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For those of you with AirVests! a question!

873 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  The Greener Side 
#1 ·
I just got mine and I'm super excited to try it out.

EXCEPT.... the saddle attachment seems more complicated than I originally expected. My AP saddle has two little hooks on each side (small circular medal rings on each side of the pommel) so i was hoping it attached to that. My bareback pad also has a similar ring.

But the instructions say I should take OFF the stirrup leathers and put them on the stirrup bar... and.. well.. I don't always ride in the same saddle. Sometimes I ride bareback. Sometimes I ride this horse in a dressage saddle. Sometimes i'm on someone else's horse. This seems a little bit of a time investment to my tack up.

Do you always religiously tack up using the stirrup bars? Clearly in my mind I'm thinking "it just has to be secure, and approximately the same placement... so that it can stretch with bouncing but won't activate until a certain distance is reached" but then I'm also thinking "I'm messing with the formula and if it didn't go off correctly - that would be upsetting after making this investment."

Just curious to hear people's thoughts who have more experience than me... and learn from any mistakes others may have made :)

Right now I feel like I just have to add this step. removing the stirrups before riding isn't a huge detail on some saddles.. some they kind of stick so then i'd be a little annoyed... i don't know I really don't have that much experience w/ it. Just a couple saddles here and there where I've taken them on/off.

and then bareback.. i guess airvest is just not possible, and stick w/ regular vest? ignore anything on the bareback pad i COULD attach it to???? :twisted:
 
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#3 ·
The reason they recommend using the stirrup bars as the attachment point is because they're solidly attached to the core of the saddle, whereas the d-rings near the pommel are much weaker, and you run the risk of instead of the vest doing it's job and activating, that instead the ring could instead fail and detach from the saddle, and then not deploying the air vest, and obviously accomplishing nothing obviously

How high a risk that is? eh, that's up to you to decide!

As always, my thoughts are follow the industry instructions given then there can't be any questions if something does happen that it was user error, and what's more important? Health, possibly life and death or ease of use?

As far as bareback riding goes, my thoughts? If there's concerns as to where to attach your vest to the saddle, and where it's safest to between two strong options, I can't likely imagine there's going to be a reliable spot you could find whilst riding bareback.
Riding without it obviously gives you a 0% chance of it working though, so if you feel the need to wear it while riding bareback take the risk and be inventive whilst using your common sense, maybe attaching to a martingale?

Hope this helps :)
 
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