Riding Helmets: Not "Cool" But Save Lives

Neal McChristy wearing a riding helmet

I would not be writing this blog if I hadn't been wearing a helmet while riding a horse 15 years ago. We were training Mac under saddle and I was mounting him in the round pen. Mac shied at something – we’ll never know what – just as I put my boot into the stirrup. He started galloping around the round pen, me with one foot in the stirrup, and I could not get my other leg over the saddle. I was eventually thrown against the round-pen bars, head first with great force.

Afterward, the helmet bore only a crease, but I am convinced that injury would have been a serious head injury. Instead, I walked away with a slight scrape on my arm. I've had some falls since, with no serious effects, mostly because I never mount a horse without a helmet. I've seen near-misses since by other riders, including horses not cinched tightly having the saddle go under them along with the helmeted rider.

The horse didn’t shy – but what would happen to a bareheaded rider if they did? Every horseman or horsewoman has seen such potential injuries. Horses are flight animals. They need special training so they don’t shy. But no horse is bomb-proof. None. So I have several ways to avert serious head injury on a horse:

1. Wear a helmet.
2. See number one.

Troxel Intrepid Helmet Mulberry

Just as many bull-riders are now wearing headgear, horse riders are, too. Renowned trainers such as Julie Goodnight have become industry spokesmen encouraging riders to wear helmets after the experiences of their own or friends. True, some people think wearing helmets "isn’t cool." Is a life-long injury "cool?"

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) tracks product-related injuries through its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). The USCPSC tracked 20 recreational activities contributing to the highest number of estimated head injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2009. Using CPSC data, an American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) study showed horseback riding ranked 11^th of 20 sports/recreational activities with 14,466 horse-related injuries.

Ovation® Schooler Helmet

Head injuries represent 18 percent of all horseback riding injuries, or about 2,600 in 2009, but were the number one reason for hospital admission. Head injuries account for an estimated 60 percent of deaths resulting from equestrian accidents, according to the Equestrian Medical Safety Association.

The United States Equestrian Federation encourages protective headgear with harness secured which passes or surpasses ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials)/SEI (Safety Equipment Institute) standards for equestrian use and carries the SEI tags. Common sense says some of these injuries would be avoided by wearing inexpensive riding helmets. Those from Jeffers Equine start at about $40 and are available in both Western and English styles.

When training horses under saddle, the need for a good helmet is paramount. Horses can be trained to not shy, but most horsemen know there is always the unexpected event. Our horses are safer now than 15 years ago, but we have this rule at our farm: No one mounts a horse without a helmet. Why? We know helmets save head injuries and save lives.

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Neal McChristy is a freelance writer with over 25 years of journalism experience in magazine, newspaper and Web-based work. He has been contributing editor for a magazine column in the wide-format industry for seven years. He also has over 16 years’ experience as a reporter and editor in the printing and imaging area. He and his wife have three horses.

They were "green," knowing little about horses when they began to acquire them in 1998. They learned about them through training lessons by Pat Parelli, John Lyons and others in the field of "gentle training" and "natural horsemanship". Neal lives in Pittsburg, Kansas, and currently writes action-adventure novels, which he has done for over 10 years. You are welcome to contact him at freelance9@cox.net