No hat or body protector

I never ride without a hat as i like life and i want it to continue. I know it is down to personal choice but to anyone who rides without a hat before you next next sit on your horse without a hat just think about how selfish you are being. It is not you who has to pick up the pieces of their lives when you have been killed through banging your head when you fell off your bomb proof horse!!!!! It does happen and i know of someone that it happened to, very sad as the horse was a bomb proof cob who never shied but he did just the once and his rider fell off and banged her head on the kerb and killed her.
Body portectors i do now ride in all the time since i found one that is comfy and flexible to to ride in. Before i tried the racesafe i hated riding in them as i found i couldn't move in them and i found it hard to go with thye horse if they shied. They do absorb the impact though if you fall and it doesn't hurt as much.
My daughter won't sit on her pony without her hat and body protector as she says it wouldn't be right and she wants be safe :D.
 
I'm generally very safety conscious. But now and again I throw all that out the window and go back to my childhood irresponsibility, riding a quiet horse with no hat, body protector, saddle and occasionally no bridle too. I'll even slowly pop over the odd tiny 1' jump if I want, despite not being much good at jumping. What I gain from it in terms of mental wellbeing outweighs the (IMO small) risk of brain damage, paralysis or death in the unlikely event of if I had an awkward fall. It's about quality of life for me. There are many things I can't do. It's good to enjoy the things I can, including occasionally feeling the freedom of being totally at one with a horse, unfettered by anything.
 
I never wear a body protector anymore...it was compulsory whenever we did old team jumping and back in lessons, but whenever I was on my own, I never wore one as I hate them. Too restrictive and hot.

Way I see it...if I hunt without one, then it cannot get any more risky than that in any other situation.
 
I've just ridden my tb with a hat and wellies on - I bloomin HATE riding in wellies
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Ah no way!? I love my wellies, I get a few bemused looks when I'm in the arena practicing classical dressage on my pony whilst wearing a pair of very sexy Dunlops! ;)
I feel so free in them, I don't find them restrictive and I can pivot my foot in them easily so it's great!

As for hats and bps, I have always ridden in a hat because it's how I was taught and I don't really know any different. As for bps, when I owned my previous competition horse my grandad insisted that I had a Point Two Airjacket as he was so unpredictable (all 17.2 hands of him!!) however I only really wore it when going out of the arena such as going round the farm ride or in fields. With my current pony I only wear it once in a blue moon when he is going through a 'stroppy' phase and even then it's only when out hacking (off road), I must admit that I haven't really ever worn a bp when schooling.

The last 'proper' (badly fitting!) body protector I had was bought many years ago when I was 13, and it actually caused me to fall off! Well I say fall, I was dismounting my pony and the bottom of it caught on the saddle, causing the whole thing to push upwards and into my face. I just sort of staggered backwards, tripped over my own feet, and landed on my bum. :o
 
Frankly as a nurse who works in theatres, ICU and A&E it amazes me why people dont use every available safety measure for such high risk activities such as xc.

I event with a HS1 hat (one of the highest ratings in the world) a level 3 bp and a air jacket - it simply isnt worth the risk not providing yourself with the best equipement!

I must admit to being a bit of a hyprocrite though - I use my bp for hacking in autumn/winter time but I have lasped in using it over the summer. Stupid really that I let myself get out of the habit because its warm :(
 
I always wear a hat when riding, and also while lunging or leading young or difficult horses. I will wear my Racesafe body protector for XC or when riding a horse that I know will be a handful. Gloves are also a must. I value my life :)
 
I always wear my hat, my BP most times. I always wear it hacking and on the rare occasion I pop a jump (barely a foot high - I'm a wimp!) and if I'm riding alone in the field. My mum made me promise when I was about 14 to do that after her friend was schooling a quiet pony who spooked at a squirrel and her friend broke her back after the fall.
I do tend to wear it more during the winter for all things on the ground and ridden as I use it as an extra layer for warmth like a bodywarmer/gilet

And always gloves when I ride, after ripping my hands to pieces on a pair of plaited reins when younger!
 
Always ride with a hat on, very very rarely wear 'proper' BP, but do ride in winter in a bodyguard jacket (they do well to keep the cold out!) I do not like the BP, as I find that they are all too long in the back and end up not letting me sit deep in the saddle, which on my spook monster is a bit of a problem :) I will wear gloves for lunging, but don't wear hat or gloves or BP on the ground. I do try and make sure I have stout footwear on round the horses, but have occaisionally brought in/put out in my slippers on dry days :eek:
 
I had a photoshoot the other day without a hat...i felt naked! I had my mum on hand and she passed it over between takes. I wear a bp all the time now. I didnt even own one until a few years ago!
 
I wear a hat, well except for my wedding pics and wear an bp for xc. I didn't wear one last week when jumping sj and xc fences on another hhoers horse for the first time.

I didn't wear a bp when I first did xc aged 9, as they werent around and won't force my kids to wear them, unless they improve hugely, they don't allow you the flexibility to ride properly IMHO, ESP if you're dinky :)
 
Wear a hat just to be a good example to youngsters nowadays.

We never did when young, and quite honestly, for the times we had to, they were as much use a chocolate teapot.

Don't wear a BP and have no wish to.
 
horserider said:
We never did when young, and quite honestly, for the times we had to, they were as much use a chocolate teapot.
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They were great weren't they? ;) Never fitted, very thin with a bit of cork which had usually lost its padding. A drawstring inside to adjust to your head. And held firm by a piece of stretched elastic which was supposed to go under your chin, but unless you wanted to be laughed at, you either pulled over the top of the hat or cut off. :cool:

If you ever fell off, the hat hit the ground seperately some seconds before you did, and rolled away. :rolleyes:

Yet the riding school insisted we always wore one. :D:D
 
horserider said:
Wear a hat just to be a good example to youngsters nowadays.

We never did when young, and quite honestly, for the times we had to, they were as much use a chocolate teapot.Don't wear a BP and have no wish to.
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I suspect the rise in the use of hats and BPs does owe a lot to the fact that modern ones are effective and reasonably comfy.

So far as the chance of falling off and hitting your head is concerned... The chances of it happening are limited but if it does the results are liable to be catastrophic - probably more chance of sustaining a life changing injury through landing on your head than through landing on some other body part so it makes sense to prioritise protecting one's head.

I suppose wearing appropriate boots for handling is very much a case of protecting your self against the most likely risk rather than the potentially most serious.
 
FionaM12 said:
They were great weren't they? ;) Never fitted, very thin with a bit of cork which had usually lost its padding. A drawstring inside to adjust to your head. And held firm by a piece of stretched elastic which was supposed to go under your chin, but unless you wanted to be laughed at, you either pulled over the top of the hat or cut off. :cool:

If you ever fell off, the hat hit the ground seperately some seconds before you did, and rolled away. :rolleyes:

Yet the riding school insisted we always wore one. :D:D
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Yes, I find this quite amusing - insisting on wearing hats that were really just cork and papiermache. I was warming up for PSG at a dressage competition once (not wearing a hat) and was told I had to wear one. So I put on my tube-of-cardboard topper and made the steward a happy man by so doing; what was the point of that?
 
Just to clarify, I didn't mean a well fitted modern bp stops you rolling. But, it can slow you down. So in response to some of the more smug replies, some of us have our own very good reasons not to. And I think nowadays we focus a lot on having the safety gear, & kids & new riders don't learn to stick on, or fall correctly, if the worst does happen.
 
Those old hats were probably dangerous given the risk of them falling over your eyes or catching on a branch and strangling you. And I bet somebody managed to hurt themselves by falling and landing on their own hat.
 
Cortez said:
Yes, I find this quite amusing - insisting on wearing hats that were really just cork and papiermache. I was warming up for PSG at a dressage competition once (not wearing a hat) and was told I had to wear one. So I put on my tube-of-cardboard topper and made the steward a happy man by so doing; what was the point of that?
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Now, Rules is Rules and it was more than his jobsworth... ;):D

armchair_rider said:
Those old hats were probably dangerous given the risk of them falling over your eyes or catching on a branch and strangling you. And I bet somebody managed to hurt themselves by falling and landing on their own hat.
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Haha. I often wondered if you could sustain injuries by landing on the edge of your hat! :o
 
littlelegs said:
Just to clarify, I didn't mean a well fitted modern bp stops you rolling. But, it can slow you down. So in response to some of the more smug replies, some of us have our own very good reasons not to. And I think nowadays we focus a lot on having the safety gear, & kids & new riders don't learn to stick on, or fall correctly, if the worst does happen.
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I think you speak great truth here - perhaps if we were to focus on not falling off in the first place (i.e better riding) we could be less concerned about the latest safety rating? In fact people who fall off wearing hats, BP's et al, can still get hurt and unfortunately killed, there is no 100% safe hat.
 
FionaM12 said:
Now, Rules is Rules and it was more than his jobsworth... ;):D



Haha. I often wondered if you could sustain injuries by landing on the edge of your hat! :o
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Actually, a stiff peak can snap your neck if you land face down on a hard surface. If I have to wear a hat, I will always either have one with a flexible peak or manually break the peak before wearing it.
 
When my brother fell off a few years ago and broke the top of his humerus the doc said if he had been wearing his bp then he would have broken his coller bone too and recovery would have been longer and more painful.
I agree In riding in hats but bps each to their own unles it's xc or a horse you know likes to dump people then up to you. You l is the risks. And if you get one that it fitted to you you hardly know its there. My sister has a wonkey spine and her race safe is the only one that doesn't make it hurt any worse than it already does.
 
I've always worn a hat. After one fall that put me into a wall I wore a BP religiously for two years until I trusted the horse again and felt comfortable and confident enough to not wear one. While wearing the BP I came off a few times and on at least one occassion, I was saved a couple of broken ribs. I don't wear one now though as I haven't been XC-ing for about 18 months. They interfere with my position in the saddle and that accounted for at least one minor fall. Still - I can't argue with people who want to wear them.
 
armchair_rider said:
And I bet somebody managed to hurt themselves by falling and landing on their own hat.
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I still have a 2 inch scar above my right eye. This was the result of a rotational during SJ back in the 80's so one of the useless hats. Impact on my head was hard enough for the shell to cut through the very limited padding and then me. It then continued its trail of destruction by sliding to the right and trying to remove my right ear which also needed a few stitches.

I agree that age you learnt to ride does influence your decision.
Back when I learnt to ride (1964) hats were for when you went hunting or to pony club. Bare back in halter and hatless was pretty normal way to ride.
 
Always, always wear a hat, even on the old hunters and my safe as houses tb. Horses are flight animals and even the quietest thing can do stupid things at times. It's not worth the risk. I hate seeing people riding without them. As for on the ground... I rarely wear it whilst breaking in, other than with something I think might kick off rollering. A scary incident a few months ago, had a 4 yr old rear up, front foot deflected off my hat and fractured my cheek bone. I hate to think what damage it would have done if I wasn't wearing my hat.

Body protectors... Never. Ever. I hate the bloody things. Even when working in a racing yard only used to wear it when press were there or Important people but then that was probably before it was enforced to wear one. When they make one that is like wearing a pullover, I'll get one. Until then I'll watch my sister eventing and x-country schooling looking like the Michelin man ;)
 
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