What do your little uns wear for safety?

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HaffiesRock

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My niece is 2 and a quarter and has really started to like coming to the stables.

3 questions really.

Firstly, what is the smallest sized helmets you can get? Would a cycle helmet be sufficient for just sitting on and having a walk round being held?

Can you get a cub saddle to fit a round Haflinger?

Any recommendations on clothing? She loves the ponies and want her to look and feel the part :O)

Thanks
 
The cub saddles will go around anything :D

Mine started riding before they were two and I did manage to find proper riding hats to fit, not worth taking the risk imho.
 
SpottyFalula said:
My niece is 2 and a quarter and has really started to like coming to the stables.

3 questions really.

Firstly, what is the smallest sized helmets you can get? Would a cycle helmet be sufficient for just sitting on and having a walk round being held?

Can you get a cub saddle to fit a round Haflinger?

Any recommendations on clothing? She loves the ponies and want her to look and feel the part :O)

Thanks
Click to expand...

I have just gotten one of these for my little girl (she's a very petite 21 months)...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CASCO-Nor...s-Lightweight-Riding-Hat-Helmet-/160865890545
I ordered the XS and it's just arrived so I don't actually know if it will fit her yet but I thought it was quite reasonably priced (I got mine from a different site) and a proper riding helmet.
From what I've read you have to get a hat that's really lightweight as it can affect the muscles in the childs neck if it's too heavy.
I'm on the hunt for clothing, she wears leggings & wellies at the moment...
 
Charles Owen hats (PC approved) start from 00 (50cm) and mine have a standard type body protector but I have seen tinies in the racesafe equivalent which does look scomfy more like a waist coat. and then proper joddy boots come in tiny!
 
I seem to recall that the Mark Davies Injured Jockeys Fund website has some useful information on headgear.

Apparently a cycle helmet is not only perfectly adequate, but to be recommended as it is much lighter. They reckon the neck muscles on small children are not strong enough to bear the extra weight of a proper helmet and it is not good for their development.

The various horse societies don't like them because of the ventilation holes (which is what makes them so much lighter) as there is a chance that a twig or branch could enter through the holes and pierce the skull. From the research though I think that absolutely no-one has ever managed to die this way - but you had better check out the website in case I have got it wrong!

So if you just intend taking her riding round a school a cycle helmet would be fine, and if you intend riding through thick woodlands with killer twigs then buy a proper helmet perhaps.
 
Ditto Llewelyn - "proper" riding hats can actually be dangerous on children under 9 years - certainly on ones this small. Their neck muscles are simply not strong enough to support the weight of thier head and the hat.

However it is not true that riding societies don't like them - the Pony Club actually requires them for the very tiny!

You can get really tiny boots and johds which look fab - try Ebay for them as they get grown out of long before they wear out!
 
I got my little cousin a nice little riding hat from Decathlon when he was 3 for pootling round on my mare on. Its lightweight like a cycle helmet but is for horse riding, and has an adjustable back so it fit him for quite a while (year and a half). Im pretty sure it was this http://www.decathlon.co.uk/black-rds-schooling-helmet-id_8217630.html but in red. Not sure if it offers any more protection than a cycle helmet but its certainly nice and light :).

Pic of it in action:
IMGP1235brighter.jpg

apologies if its huge! (dont know how to resize!)
 
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My nieces wore a cycling helmet the first few time they came - on leadrein in arena.
Because they want to take horse-riding up, I've had my sister invest in back protectors and a riding hat.
 
Think my daughter was 2 when I got a hat to fit, but round the yard & to ride in prior to that, & sometimes after she wore a cycle helmet. She's always had long legs so she had slightly too big jods from about 18 months, cuddly ponies & Robinsons do tiny ones. First jod boots were second hand from a friend & really tiny, think a 6, but from size 8/9 harry hall used to do them. And had a tiny body warmer from next we told her was a proper riding gilet like the big girls. And at about 18 months she kept insisting on wearing brushing boots on her legs till I realised she wanted chaps, they were too big but found a tiny pair, I think cuddly ponies. Did have to adjust them so they didn't fall down. And used to put a silk on her cycle helmet to look like a hat. Realise I'll get shot down, but only ever worn body protectors for jumping etc so didn't have one till at least 4. But tbh with a toddler while I would let them slip if needed to learn balance, I'd never have one in the position it needed a bp, I'd catch one before it fell if needed.
 
My daughter started in a Decathlon adjustable lightweight hat as well. 'Buddies' range by Shires do good tiny chaps, boot and johds, as well as the 'cuddly ponies' make already mentioned. I got things on e-bay, as they grow out of them so quickly. And then in no time they are demanding colour co-ordinated show outfits and their stuff costs more than your own...
 
My 3.5yr old has a skull cap and I just got a body protector last week. She has a cub saddle (fits everything in the world) buy one second hand I would say. I bought a new one as was impatient but they hardly get any wear before they out grow them and no tree so not much to go wrong!

I got the body protector because we have her on a 13.2 and she doesn't NOT NEED HELD DADDY I CAN DO IT MYSELF!!!! :D and I felt if she fell off it was a long way to go.

Also we have a 16 month old filly she will ride and is handling now so I wanted her to be as safe as possible.

I really want steel toes for her but haven't found any small enough yet. (13.2 stood on my foot and I am fairly sure broke two toes since 6 weeks on they still hurt, the day I got her her!!)

1D11EC1C-9B89-4BF3-B780-6A69E7043B57-1469-000001974199A9AD.jpg
 
Thought you might like to see these pictures of my little girl in her new hat, she got very excited when we opened the box & ran off saying something about 'Strawbee' (her pony) and wouldn't let me take it off for ages! I finally managed to con her into taking it off & have taken it to the yard or I think she would have worn it to bed :rolleyes::D...
Islahat1.jpg

Islahat2.jpg
 
Don't ask me why the 2nd picture is sideways - I rotated it on photobucket but it's not rotated it when I copied it over!
 
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