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Ride smart:

What’s the smartest decision you’ll make before each ride? Wearing a certified equestrian helmet to protect you and your brain in the case of a fall.  While no helmet will keep you from ever getting hurt, you’re far less likely to suffer a serious injury to your head and brain if you’re wearing one.

Think about it- you wouldn’t travel in a car without your seatbelt. You wouldn’t play baseball or football or hockey without a helmet. Why would you get on a 1,000-pound animal that can run faster than 30 miles per hour while you are over 6 feet above the ground without an equestrian helmet?

Did you know that:

• Horse-related injuries aren’t uncommon. Horseback riders have the same number of injury accidents* as motorcycle riders!
• If you’re hurt while around horses, head injuries are the most likely type of serious injury.
• Your horse doing something unpredictable, like spooking, bucking, or bolting – is how most head injuries occur, but 20% happen when you’re simply around horses.
• It doesn’t matter if you ride really well, the risk of injury is tied to how much you ride, not how good you are.
• It doesn’t matter if you ride slowly, either serious injuries are determined more by how far you are off the ground than speed. All it takes is a fall from over two feet high to cause serious brain injury,  and the back of a horse can put your head over eight feet up! Also what you hit upon falling is unpredictable- fences, a hoof, the ground, a stone or many other things.
  

*Per riding hour

How helmets work:

Equestrian helmets are designed with one main goal,  to protect your head and brain when you fall. The shock-absorbing liners inside take much of the  head impact that comes from being thrown off a horse. When your head hits something, the helmet might break, crush, or crack. That doesn’t mean it didn’t work – it means that it absorbed the energy that could have caused you serious injury. And you can keep doing all the things that your brain helps you do!

The helmets we’re talking about must pass very tough tests in a testing laboratory to become ASTM/SEI certified. As part of the testing, helmets endure tests including being dropped onto a steel anvil with a pointed edge. The idea is to mimic a rock, fence, or the edge of a barrel hitting your helmet. OUCH! Every helmet Troxel sells meets that standard.