The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) issued a heads-up to equestrian competitors in Dressage and Eventing for the 2011 horse show season and beyond. Approved equestrian safety helmets will be required in considerably more horseback riding competitions, even at the top levels.
Tighter restrictions on the use of equestrian safety helmets were passed by the USEF board of directors during the USEF’s 2011 Annual Meeting, held in Lexington, Kentucky, January 19-23.
"If the technology is available to reduce head injuries, the time to use it is now," USEF President and equestrian Eventer David O'Connor commented in a January 25th USEF statement. "I am very proud of our organization for taking this very important step. It is a huge direction of change."
Basically, the new USEF rulings are twofold:
- The first new rule, effective immediately, insists that all horseback riders wear ASTM/SEI-approved safety helmets while mounted on competition grounds at nationally rated equestrian Eventing competitions in the United States.
- The second new USEF rule, effective March 1, 2011, applies to horseback riders under age 18, who participate in upper-level Dressage (pertaining to the FEI levels – from Prix St. George through Grand Prix). These younger equestrians will now be required to wear ASTM/SEI-approved safety helmets for competition.
The USEF’s new, stricter safety helmet rulings expand previous USEF headgear regulations. Rider safety became a particular focus in March 2010, when 32-year-old Olympic Dressage competitor Courtney King-Dye suffered serious head injuries during equestrian training, leaving the popular equestrian in a coma for a month. (Courtney King-Dye is now working hard to recover and resume horseback riding.)
"The attention to safety in Eventing has led to a 40 percent decrease in rider injuries between 2007 and 2011," explained Malcolm Hook, USEF Eventing Safety Officer and chair of the USEF Eventing Technical Committee (in a January 25, 2011, USEF announcement). "The Eventing Technical Committee could see no reason to delay implementation of a probably inevitable and statistically justifiable rule change in an effort to continue this encouraging trend."
The new equestrian safety helmet rules will be enforced by the USEF, beginning with the 2011 horse show season (including the FEI Young Riders competitions).
US Equestrian associations encourage safety helmet use.
In early January 2011, several of the top equestrian organizations in the U.S. gathered in Wellington, Florida, for a Riders4Helmers Symposium, discussing the importance and impact of the use of equestrian safety headgear. Participants included:
- United States Equestrian Federation (USEF)
- United States Dressage Foundation (USDF)
- United States Eventing Association (USEA)
- United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA)
- Helmet manufacturers and testing authorities
- Medical experts
- Top equestrians
- and more.
Comments
I think this is stupid. it's one thing to require youth to wear helmets but adults? First off a lot of people who believe in tradition and hold to it wear a helmet or hunt cap until they reach 4th level so how many people is this really going to affect comparitively? I always wore a helmet or hunt cap in Dressage until I reached 4th and respected people who followed this, I did not agree with those who sent their kid out riding in a top hat for a training leve test because it looked good. It should not be a fasion statement its a statement of level of accomplishment. Now the USEF is going to tell me I have to wear a helmet? That gets under my skin about as much as the seat belt law. I don't like being told what I can and can't do with my body. Who am I hurting if I don't wear a helmet and have an accident? No one except myself and that's my freedom. This country has long lost it's fundamental of freedom and this is nothing more than another communist idea of controlling what people can and can't do. So I realize the argument they project is that it decreases head injuries among those that voluntarily wear helmets and so requiring it will force injuries to be reduced.
My thought is this.Why can't someone rationally look at this and go.... Hey you know I don't want to take a chance I think I'll wear a helmet. Thats fine by me, I might even be one of them. Show us the statistics and if it's a smart decision smart people will make it, but don't force me.
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