helmets

["Jerry & Mary Fields" <fields@mesh.net>]

I want to thank you for and to second the warning about the need to wear helmets. In 96 on a training ride at the local state park, my horse stumbled and somersaulted at the extended trot. We were in the middle of a wide trail with no obstacles in sight. I remember seeing his front feet disappear, then his head. My last conscious thought was, "Whoops, where's my horse?" Thank goodness I was not riding alone that day. (I usually do.) My daughter, who had gone ahead,  came back and found me unconscious, face down in the dirt. The horse was just getting up, having cut his shoulder open. When she woke me, I got up and saw everything double. I was taken by ambulance to the local hospital and Careflighted to another, where an MRI showed a bleed in my brain stem. The neurosurgeon said that, had I bled 4 more cc's, I would have died. I still have double vision if I look up high with my eyes, but it only affects my pool game. I am lucky to be alive, thanks to my angels and my Troxel helmet, which had a dent the size and shape of my eyebrow bone on the inside. My face looked as if I had slid into third base on the right side, but there are no scars.

I don't even train without a helmet.

Mary Fields