I had to badger my husband, too. He
used to wear a western hat, then a baseball cap. One day, riding along a
flat trail, at a flat-footed walk, his horse tripped over a tree root and nearly
went down. He went off, hit the back of his head on the tree root, and
doesn't remember about 2-3 hours of his life to this day. Even then, I had
to fight him about wearing a helmet. I hated doing this, but I persisted
and won. Now he wears his helmet every time he rides. I think the
professional image it lent him when we were on patrol for the state parks helped
win him over, but anyway, I'm so grateful he finally gave in. I tried
every type of blackmail and it all made him mad. It's over, he wears his
helmet, and apparently no hard feelings.
I used to fight this fight, and then a very good friend (ex b/f
actually), and very good rider, w/over 5000 AERC miles got on a green mare,
had dogs spook her, and took a nasty fall, crushing his C7, which is now
titanium, and well...he's living life in a wheelchair. I fought and fought him
to wear a helmet when we were together, which he would do intermittantly. The
day he fell off of this horse, it was her first time on the trails, they were
riding a side trail, and the dogs came up behind them, brushing her hind leg.
She went balistic, and he went off over her shoulder, lit on his head and
rolled down the hill some. From fall to life flight to Boise over 2 hrs
elapsed. Tim would have been brain dead if he had not decided to wear his OLD
helmet that day. It was one of those old ones that you still see around that
rather resembles a small motorcycle helmet. It saved his life at the most, and
his brain at the very least. Well...he put it to me this way, when I asked
him how he was dealing with things, "I'd rather live my life in a wheelchair
than be spoonfed the rest of my life". I told Terry this, "I'd rather push you
around in a wheelchair than spoon feed you the rest of your life, I love
animals and go to the ends of the earth for them, but stupid human tricks do
not impress me, and I'm not a very good nurturer to sick broken people!" He
has worn his helmet ever since and has taken some nasty falls in the past
couple of years...the kinds of falls where you say, DAMN, I'm glad I had my
helmet on!
My .02, WEAR YOUR HELMET!
Darlene
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