[RC] Helmets - Carolyn Burgess
I, personally, always ride with a helmet, except when I show in western
classes. However, I have a living example where a helmet didn't help
prevent a head injury, and will never help with this kind of head injury.
We had to sort of reconstruct the accident because the only two witnesses to
the accident were the injured party and the horse involved. It happened
after the person mounted the horse on flat ground and was riding up to the
riding ring. Something happened, we don't know what, and the rider ended up
on the ground. But between her and the ground was a concrete fence post,
and she managed to hit the back of her head on the fence post. The part of
her head she hit was below where the helmet offers coverage, called her
brain stem. (If you put your helmet on and tilt your head forward, you will
see how truly vulnerable your brain stem is). She nearly died, but almost a
year later has made almost a full recovery. No small feat.
This was my horse she was riding, one that I had told her about all of his
quirks (many, that I had worked through),and I had a signed release in
place. She is 20, but after an injury like that, her parents could have
sued me but didn't. She even wants to ride this horse again.
So while I personally use a helmet, and insist that anyone who rides my
horses does, there are reasons that people don't (can't and will never get
Hubby to ride in one).
Carolyn Burgess
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
|
