A Troxel Legacy Gold helmet literally saved my friend’s life. She still had a bad head injury with the helmet, but it was recoverable, and she is fine. She would have died on impact without the helmet. The back brain stem area of the helmet is completely split.
I saw an article in a horse magazine with a photo of the quite small crack in a helmet (which saved their life as well), which was small compared to this one. Yet another friend only lived because of the helmet.
I am an officer in a horse club that advocates the use of helmets with a difficult audience. I would like to know what degree of impact it takes to split this helmet. So I can spread the word, and prove a point to further our message that helmets are important. Another person at an endurance ride fell, her head was stepped on and it left a caved in perfect hoof-print on the helmet. She was healthy at the night meeting when she showed her helmet while crying, and knew she would have died that day. All above were experienced horsewomen with seasoned horses.
The reason I am writing is not to understand how important helmets are, but to get the statistics on the pound pressure on the human skull on impact with the ground, and surely having your head stepped on by a horse. The St. John’s Count Horse Council is always pushing the use of helmets at all times. I want more facts to support my…uh…preaching.
Years ago, I had a really bad accident with a baby horse. I broke 8 bones. The only part of my body that didn’t hurt was my head. I slammed into a tree, landed hard enough on the ground to shatter a bone in my hand. I had a Troxel helmet on. My head landed on the ground and knocked me silly. I landed right next to a tree stump. What if my bare head had landed anywhere (probably paralyzed), but particularly on that stump? I would have been a dead girl, there is no question about that.
I have been harassed over the years for being the only person on Western cattle drives that is wearing a helmet. I have had Western people ride up to me and say “Why are you wearing a helmet?” I say because I have had a very bad accident in the past, and it is important.” They say “you are right” but they are too embarrassed in front of their cowboy friends to wear one. That needs to change.
The Western adaptation of a helmet is huge, has a strap, and is still embarrassing to Western folk. First, you guys have done a good job of the Western Helmet, but it needs to be better. More compact, so it is not so Dorky. The strap is needed, but make it flesh colored so the Western folk don’t worry about their photos. They worry about their photos quite a lot.
I am an English/Gaited Saddle-Seat/Endurance rider. I grew up in Fort Worth,Texas. Home of Western. I can ride a cutter, but, while I get made fun of, I prefer to do it wearing a helmet. and, with leather chaps covering my English tights.:)
So many of us women that have been with horses for decades are still alive because of your helmets, so that we continue to live our lives with our first passion. Horses.
Sincerely,
Beverly
Ms. Foster,
Thank you so much for your email, I appreciate you relaying the story of your friend’s accident and your commitment to wearing helmets. Like you, I’ve seen and heard the reluctance of Western riders to wear helmets, but we are beginning to see a steady increase in helmet use. Thankfully so, because riding is a truly dangerous sport, and equestrian helmets that are certified work very well. I am thankful you were wearing a helmet on the day of your accident!
My father and Troxel’s Chairman, Richard M Timms MD, founded Troxel’s helmet division after a lifelong career in critical care for the purpose of preventing injury. Although he enjoyed greatly helping those in need during medical trauma, he wanted to help individuals further by preventing injury– thus Troxel began making injury prevention products.
Troxel has distributed all sorts of these injury prevention products (including helmets in various markets that were hesitant to ‘accept’ helmet use) , and we’ve learned over the years that changing perspectives on helmet use comes from trainers, riders, and other leaders like yourself that make a personal difference. Troxel provides excellent products with unparalleled quality and efficacy, educational materials, innovation in materials, design, and product development. Ultimately, we strive to increase the number of riders wearing certified helmets and general acceptance of helmets among riders, reducing head injuries in equestrian sport. The combination of leaders in the EQ world and Troxel is needed to make a true difference and successfully campaign helmet use in a very traditional group such as Western.
Yes, the western hat is very big, and unfortunately with today’s most advanced materials, we cannot make it smaller. Our approach is to develop products like the Sierra, Cheyenne, and Dakota for the western rider, and these are steadily gaining acceptance. Please see http://www.troxelhelmets.com/products/index.php?catID=pWestern
To answer your specific question regarding the degree of impact it would have taken to split the helmet, there are a few variables so it is quite impossible to answer without studying the helmet and the accident conditions. However, your friend’s helmet suffered a very serious amount of impact.
The Shell and EPS material underneath the shell will crack as force increases and as force is concentrated. There is not a one for one, direct correlation between increasing force and cracking (of shell or liner) because of many variables of an accident such as the time (in thousands of a sec.) of an impact, surface concentration (pointed or broad), ground conditions, temperature and so forth. Being stepped on by a horse’s hoof is a low speed impact with tremendous focal energy and different than a fall from 2-3 meters (a high speed impact). Both the shell and liner are made in such a way that they give up their structure to the energy absorption process. Of course, as the forces increase and are more concentrated, the structure of these materials will be destroyed. Any impact that causes a fracture in the EPS liner (underneath shell) represents a potentially fatal force if such forces had impacted the person’s head without a helmet. Certainly there would have been an extremely serious head injury.
I hope this information is helpful, and thank you again for your commitment to wearing a certified equestrian helmet, and for being a Troxel customer.
Shay Timms
CEO