Five Good Reasons Why You Should Wear A Horseback Riding Helmet

As an enthusiastic rider, you may love your sport. However, it's important that you admit to yourself that it can be a dangerous pastime. You need to do everything you can to keep yourself safe while riding to prevent a debilitating injury. One of the easiest ways to make yourself safer while you're riding is to wear a helmet that's specifically designed for horseback riding. The following are five good reasons why wearing a horseback riding helmet can protect you and minimize the risks of your favorite sport:

You can get in an accident riding at a slower gait

A lot of riders think that they can't get in an accident if they're only riding at a slower gait like a walk or a trot. However, this is not true.

The real danger when you're riding is how high above ground that you're sitting, not how fast you're going. You could injure your head from a fall off of a horse even if the horse is not moving at the time of the accident.

A horse can become spooked regardless of the skill of the rider

Perhaps the biggest reason why horseback riding accidents happen is that a horse becomes spooked and begins behaving erratically so that the rider falls off.

Horses are animals and are therefore unpredictable. No amount of training can guarantee that your horse won't become spooked while you're riding and cause a fall that could land you in the hospital.

The most common horseback riding accident is a head injury

Statistics show that the biggest reason why a horseback rider ends up in the hospital is because of a head injury.

In 2007, there were 78,279 individuals who went to the hospital because of an injury related to horseback riding. Of these individuals, 15 percent suffered from a head injury. This 15 percent is higher than the percentage of any other type of injury resulting from horseback riding for the given year.

Other types of helmet like bike helmets aren't suitable for horseback riding

There are some big design differences between bike helmets, skating helmet, and riding helmets.

When you're horseback riding, you're much higher off the ground than you are while biking and skating. Riding injuries offer protection that's specified to the unique dangers of horseback riding, so you should never assume that a bike helmet is adequate to provide you the protection you need while you're riding.

For more information, contact a business such as EQU Lifestyle Boutique.