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[RC] [RC] Unabashed plug for helmets - Deanna GermanAround here, a whole bunch of us started wearing a helmet after a distance rider was hit by a stone truck while on a conditioning ride about 9 or 10 years back. She survived with minor injuries (unfortunately, her horse didn't, very sad, he was in the prime of life). She was wearing a helmet and it was demolished. It woke a lot of us up that it could happen to any of us at any time. I thwacked my head a couple of months ago on hard packed sand. That was my first head-impact launching and I was glad I had the helmet on. Familiar trails, seasoned horse, semi-planned dismount (landed butt first), but I hung onto the reins for some reason (let go!!) and the horse was spooking backwards so that I whip-lashed back and the back of my head hit the packed ground HARD. The impact hurt despite the helmet and I had a headache for two days. After doing a parts assessment, I was able to hop back on and complete my conditioning ride. Can't imagine the consequences without the helmet. Every ride, every time! Deanna ------------------------------ Heidi wrote: I dashed home from the Owyhee 100 yesterday to pick up hubby and horses to go back to Oreana today for the Owyhee Canyonlands Multiday. I arrived home at dusk, and we still needed to do the pre-ride "warm-up-cool-down" ride on our guys. We rode off on a short, familiar loop, and were doing fine--and in fact, were walking the last bit of it home, within sight of our own barnyard lights in the dark, when both horses spooked at something that scuttled out from the shade of a sagebrush. It was a mild spook--but I had not tightened my girth as much as usual, and my saddle turned--otherwise, I'd've been fine. As it was, I thought I had "planned" my dismount to some degree--and in fact, apparently lit on my elbows and somewhat curled up. What I COULDN'T control was the fact that my horse swung back over the top of me in the dark, and apparently clouted the back of my head with a hoof. I did lose consciousness briefly, and had some short-term memory loss for about 10-15 minutes (as well as MAJOR vertigo when I first tried to get up)--but am otherwise in one piece. I have a sore TMJ--likely from tweaking my jaw on the ground when my head got drilled--but that will heal. I did not know that my helmet was shattered until I got back to the barnyard and took it off. As I sit here at my desk this morning, getting ready to go to town to get a new one before we depart for Owyhee Canyonlands, I am looking at my shattered helmet and thanking God that it is not my head that looks like that. I am one of those riders who grew up not wearing a helmet, and who was not among the first to start doing so. When I finally started wearing one, I always thought that the life that I might save by doing so would be someone else's by the example that I set, rather than my own. I was wrong. And thanks to my helmet, I'm still here to talk about it (and headed to a ride!), instead of in the ER, or worse. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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