Wearing a helmet by KristaWell, at the time of the fall I believe I was 17, and I had been riding western all of my life and recently started learning how to ride english and to jump. Well I was taking a lesson and cantering the lesson horse around the arena, and just one of those freak things happened. I started to lose my balance and the saddle wasn't tight enough so it slipped to the side and I fell and hit the ground hard. I don't usually fall, I had only fallen like three times in my life. My head smacked into the ground but it didn't even hurt, you know why? It's because I had my troxel helmet on that I had just gotten a few weeks earlier for my birthday. If I didn't have it on who knows what could've happened. Also when I looked up my foot was still stuck in the stirrup, so thank God the horse stopped, and if he had dragged me I'm sure the helmet would've helped me then too. Even after that happened though I didn't always wear my helmet, since I'm not forced to wear one, but after reading all of these stories, I will defiantly wear one now!!!!! Be safe and wear a helmet so you can continue to ride horses, It's much better to be embarrased by a helmet then to be dead.