Saturday, July 10, 2010

Strap One On!

Just a quick reminder, for those of you who have forgotten (or managed to not yet see), that today is National Helmet Awareness Day.

Please, wear a helmet when you ride. It doesn't matter if your horse is well-trained and calm and absolutely bombproof. Accidents HAPPEN, horses stumble, horses get stung by bees, horses slip, people lose their balance. Wearing a helmet can mean the difference between walking away from your injury, and never walking again. It doesn't matter how good you are or how good your horse is - be safe and wear a helmet.

Dover has their helmets 15% off.

Equestrian Collections has a bunch of helmets 20% off.

SmartPak is offering 15% off their helmets.

You can check here to see a nationwide list of stores offering discounts today, too. In Oregon alone (not exactly a mecca of tack stores), there's one store in Corvallis and one store near Portland participating.

Riders4Helmets also have these awesome t-shirts in an e-Bay store, with 100% of the proceeds going to Courtney King-Dye and the Equestrian Aid Foundation.

  Seriously, who wouldn't want a kickass shirt like this??

If you didn't hear, Courtney (who is an OLYMPIC level rider) had a bad fall from a young horse who just got his legs tangled while cantering on the flat. He went down with her; she was not wearing a helmet, hit her head very hard, and was in a coma for a long time. She's still on a very long road to recovery.

I've done my part today by harassing my barn owner to buy a helmet for her daughter, and just ask my fellow boarders who tend to ride bareheaded - they get bothered by me all the time! :-) So go out there, replace an old helmet if you've had a fall in it or it's more than four years old, buy a new helmet if you don't wear one, or talk a friend into buying a helmet if she doesn't use one.

Every time, every ride!

5 comments:

Leah Fry said...

LOVE your new header photo!!

And yes, I wear a helmet every time I ride. I need to protect the few brain cells I have left from growing up in the 60s & 70s.

SprinklerBandit said...

I actually bought myself a new helmet last week. I loved my old one, but I'd had it for years and it needed to be replaced.

;-) Every ride, every time.

Alanna M said...

I too wear one every ride, every time. Thanks for the reminder!

Muppet said...

At the dressage barn I was at, the head trainer took a really bad fall off a training horse and got a mild concussion. (!!!) Luckily, she was ok.

I have enough health problems right now without adding in head trauma!

What I really don't get is how people choose not to wear one. Head trauma is SO FREAKING HARD AND EXPENSIVE TO RECOVER FROM! Ahem. Many people don't think of the sheer and simple cost of an injury like that.

I know I will get to see stupid things all the time in the hospital, but come on! That is something that is totally preventable.

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