Wearing a hat and head injuries

Have you had a head injury...

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I had a subdural haematoma from a very minor knock to my head that I scarcely remember & it wasn't equine related. All the years I rode sometimes minus a helmet & I knock my head (probably) getting out of a friend's car & nearly die. The neurologist said that with bad luck a small knock can cause a bleed, though I do have to take Warfarin. They told me never to ride because of the Warfarin & this happened no where near a horse.
Does anyone take Warfarin & still ride?
 
Voted while riding, with hat, didn't seek medical attention for my concussion but had to have an operation on my hand for the same fall. I usually wear a hat riding, always out on the roads, but not always if I'm riding in the field, or just mucking about

The head injury resulted not from hitting my head, but from the jarring effect of hitting the ground, I remember landing on my backside, then arm, then feeling my head bounce, after that I saw stars and later my lorry windscreen looked all shimmery, I thought it had been shattered at first.

If you come to a sudden stop, your brain rattles around in your skull like a boxers whether you're wearing a hat or not, although my hat does protect me from my usual trick of hitting low branches as the horse I ride is a big beastie
 
Well it's obvious that looking at these results that it is the wearing of a hat that is dangerous!
Unfortunatley (or fortunatley) you cannot strictly take these results seriously because far more people wear hats than don't.
 
Had nasty accident when horse and I went down whilst jumping in a menage a few years ago. Had a proper hat on and was very lucky to get away with severe concussion. Was fitting at the hospital, had an emergency CT scan and was in hospital for four day, one of which was in intensive care. I was incredibly lucky not to suffer lasting damage, although I do struggle from time to time even now with memory, taking in and relating information and some other day to day tasks, but this does not impinge on my life to any great extent.

When you see a so called 'expert rider' riding a three year old on the roads without a) flourescent and b) a hat on you have to question just how 'expert' they really are. People like that don't deserve sympathy if they have their head staved in by a flying hoof or hit their head on tarmac. I lost a friend through falling off onto a kerb stone on a borrowed hat that didn't fit her and was lent to her by another friend. She left a husband and two kids.

I would never ride without a hat. But I think until its happened to you or you have had a near miss you don't think about the repercussions.
 
Certainly my non-equine head injury has made me very wary of knocking my head. When I rode as a child & young adult I often went hatless & never wore one doing my pony or loading for a show.
I have been advised not to ride again & I doubt if I will. I'm sad I won't get the opportunity again but very grateful for all the good times I had growing up.
Reading these posts is very sobering.
When I was recovering in hospital a young woman on the same ward had previously been in a coma for 11 weeks following a fall on a road where the pony had been killed. She had lost her long term memory & friends & family were trying to stimulate her with photo albums. Staff were amazed at her recovery. She had been wearing a hat.
 
After reading this thread...then reading this comment on youtube...it makes you think.

"I see we have some horse "professionals" commenting. I'm totally surprised this video got views. I've never seen a person wear a helmet while breaking a horse. News flash, it's probably safer but makes you look like a geek."
 
i haven't voted because i haven't worked out how - i've been lucky in that although i have fallen off a lot more than i care to remember i have only hit my head bad once when i took a friends pony xc and she went to take a flyer over an oxer of telegraph poles and then changed her mind, i flew over the handle bars and summersaulted over the oxer and hit my head on the floor, was a bit dizzy and had headaches for a few hours after, replaced my hat and thankfully there has been no lasting damage!

however we, up until a few weeks ago shared our yard with a team of dressage horses and riders at a very high level and the two riders i never saw wear a hat and one of our liveries is a BD judge and she has three horses and two are quite young and constantly buck her off and she's so tiny - she just flies off - and she doesn't wear a hat! i'd not seen anything like this and my pony club DC would have had a fit if she'd seen it and was completely shocked when i was told that the dressage riders had had a livery a few years ago who didn't wear a hat and walked her horse down the drive to the gate something happened and her horse spun round and bolted back to the yard and turned right tightly onto the slick concrete of the car park after it had been raining and the horse slipped and landed on her and she unfortunately passed away there in the car park, a lot of the aforementioned people witnessed this and still they ride horses with out a hat, i've heard them say a couple of times 'oh i really should wear a hat when riding this one' and still they don't! we - having eventers - can't understand how we wouldn't dare ride with out a hat and our horses aren't nearly as highly strung/poncy as the dressage horses and they all trot around with a bare head! the worst thing is our livery who gets bucked off quite often rides late at night like 8/9pm when there is no one at the yard which is in the middle of no where, god forbid anything should happen to her when no one is around!

you can probably tell by the length of my post that the 'no hat' topic really gets my back up - its ridiculous not to wear one when something like that could potentially save your life!! rant over!!
 
Got left behind jumping in a field, fell off (wearing hat) and landed flat on my back and head and got knocked out for a few seconds. Went to A&E, quite a nasty concussion, was kept in overnight for obs. I felt very unwell for about a week, had nosebleeds, headaches, blurred vision and loss of balance.

At a school I went to years ago we were encouraged to "care for horses" so our 1 hour riding lesson consisted of a 3 hour visit to get the horses in from paddock, groom, tack up etc. We weren't allowed in the field to catch without hats on. Just as well as I got a hoof in the side of the head one day, absolutely perfect semi-circle crack mark in the helmet. I was a bit shocked, stupidly didn't tell anyway and hired a helmet for my lesson. Later felt sick during my lesson, was sick and then fainted. Went to A&E and had yet another concussion and kept in overnight for obs. Again I felt pretty rough for a few days after.

Girl at my yard slipped on the icy concrete when she jumped off the muck heap and hit her head, she wasn't wearing a hat and was in a coma for 3 weeks. She had a clot which caused a stroke and it took her 2 years to learn to walk and talk again and 3 years to return to riding. She thankfully made a full recovery but an horrific experience for a 13 year old and her family to go through.

Also seen a few people knocked out hunting when their caps with no harness have come off after the first "bounce" on the ground.

Unfortunately accidents happen like the girl who jumped off the muck heap, no-one would naturally think to wear a hat for that but I cannot understand the reasoning behind not wearing a helmet for riding. I remember seeing a video posted on here some time ago, was a young girl galloping her horse on a road in America I think. She had no hat on and was riding 1 handed and filming with her other hand, it made me feel sick with nerves watching it. Throw a watermelon out of van window at 20mph onto a road and then think again about wearing a helmet.
 
Riding, wearing a hat, not serious - thankfully! So very very glad I was wearing one, flew off at speed (horse went right I went left) bounced a few times and in the process hit the back of my head hard enough to make my nose bleed, never had a proper nose bleed before or after. I don't think about what would have been if I hadn't been wearing a hat.
 
My youngest daughter fell off her pony for the first time today,thankfully wearing her hat.Pony was standing still,and put her head down to snatch some grass.Cue small child executing a perfect somersault over the pony's head,landing flat on her back and banging her head.She was shaken,but got back on and rode home,with me walking alongside,asking her her name and how many fingers I was holding up.
 
I had a fall out hunting just before Christmas. I cannot remember anything about the hour prior or approx 6 hours after, I was air lifted to hospital. I sustained two black eyes a broken nose and fractured back (no body protector worn). I believe my black eyes and broken nose were probably partly caused by the stiff peak on my brand new Charles Owen hat (fortunately not wearing the battered 20 year old relic I had been using two weeks earlier). I am interested to know whether the stiff peak actually saved me from incurring much worse injuries (it's been drummed home by onlookers and medics to me how fortunate I have been not to have been more seriously injured). Do you suppose that a jockey skull cap and floppy silk might offer a reduced level of protection than a traditional style peaked hat?
 
I broke the bridge of my nose when I faceplanted the ground in an H2000 as the peak snapped off. The peak didn't instantaneously snap though which did something nasty to my neck. I wasn't knocked out but I was seeing stars and I felt as though my neck was broken. I was checked out by A+E staff and just told it was soft tissue damage and compression to the vertebra. I didn't require any treatment just a soft neck brace and rest followed by a few sessions of physio and ended up fine, it was frightening though as I literally couldn't move my head from left to right, the muscles had gone into spasm and completely locked up. They didn't fix my damn nose though so it's still a bit wonky now :o

I would imagine that if I was wearing a jockey skull at the time I would have had a more smashed up face but possibly not the neck injury. It's difficult to tell really.

I hope you recover okay from your injuries, sounds horrible :(
 
I voted hat on while handling, needing medical attention
While i dont normally wear a hat for leading, my tb had been on box rest for 3 months with 5-10 mins building up walk work in hand before able to turn out, every time we went out she was very unpredictable, just exploding out of nowhere, no specific time/place, she could be ok one day next a leaping, bucking, kicking, rearing idiot, that was with half a tube of sedalin on board.
She leapt up, all four feet off the ground,pulled the rope through my hands, spun and managed to connect the kick, sent me flying by connecting with my arm and head, all because a wheel barrow squeaked behind her :eek:
Glad to say i managed to hold on to her but she had scraped and dented my hat and split my arm needing 4 stitches, although x ray didnt show anything, i can feel a dent in the bone where the kick landed.
I was so glad id worn my hat or she would have fractured my skull as she was fully shod
 
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Whilst handling, no hat. Broken nose :(
 
It would be interesting to see how many people suffered neck injuries from wearing a hat with a fixed peak. Yes they protect your head but what about effects from wearing them on other parts of the body.

I only ever had one injury mild was wearing a hat. I dont really remember what happened. I know I was jumping and lost a stirrup and then horse jumped the wing instead of the fence and I came off and couldnt remember the events of that day. I went to the hospital but only because I couldnt walk on one of my legs- strained I think. And I threw up but that was shock i think.

I have a job at a western yard and was talking to him about hats. He said that wearing a hat would cause him to lose balance and more likely to fall off, even despite how light they are nowadays. was interesting to see a different point of view.
 
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