Rant - Riding Without A Hat, WHY?!

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Miaowkiss - my work colleague's wife (a very experienced rider) was left paralyzed from the chest down when riding a dressage horse in walk. It reared and went over backwards. Horses have brains but don't always use them effectively.

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Same with people.

If people do not think their brains are not worth protecting by wearing a hat, then they are probably right.
 
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I guess it is because over 50% of mentally challenged are sexually abused and it is the only way they can pull!

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Btw, I was referring to the above, I'd not seen GTs (very reasonable) second post before I replied
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I get upset when I see professionals at competitions not wearing hats. An example I saw at Hickstead was William Whitaker in the warm arena riding round with no hat on with quite a few children present. I believe the example should be set of wearing a hat although as we get older obviously it is an adult's choice for wearing a hat on their own horse in the privacy of their yard. However, in public settings such as big shows etc etc, it should be compulsory for hats to be worn.

I personally would not ride without as I only have one head and I know I'm exactly the kind of person who would fall on their head as soon as I took my hat off! I'm not having a go at people who don't wear hats, just think they should be compulsory in public situations.

Further to this, it does annoy me when there are articles in horsey magazines that show riders without hats - have seen a few in Horse and Hound with top riders pictured not wearing hats. I know that there is always a note with these pictures stating that the magazine does not endorse riding without a hat but believe if they are writing the article and taking the pictures of that person, they should insist the rider wears a hat for the shots - I can't see why that should create such a fuss?
 
I work at a dressage yard and a lot of the people there ride without hats. Before I went there I always wore a hat, now I have to admit I have been tempted to ride without one and have quite often schooled my horse without one there. I always wear a hat on the livery horses though, as i don't know/trust them as much and also some of them can be naughty! I always wear a hat to jump (as this is the time I'm most likely to fall off!) and I always wear one out hacking as you never know what you might meet to potentially scare or injure your horse or yourself. But lately I have started wearing a hat in the school again as even though it is nice to have the wind in your hair and not get so hot or mess up your hairstyle (can't really think of any other advantages), there is always a voice in the back of your mind that knows you should wear a hat. Plus without a hat I don't push my horse much as I am more worried what might happen, with a hat I feel much safer and so ride more boldly.
 
QR, ooo you should come watch the collection rings at Aachen....

I watched one rider pick a (unnesscery) fight with his horses and did wonder what would happen if he hit the deck, his horses bolted with all those other hatless riders about....
 
Meant to add, I rarely fall off nowadays, but twice when I have fallen off in recent years I landed on my head and had to go to hospital with concussion, so thank god I had my hat on. Also one of those times was just trotting round on a seemingly very safe horse who suddenly had a broncing fit for no apparent reason, we later found out he has cancer of the spine so can no longer be ridden poor boy
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But my point is it was completely unexpected off a normally very safe horse, I fell straight onto my head on hard sunbaked ground and was knocked unconcious instantly (though only for a few seconds), had I not been wearing a hat I could probably have died.
 
I think this all boils down to the fact that we have all been given life and are blessed enough to be happy and healthy with the added luxury of having a horse...Yes live your life, but respect it! Don't take it for granted, it can be whipped away from you in a split second!!
 
Long sleeves offer some protection when you fall, especially as horse riders tend to ride on surfaces such as roads, or full of brambles, or over wooden fences. Falling off on a road can give you really nasty grazes - one of our clients was in a tank top, fell off on the road, and spent several weeks with her arm banadaged. They also offer protection from flies, the sun, and stray branches. If you wear a light coloured close knit cotton fabric, it will keep you cooler than bare arms, as it will reflect the sun. I don't always wear full length sleeves, but I always have at least my elbow covered, and ride in gloves, even over here in the summer when the temps are in the mid 30 degrees +
 
QR

If someone does not want to wear their hat, then that is their PERSONAL choice, and it doesn't matter what "busybodies" think/condone.

its a free country, and so people are free to make their own life choices and mistakes. So get off your high horse and just because you are perfect as you wear your hat does not give you the right to chastise others for not wearing them.

I always wear my hat, because i want to.
 
That's a good point emma69. I once fell off onto a barbed wire fence! Fortuantely it was winter so I had a thick coat on, so the coat got ripped instead of my arms, don't like to think how it would have felt in summer!
 
I haven't read the whole post so I'm probably on my own here but if I'm being completely honest I have ridden without a hat before- at 15/16 years old- that was a while ago though (5 yrs.)
The reason behind it being that I wanted to ride all the time, as much as possible and wearing a hat in the summer can give me terrible migraines, the hat does fit (I don't get them in the winter) I'm just prone to them.

I'm definately more sensible now though - always ride with a hat or I just don't ride when I have a migraine (sp?)
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**runs and hides**
 
I wish I rode western or did Parelli as they all have unbreakable skulls. Apparently a stetson made from felt is enough to protect them from brain injuries...
 
Why do people keep saying about someone being 'perfect' just because they feel strongly about something.
I am first to admit I'm a long long way from perfect, as we all are... in fact, re. riding, I'm actually a bag of nerves at the moment and am battling with confidence after an accident, perhaps this is why I feel so strongly... I just find it so chilling to see a rider bombing around without a hat on. I'm not going to apologise for feeling strongly about something!
 
Western saddles are more difficult to fall out of than english ones (I know, having tried to eject myself from one once, and failing for about 30 seconds!) but at least the cowboys had a good excuse for needing a stetson!
 
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Western saddles are more difficult to fall out of than english ones (I know, having tried to eject myself from one once, and failing for about 30 seconds!) but at least the cowboys had a good excuse for needing a stetson!

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More difficult, but presumably not impossible?

For the original cowboys, their life expectancy was not that long and medical services were pretty non-existent. I don't think there are many real cowboys about nowadays though.

Funny how people go to country and western music places dressed as if they had just got off a horse, but noone in Europe goes to listen to lute music dressed in armour and carrying a lance!
 
Oh no, I managed in the end! Amd decided I was never ever getting on a youngster with a western saddle (despite the horse being intended for western use, I would prefer the early stages done on a 'slip of the side door quietly when horse goes psycho' english saddle to being stuck there, trying to get off (didn't dare swing leg over english dismount style as would have ended up with massive stomach injuries from the horn, didn't dare swing off western style as would have snapped my leg if I couldn't kick free at the exact right time, took me blooming ages, and ended up on the floor winded and sore - irony is had I decided to just sit there I wouldn't have come off (but horse had been really freaked by something, and I don't think it would have done the horse much good as a very newly backed baby to have someone play rodeo with her!) Incidently, I was wearing my english body protector, and english hat
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I'm off to the rodeo tomorrow - plenty of proper cowboys alive and kicking (or is that kicked
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) in North America! They all bear horrid limps and scars (maybe I should offer them my nice Charles Owen?)
 
had this discussion up our yard tonight. I don't agree with people riding hatless and espically when there are impressional young riders around.

However, i have to admit that I occasionally ride to the field bareback and without a hat. Would only do this on a quiet horse and know its very very wrong.

but as already mentioned, riding is already a high risk sport so as for the picking up the pieces comment- our families would still have to pick up pieces when we fall off and break back/arm/leg or worse.
 
A man I knew was riding down the road with his hat on but not fastened up. His horse spooked, he fell off and is now a tetraplegic unable to do anything. His wife resents him as she is his carer and her life has been totally ruined too. My other bugbear is motorcyclists who ride in T-shirts and jeans!
 
I always ride in a hat it is the deal I have made with my OH following my accident lst year no hat no horses!

I am well aware that had I not been wearing a hat I would not be here today!

I once quite rightly in my opinion got chewed out by my YO in Cyprus it was 40 degrees plus and I had taken my horse out for a hack wearing a baseball cap......as I came back to the yard she was there with her 10 year old daughter.....she went ballistic saying how on earth can I impress on her that she must wear a hat when people she looks upto don't!
 
I think that unless there's a clear law that says you HAVE to wear a hat then it's always going to be a debate. I do believe that when on the roads people who don't wear them are truely stupid. The horse may be a saint, but the dickhead coming round the corner at 70mph in his twatmobile may not be.

Are people still covered by insurance if they ride with no hat on??

I don't like seeing anyone ponce about hatless but those who wear top hats and beaglers obviously realise that they're pretty useless and I don't understand why BD and all the other big groups don't make everyone compete in the correct standard?

Until it all comes from the top people are unlikely to change their ways!
 
of course you fail to mention the fact that helmets actually contribute to neck and spinal injuries.... So under certain circumstances they can do more harm than good... If you look at it, what a helmet does best is protect your HEAD from impact with hard objects and surfaces...while adding a small but not insignificant risk of increased neck injury that may put you in a wheel chair. Now as most times we may well have a fence, rock or hard surface to smack our heads on, the overall input to saftey from a helmet is in the positive colum.... but put you and the horse on a wide open area of soft sand where the risk is not so much due to impact, but due to hyperflexion/extension of the neck, the exact problem a helmet may contribute to, wearing a helmet may cause more risk than it removes. It's a personal choice, and some people need to learn not to preach....especially when there ARE valid reasons NOT to wear a helmet at times.
 
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I don't like seeing anyone ponce about hatless but those who wear top hats and beaglers obviously realise that they're pretty useless and I don't understand why BD and all the other big groups don't make everyone compete in the correct standard?

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It would be an interesting insurance/legal case if a rider had a serious injury at a BD or BE competition where wearing a top hat was mandated. 1 argument could be that BE/BD and the event organisers had forced the rider to ride without proper head protection, so had deliberately endangered them. On the other hand, no one had forced the rider to compete there.

I am sure that in this modern culture of liability and litigation, this will happen eventually and the outcome will either be the banning of top-hats and beaglers, or they will become optional and riders will have to sign a disclaimer to wear them.
 
I am an adult, as such I am able to make my own decisions about what I do and don't do, to safeguard my own safety.

I don't see what business it is of anyone elses what I do with my head? Its funny because I bet very few of the people pontificating on here would DARE go on to WFP et al when they are not wearing a hat...

Freedom of choice - a great institution and one that includes wearing a hat as an adult - and long may it continue.
 
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of course you fail to mention the fact that helmets actually contribute to neck and spinal injuries.... So under certain circumstances they can do more harm than good... If you look at it, what a helmet does best is protect your HEAD from impact with hard objects and surfaces...while adding a small but not insignificant risk of increased neck injury that may put you in a wheel chair. Now as most times we may well have a fence, rock or hard surface to smack our heads on, the overall input to saftey from a helmet is in the positive colum.... but put you and the horse on a wide open area of soft sand where the risk is not so much due to impact, but due to hyperflexion/extension of the neck, the exact problem a helmet may contribute to, wearing a helmet may cause more risk than it removes.

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Hmm... that's an interesting reply and a fact I wasn't aware of... although I have fallen on my head in a fixed peak and broken my nose, I was thankful that was all the injury I'd sustained. I wonder, in accidents where a hat would cause more harm to the neck than good, what the implications would be on the head if a hat were not worn... as in, would the person still be alive at all? I know I'd rather be alive and wheelchair bound than dead.
 
My friend at the yard today was rushed off in the Air Ambulance after her normally unfased mare spooked at a car going past the field and she fell and landed on her head!! She was wearing a hat but still became disorentated (sp) and they call the Air Ambulance as a precaution to get her to hospital ASAP (we all know head injuries can be slient killers!)

I would NEVER ride without a hat, no matter how "bomb proof" a horse was, nor would I ride without jods and a t-shirt that at least covered my whole body and shoulders!

Unfortunately, the people that do ride "unprotected" will not be told, and sadly will only learn when something happens to them.... and thats only if they live to ride another day!

WEAR YOUR HAT NO MATTER WHAT!!
 
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