Dave Rabe Accident - wear a helmet!

Dave Rabe is obviously a much more talented rider than I am and he got hurt. I shouldn't expect to be better than him.

One of these helmet debates on this forum no doubt caused me to start wearing a helmet.

Personally, I don't think this thread has to become a debate - more like noggin awareness :) once you've read these cautionary tales, you can take it our leave it. In the end, these only work one way: helmet cannot force others to wear helmets, but can caution them and maybe save a life or two. Going the other direction, I highly doubt a non-helmet wearer will ever convince anyone to stop wearing their helmet!
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I wear a helmet. However, I know a lot of western riders who have gone a lifetime without injuring their noggins. You can be killed by a horse most any time, but we accept the risk in exchange for the fun. I'll let others decide if they enjoy riding helmetless enough to accept whatever increased risk there is.

You are correct, they do not prevent all injuries. However, I believe I've read somewhere that most serious horse-related injuries usually involve the head, and most could have been prevented with a helmet. Plus, the brain is hands down the most important organ to support and the one most likely to lead to death or major life alteration if injured.

Moreover, helmets don't just prevent head injuries. That little extra bulk behind your head can also protect your neck and spine in some instances. For example, I've had minor falls where I hit the ground on my butt/back, and my head snapped back to the ground. Because I was wearing my helmet, I managed to avoid whiplash as well as dirty hair lol.

In another, less humorous, case, a woman I know fell off on a ride and had the same thing happen, but had her neck snapped back, the vertebrae would have hit a sharp rock and she would likely have been paralyzed from the neck down. I realize that was likely a rare case as far as that exact thing happening, but it does support the fact that helmets can reduce/eliminate the movement and impact of the neck in many cases.

But I do look forward to the day you can... I have a shortlist of people desperately in need of one.

A helmet...cheap insurance!
Same with Life Flight, actually.

I never ride with a helmet. Probably won't start.
I hope he makes a full recovery though.

I just find it odd that people find helmets such a distasteful bother. I don't even notice mine, any more than wearing a baseball cap. I like it. It has the same comforting feel as putting on my half chaps or cowboy boots. It's that "suiting up" feeling that makes me feel like I am participating in a real sport.

I agree, I can't remember the last time I rode without one. To me it's just part of it. I actually feel really strange without one.

I never had a helmet when I was a kid, because I couldn't afford one. I was pretty damn lucky that, despite falling off a lot, I never got seriously injured.

When I got back into riding, you know what I did? First thing I did was go buy a helmet. Okay, so it's not a million-vent million-dollar helment, but it's comfortable (it took us ages to find the right size and fit in the store). Yeah, in the summer it gets horrible and sticky, but so what? I've fallen off a horse recently where my head was about three inches from being skewered on a jump stand. If I hadn't been wearing a helmet and collided into that stand, I wouldn't be here (though, honestly, if I had hit the stand and been wearing a helmet I still would have had a major injury).

And my solution for the summer stickies? Shave your hair off. I had hair down to my ass that I loved, and I did it. Got lots of people involved and donated to a cancer thing too. But quite honestly, if you have the money to afford a more expensive helmet than mine with extra vents and crap, you shouldn't be having a big summer stickies problem. I had to compromise with mine because the only good fit and size we could get in the store was a Dublin Onyx. Also, get black helmets. White ones go yellow quickly, and even in a hot climate the colour doesn't make much difference with heat attraction.

I've also trekked a lot, and I never once refused a helmet. Once I had to wear none because they didn't have a helmet that fit me properly (and wearing a bad fitting helmet is worse than wearing none because it can impair your sight by falling down or simply give you a headache and cause a lack of concentration). But I'll never not wear a helmet purely by choice, and I'm just shocked it's taking big falls to make people to realise they should be wearing them. I've stopped my younger relatives from watching competitions before (mainly Dressage, I don't bloody care if a Tophat is traditional, it ain't going to protect your skull if that pumped up stallion of yours decides to use your head as a starting block) where the riders aren't wearing helmets. I don't want them to have bad role models and think they can get away with not wearing a helmet (which they don't when they come to my place to ride).