Riding without a hat

Have you ridden without a hat?

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I always wear a hat, but I don't mind if others dont tbh. I feel very strongly about high viz because that could save the life of a horse, but so long as we aren't talking about a person I know and like, if someone wants to risk their skull they can get on with it as far as I'm concerned.

Of course if it was someone I cared for I would lecture them strongly and repeatedly until they gave in, but few people in the great scheme of things fall into that category!
 
I think if people want to ride without a hat, they should be able to. :D
Evolution works; the fittest will survive.
I think we should be in awe of riders so good that they can confidently stay on anything (even if it dies of a burst aorta under them), and we should ask ourselves why all those woosy eventers bedeck themselves in hats, body protectors and the like, when jessicabeau1 and other experts don't need to.
It is inconceivable, after all, that accidents should be...well, accidental and by their nature unforeseeable.
S :D
 
yes I do have parents and yes I do have family!! not sure what that got to do with anything! I just choose not to wear a fn hat cos I dont like them, lots of people dont wear them why are you judging me???????????? end of!
 
Plus it's our taxes that pay for the NHS that would have to scoop up the brains (if they have any) if one of these non hat wearing riders falls off! So if you don't wear a hat get private healthcare then I don't have a problem at all!!
 
jessicabeau1 said:
yes I do have parents and yes I do have family!! not sure what that got to do with anything! I just choose not to wear a fn hat cos I dont like them, lots of people dont wear them why are you judging me???????????? end of!
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I presume you are young, and therefore immortal.
When you have to put someone in the air ambulance, or observe the long slow process towards recovery after a head injury, or have to break the news of someone's death, your mortality will come slamming home to you.
Please wear a hat - a little inconvenience and discomfort is a small price to pay for your life.
S :D
 
jessicabeau1 said:
yes I do have parents and yes I do have family!! not sure what that got to do with anything! I just choose not to wear a fn hat cos I dont like them, lots of people dont wear them why are you judging me???????????? end of!
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I doubt very much that my mother 'liked' seeing me in resus with parts of my face open to the bone, or she 'liked' spending Christmas with me in hospital with all the bones in my face broken, or that she 'liked' bathing me at the age of 27, or that my sister 'liked' spending her Christmas break nursing me and trying to come up with various forms of liquid diet that I could try to consume through my smashed up and wired up jaw. I can also personally, vouch that I do not like all the scars and surgery that I've been through, and are still to come. I will confess I rather liked the morphine, mind you! :rolleyes:
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i cant actually remember the last time i came off, and sorry but i dont know of any horses that have randomly just tripped and gone right over on a decent surface(whilst schooling on the flat)
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Funny happened to a girl on our yard within the last month. She was riding a little cob, he's a bit on the green side but generally a nice honest and sensible horse. She was cantering a 20m circle during a flat lesson in the good quality well maintained indoor school when suddenly the horse literally forgot his feet and fell right down with her on board. Nothing she could do about it, luckily she was wearing a hat and body protector and the only casualty was her boot, but potentially it could have been a nasty accident. Despite seeing it with my own eyes I have no idea what made him fall, one minute he was fine the next he was picking himself up off the floor looking a bit surprised.
 
my neighbours arab collapsed and died whilst out on a hack. heart attack. he was as bombproof as they come but he couldnt help dropping dead, rider still hit the floor...
 
Have ridden without a hat on holiday etc. Wouldn't jump without one, wouldn't go ride a youngster without one, but like when I had my tiny welshie at home, it was habit to sling something on his head & just jump on regardless. It was more like taking the dog for a walk than riding anyway! xD Wouldn't advise it though.
 
jessicabeau1 said:
give it a rest!!! LOL go and have a go at other non hat wearers
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Oh for goodness sake. No-one was having a go at YOU are anyone else, we were discussing our personal views and responding calmly to the views of others.

Oh, and I'm a teenager too, I presume you are, and in a yard full of young people, I don't know ANYONE who rides without a hat.

*waits for the onslaught, shivering in my boots*
 
I am 59 years old and never ride with a hat oh I might if it is raining but I would not ride in the rain out choice nowadays. I never wear a seat belt either.
No I am not the queen but like her its my life and I will Bl@@dy well do what I like with it .
Nanny state has made everyone a bunch of softies.
 
Stateside said:
I am 59 years old and never ride with a hat oh I might if it is raining but I would not ride in the rain out choice nowadays. I never wear a seat belt either.
No I am not the queen but like her its my life and I will Bl@@dy well do what I like with it .
Nanny state has made everyone a bunch of softies.
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The 'nanny state' has made me want to protect my life by using a comfortable piece of safety equipment then?

Out of curiousity, do you have a family? I'm sure they would have something to say if, god forbid, you were injured.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i cant actually remember the last time i came off, and sorry but i dont know of any horses that have randomly just tripped and gone right over on a decent surface(whilst schooling on the flat)
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Oh dear. Please tell that to U.S. Olympic rider Courtney King-Dye, currently recovering from a coma after the horse she was schooling tripped while doing lateral work... she's making a great recovery, but is currently struggling to walk, talk and eat, according to her blog.


I have gotten away with riding without a hat many times in the past. I wore a beagler and a top hat (about as protective as the cardboard box they came in) for a lot of dressage comps too. I had a good horse slip over and come down with me on a 20m circle warming up for dr at Hartpury College many years ago, but very luckily my head didn't hit the floor, (just wrenched my back getting my leg out of the way so it didn't get squashed!)

I won't ride without a hat again. Bones break pretty easily and the skull is only a thin layer of bone (thinner in some people than others, too...) with your lovely squidgy sponge-like brain floating delicately in it... Looked at like that, it's a total no-brainer to go without a good hat... ;) ;)
 
Shilasdair said:
I think if people want to ride without a hat, they should be able to. :D
Evolution works; the fittest will survive.
I think we should be in awe of riders so good that they can confidently stay on anything (even if it dies of a burst aorta under them), and we should ask ourselves why all those woosy eventers bedeck themselves in hats, body protectors and the like, when jessicabeau1 and other experts don't need to.
It is inconceivable, after all, that accidents should be...well, accidental and by their nature unforeseeable.
S :D
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Only just come back to look at this thread......this is brilliant! Here here!
 
The only time i have ever ridden without a hat, was when i had my pony and a few times bringing him in from the field, jumped on his back and rode him in, i actually have it on video and my mum saying "oh, you should be wearing a hat!" i don't think i would do it now, but i trusted my pony (i know anything could have happend) and i was about 14 (invincible) But now, no definitely wouldn't, i don't feel as safe these days :o Me old bones and all that :D
 
Yes I have but I certainly wouldn't now :) About 10 years ago I used to ride my TB mare without a hat all the time although I now realise it was the most stupid thing to do. :)

It should be compulsory to wear a hat out hacking on roads IMO
 
Stateside said:
I am 59 years old and never ride with a hat oh I might if it is raining but I would not ride in the rain out choice nowadays. I never wear a seat belt either.
No I am not the queen but like her its my life and I will Bl@@dy well do what I like with it .
Nanny state has made everyone a bunch of softies.
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Not you in your siggy then?
 
I don't understand any of the arguments for not wearing a hat. In my honest opinion and based on personal experience, the only people I have known not to wear hats did so for vanity.

Confession from me: many years ago I also fell into this category (hence have voted that I have ridden without a hat), I'm going to use the excuse that this was in the day when we cut the elastic straps off our hats too. I was young and ignorant.

I can honestly say that my hat is 100% comfortable. It is no problem or inconvenience to wear my hat.
 
Stateside said:
Nanny state has made everyone a bunch of softies.
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Huh? The state has nothing to do with riding hats, other than the under 14's. It's just being sensible and taking precautions, surely not a bad thing when on a horse?
Tell all those XC riders that they're a "bunch of softies" I'm sure it will go down very well :D
 
I have done on a few occasions, but this is going back a few yrs now when I worked in America and it was boiling hot. The last time I ever did it, the horse tanked off with me in the school, I had a horrendous fall and really smacked my head. I knocked myself out and injured my neck badly. I was really lucky and I got a b@llocking from the doctors at the hospital. I learnt my lesson and have never and would never do it again.
 
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