequisite to managing them.

In my early years I indulged in potholing and parachuting: currently I have a pilots licence, a motorcycle and a large horse - who gets more use than any of the others. All these sports are intrinsically dangerous but can be made acceptably safe by care and common sense However many aspects of horse activities seem designed to increase risk rather than manage it.

My horse is at livery at a splendid yard which is part of a modern farm. The mechanisation seen all around the farm stops at the entrance to the yard where small girls carry buckets of water and move tons of hay by hand. Steel toecaps are unknown. Hydraulics are unseen. (When did you last see a bloke dig a hole by hand?). I have absolutely no complaints about the care my horse receives, but worry about the long term health of the staff.

You may regret that the bobby on the beat now wears a stab jacket and a flourescent coat but it's a reasonable response to real risks. So is the safety riding hat.

 

[Cressida]

it is a matter of personal choice so why do you all have to bang on about it like this?

I'm sure that if k9h wished to wear her crash hat whn hunting then no-one would be bothered.

 

[winterhorse]

[quote

Wake up! It isn't just personal choice - you have a responsibility toward the people who witness or are involved in your tragic injury along with the poor sod who has to look after you if you become a vegetable.

Trouble is that everyone likes to fit in to the norm. I admire (but don't follow) the people who turn up at my hunt with body protectors. And practically everyone - except the hunt servants - wears a proper hat. And that includes a couple of field masters. [/quote]

my husband is a huntsman and he wouldn't have anything else.patey or nothing..
and to be honest he would addmit that you couldn't knock much sence into him anyway so why go again tradition of hunt staff being dressed correctly...when hje falls of it tends to be on his arse anyway so i dont think he could fit a hat on there ...