Back in time. How much impact does your cap have?
Since 2013, the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEIn) has made wearing a cap mandatory for almost all equestrian contests. As soon as a competition falls under the rules of this organization, wearing a cap is mandatory. The use of caps has increased in the last few years, but within a number of parts of the equestrian sport there are still many (head) injuries.
Not wearing a cap increases the risk of head injuries, with serious consequences. Think of amnesia (forgetfulness) or neurological problems. In contrast, wearing a cap reduces the risk of (permanent) damage.
In the article described here, they looked at parts of the equestrian sport in which a cap is not mandatory. Think of rodeo (especially in the United States). These contests are not always covered by the rules of the FEI. Wearing a cap is therefore not mandatory here.
This article looks back at the injuries of 28 equestrians who suffered from a head injury as a result of a fall. It turned out that when no head protection was worn, the injuries changed from mild to very severe (or even fatal).
There are several reasons why the equestrians didn't wear protection; this varied from 'no knowledge of the consequences' to 'visual restrictions'. In this article it's suggested that an eduaction program could help these so-called 'risk groups' (such as the rodeo).
Do you always wear a cap? And why yes / no?
Expert opinion by Sophie Delemarre
I always wear a cap myself, and often also a body protector when show-jumping. It has been known for years that wearing a cap prevents injuries. It is good that FEI makes this mandatory. Yet this is not integrated everywhere. Look, for example, at rodeo or the Olympics, in my opinion, the riders at high level could function as an example to many other riders.
What shocked me most when reading this article was that there are riders who refuse to wear a cap due to the appearance.
But, to be honest, I can partly understand this. After years of riding I still haven't found a cap that is pretty, fits me well and doesn't give me helmethair.Perhaps one of our readers is challenged to change this?
> From: Lemoine et al., J Trauma Nurs 24(4) (2017) 251-257. All rights reserved to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Click here for the online summary.
