Shocked by this from WFP

[Supertrooper]

That he was quoted saying he wouldn't be seen wearing a hard hat in the dressage because it makes you look like an idiot.

He's really gone down in my estimation, partly because he is a role model to young people who look up to him and also as he had a serious head injury not that long ago!

 

[sarahann1]

Really? That surprises me, given his injury and the fact he has young kids, where is he supposed to have said this?

 

[ester]

Rio I think he said it, it has been widely reported.

 

[Zero00000]

I cannot see him saying this myself, even of he thought it..

 

[Fiona]

It was in horse and hound a couple of weeks ago, so I assume he said it to one of their reporters or in a press conference. ..

Fiona

 

[chillipup]

This is a surprise, and if true, a poor choice to make. The grooms at Rio weren't wearing any headgear and one of them took a clout to the head, neither one is a good example to set any young folk.

 

[Nicnac]

He said pillock not idiot and it was reported in H&H at the time. Not clever and there is a letter published in this week's H&H berating him for it.

 

[chillipup]

but better a live pillock than a dead one

 

[Booboos]

Clearly still suffering the effects of brain injury.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Oh dear. Of all the people who should recognise the benefit of wearing protective head gear... He's taken a big step down in my estimation.

 

[cundlegreen]

Well, he was wearing an up to date skull cap when he had his head injury. It didn't seem to help did it? Fair play to him, his choice.....

 

[Supertrooper]

Thanks for putting this up xx

 

[Rowreach]

Well, he was wearing an up to date skull cap when he had his head injury. It didn't seem to help did it? .

You don't think? :O

I've always thought that very tall skinny people look a bit silly wearing a top hat ......

 

[Auslander]

Clearly still suffering the effects of brain injury.

Nope! He's always been like this!

 

[Supertrooper]

Well, he was wearing an up to date skull cap when he had his head injury. It didn't seem to help did it? Fair play to him, his choice.....

It's all very well it being his choice and I'm sorry but he could easily have died either way but it's extremely likely that wearing a hat stopped him from being killed!

He is however a role model and therefore saying he will look like a pillock if he wears one is extremely stupid.

 

[Shantara]

I get asked why I wear my hat to and from the field, especially in this new job where it isn't compulsory. (it was at the previous yard)
And I often wonder, why are they asking me? I deal with big, lively, strong horses. I may not be riding, but they can still cause injury on the ground. If I injury myself, I can't work and if I can't work, I can't earn money, therefore I can't keep Ned or Tamriel! Not only that, but YO will be without a helper and would struggle.
Wear a hat, for goodness sake.

 

[teapot]

Well, he was wearing an up to date skull cap when he had his head injury. It didn't seem to help did it? Fair play to him, his choice.....

It probably prevented him from losing his life to be fair.

In Eventing, it certainly seems the more of the old guard that continue to canter down the centre line in a topper. In one of Harry Meade's VIP columns he went on about new rules being enforced in New Zealand re head wear and how he didn't agree. He spent the rest of column on how to make xc courses safer... Oh and WFP is on the FEI warnings list for 'Incorrect behaviour / not wearing appropriate headgear during prize giving' at Tatts this year.


Choice of hat is changing for the better though http://eventingnation.com/then-and-now-helmets-in-olympic-eventing-dressage/

 

[Sukistokes2]

Wearing a hat is such a simple thing you can do to protect yourself. I feel the same way about BPs. However I do understand that people can exercise their right to choose, their head, their brains and all that! WFP has every right in the world to splatter his brains over the countryside if he wants but as a public, respected figure he also has a responsibity to keep silly views to himself, as his views and comments will be listen too by young people , who are sadly sometimes influenced by celebrity. Me I shall happily carry on looking like one of those so called pilocks.........

 

[Micropony]

I've always thought that very tall skinny people look a bit silly wearing a top hat ......

I am ashamed to say it, but this was actually my first thought when I read he'd said that. And he doesn't pick just any old top hat, but an especially tall one! Personally I think a proper hat would be much more flattering picture with his tall skinny build.

Very superficial when I should have been thinking about safety and his responsibilities as a role model!

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

I don't know about looking like a pillock but he's certainly made himself sound like one!!!

 

[Pocketr@cket]

I don't know about looking like a pillock but he's certainly made himself sound like one!!!

I was about to say who looks the pillock now ....

 

[rascal]

What a silly thing to say. You can buy a new hat, you cant buy a new head. Gone way down in my estimation.
No one rides our horses without a hat, don't care how experienced they are.

 

[Luci07]

While I do agree it was a poor comment to make, particularly if taken out of context, but it should have been heavily stressed that WFP always wears protective headgear when working his horses normally. He wasn't wearing a topper when schooling young horses in a lecture demonstration. I make this point as some more gullible people may well take it as a generic statement. I also think it is a massive shame to say it when the dressage team went to such pains to make a very public statement about wearing correct protective headgear. I never looked at them and thought they looked inelegant, quite the opposite.

 

[stencilface]

The dressage team may have looked like pillocks, but at least they came home with a medal!

I'm another who thinks he in particular looks faintly ridiculous in a top hat. I also never get the disparity between dressage and xc, in xc all everyone talks about is safety, yet in the dressage they seem to forget all of that and don't even wear a proper hat.

 

[Steerpike]

He seems to forget it wouldn't only be himself that would be affected if he fell off and injured himself, his family, his groom's, his owners, his horses. It seems to me quite a selfish decision he has made and a very thoughtless comment.

 

[minesadouble]

His choice as far as I'm concerned. Plenty of top riders school at home hatless, we still wear toppers for evening performance showing.
In addition WFP is the same age as me and when I was riding as a child hats were useless anyway and it was more usual to ride without than with for adults.
When I was showing LR and FR in the 70s when you bought a new riding hat the first thing you did was cut the strap off! Times have changed massively since then.
Riding a dressage test without a hat will be statistically far far safer than driving 100 miles on a motorway and we all do that. You may say it's an unnecessary risk but it's his risk to take and I don't think he should be judged for that.

 

[BlackRider]

His choice as far as I'm concerned. Plenty of top riders school at home hatless, we still wear toppers for evening performance showing.
In addition WFP is the same age as me and when I was riding as a child hats were useless anyway and it was more usual to ride without than with for adults.
When I was showing LR and FR in the 70s when you bought a new riding hat the first thing you did was cut the strap off! Times have changed massively since then.
Riding a dressage test without a hat will be statistically far far safer than driving 100 miles on a motorway and we all do that. You may say it's an unnecessary risk but it's his risk to take and I don't think he should be judged for that.

Well said - I also think it is his choice, and he has every right to choose.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Ohh William, William.........

Dear oh dear. IF he said it - and sometimes the Press just love to take things that someone may have said, and put them totally out of context - then that IS a very silly thing indeed to say.

And very disappointing, if it is a correct reporting of what he actually said.

But how very encouraging that Charlotte Dujardin always without exception wears a "proper" riding hat when she's riding in preference to a top hat, now that IS a good example to set.

 

[Flicker]

His choice as far as I'm concerned. Plenty of top riders school at home hatless, we still wear toppers for evening performance showing.
In addition WFP is the same age as me and when I was riding as a child hats were useless anyway and it was more usual to ride without than with for adults.
When I was showing LR and FR in the 70s when you bought a new riding hat the first thing you did was cut the strap off! Times have changed massively since then.
Riding a dressage test without a hat will be statistically far far safer than driving 100 miles on a motorway and we all do that. You may say it's an unnecessary risk but it's his risk to take and I don't think he should be judged for that.

But we take steps to mitigate the risks inherent in driving, for example wearing a seatbelt, making sure our tyres are safe, having driving lessons etc. It may be a personal choice at the moment whether to wear a top hat or crash hat at that level of dressage, but when we are all aware if the potential risks of our sport, plus the long term implications for the rider and their families etc of a brain injury, feeling that you might look less stylish in one choice than the other does seem a small compromise to make to mitigate those risks.

 

[scats]

Definitely his choice, but I do feel he would have been better off not sharing that comment, given that he is a role model to many youngsters. Sometimes people say things in conversation without really thinking, and I do hope this was one of those occasions.