From: Karen
Jessica,
I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to have discovered Horse-Sense early in my riding career! Your sound, practical advice has helped me over many obstacles. Specifically, your writing on adult riders (and their confidence issues) has been very helpful, so thanks.
Recently (again following your advice), I began part-leasing a 10 y.o. TB gelding who I just love and who is very tolerant of my mistakes. A couple of days ago I had my first fall off of him -- whoops, REALLY shouldn't have left out that stride before the jump!!
I was wearing my approved helmet (I always do!), and as this is not my first fall, I started wondering if helmets wear out. I did some digging in the archives and learned that they have a 'useful life' of about 5 years and should be inspected/replaced after a bad fall. Ok, makes sense. But what, exactly, is a 'bad fall'? I've never had a concussion or really anything worse than the joy of sandy grit in my breeches and some achy muscles. However, in two of the falls, including this last one, my head did hit the ground. So, should a helmet be inspected after every fall? After a horror-story fall? Or somewhere in between? I don't want to be needlessly shipping my helmet to the manufacturer, but I do want to protect my brain (the work I do requires it, and without the job there would be no funding for the horse!).
Thanks in advance!
Just call me -- proud to be a 'bubble-head'! Karen
That's a very good question, and the answer is:
ANY fall that involves landing on the helmet is significant enough to justify sending the helmet back for inspection and possible replacement.
How do you know when it's been damaged? You don't, not always. Sometimes you do, and then the decision is easy. If you sit up and look at your helmet and see that the harness is tearing away, or that the helmet is dented or cracked or split, or that there are pieces missing from the liner, it's easy to say "Wow, I'll bet this isn't protective anymore, I'm going to replace it!"
Damage isn't always obvious, though, and that can make the decision more difficult. A lot of falls don't involve hitting your head - you hit the ground with a hip or shoulder, and just tuck and roll - but if the your head (that is, your helmet!) hits the ground, it's time to have it checked. If you don't think it hit the ground hard, because you didn't FEEL as if your head hit the ground hard, pat yourself on the back for preserving your own brains, and send the helmet off to be inspected. Your helmet did its job.
I've seen a helmet crushed - and the head inside was fine. I've seen helmets cracked completely across - and the heads inside were fine. I once watched in horror as a rider came flying off a cantering horse and slammed into a 6x6 arena POST, head-first - and when we went to see what was left of the rider, she sat up and announced that every single part of her body hurt EXCEPT HER HEAD. What she couldn't see was that her helmet was split almost in two. (An hour later, the doctors told her how lucky she was to have a very mild concussion instead of being dead.) Those are the easy calls - the helmets are obviously wrecked, everyone is impressed, and the helmets' grateful owners buy replacement helmets.
It's harder to be quite as sure of what to do if someone has had a fall, with impact on the helmet, and the helmet still APPEARS to be fine. If the inside and outside both look smooth and intact, riders (and instructors, and parents) tend to think "Well, it's okay, it LOOKS okay, it's not broken." It's just not a safe assumption to make, even if the helmet is brand new, just out of the box, and this is the FIRST fall. Helmets function by absorbing impact energy, and I don't know how many falls a helmet can sustain before it loses its ability to protect the rider's brain in a fall. I'd play it safe and get it checked.
Consider this:
1. If you drop your helmet from your tack locker to the tackroom floor, it probably won't sustain enough damage to keep it from protecting your brain during your ride.
2. But if the helmet has a bowling ball inside it, the helmet WILL be damaged even if the outer shell and lining both look perfectly fine.
3. Your head weighs as much as a bowling ball.
If I'm going to be proved wrong about anything to do with a helmet and a fall, I would MUCH prefer a scenario in which I send in a helmet back to the manufacturer after a fall, only to have the manufacturer say to me "YOU WERE WRONG, actually your helmet isn't damaged, it's fine". I like this better than the scenario in which I DON'T send the helmet back because it LOOKS undamaged, and then the next time it hits the ground, with my head in it, I find out that it WAS actually damaged, and now, since my damaged helmet couldn't protect me, I'm damaged too.
In a sense, helmets - like airbags in cars - should probably be thought of as one-time-use items. They are there all the time, and if they have to do their job, you'll need a new one - and you shouldn't mind getting it, because the fact that you are still around to need a new one means that the old one did its job.
Don't make the mistake of keeping your helmet around until you have a fall, land on your head, AND get a concussion! The helmet is there to help you AVOID concussion. Allow it to sacrifice itself on your behalf - that's what it's supposed to do. If the helmet is in good shape, the lining will nobly and selflessly self-destruct to save your brain. Help it by sending it off to be checked, whenever it gets between you and the ground or a post or a jump standard. If there's a visible impact mark on the outside of the helmet, assume that it will probably need to be replaced, but FIND OUT.
Meanwhile, it doesn't hurt to own TWO helmets, so that you have one to wear while one's being checked for damage. Most of us have more than one pair of boots, breeches, gloves, etc., so the idea shouldn't be completely foreign to any of us. ;-) And of all the things we put on our bodies when we ride, the helmet is THE most important item.
By the way, there are also some forms of impact that even the helmet manufacturers probably haven't considered. For instance, I wouldn't make a habit of whacking things with your helmet. I mention this because on a visit to a lesson barn a few years ago, I saw a little boy and a little girl standing by the barn waiting for their mothers to pick them up after their lessons. They were both carrying their helmets - that is, the little girl was carrying hers. The little boy was holding his by the harness and rhythmically bashing the helmet into a utility pole whilst he chatted with the little girl.
Yes, I did have a word with the boy's mother when she arrived - and with the instructor. The boy had no idea he could be damaging his helmet's ability to protect him, and he didn't intend to damage his helmet - or the pole- in fact he wasn't really aware that he'd been slamming his helmet into the pole, he was just chatting and swinging it, and the pole happened to be there, and it made a nice thwacking noise. Talking while generating percussion accompaniment is not unusual behaviour for small boys - but this could have caused a problem for him later. Even wonderful and responsible parents and instructors who are aware of the dangers of riding in a damaged helmet, and who ALWAYS ask the children "Did you have a fall?" and/or "Did you hit your head?" are unlikely to think to ask "Well, did you happen to spend ten or fifteen minutes this afternoon, hitting a utility pole with your helmet?"
Manufacturers don't ask these questions either, but riders should be aware of the possible impact of actual impacts, so to speak - if you slam your helmet in your car door, or drop it on the concrete when you're carrying something heavy in it, remember that if your helmet is going to protect YOU, you have to do your part to protect IT.
I'd say that YOUR helmet is due for inspection at least - and probably replacement. Send it in. Thanks for the kind words about HORSE-SENSE, and I'm glad you're a bubble-head. Some of my best friends are bubble-heads. ;-)
Jessica
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