OCTOBER 1996 BACK ISSUE

Part of Horse Previews Magazine website. Posted on 10/1/96; 10:00:00 AM.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

by Cherie A. Beatty

After months of riding outdoors during the winter, wearing more layers of clothing than the Michelin Man, I was more than ready for the warm days of summer, days of sleeveless shirts, lightweight breeches, and boots that weren't thermal. Summer came. I had big plans. The mare I'd worked with all winter and in the spring was settled in two gaits and only needed the third - the canter - before she could be shown in the spring of '97. That was how I planned to spend my vacation, cantering along in the sunshine. Instead I spent a brief period in the hospital, four weeks in bed, and am working on the last weeks of wearing a cheerful fiberglass cast (teddy bears with balloons in design) as the result of an accident. How it happened isn't important but what did and didn't happen is. I'd like to share with you my moment in the sun. I always ride with my stirrup bars open and my helmet on. Both are safety measures. Years of lectures about the necessity of not getting your foot caught in the stirrup in case of a fall, and the logical follow-on that your leather must be free to leave the saddle in an emergency, worked for me. As for the helmet, 33 years ago when there was no equestrian safety head gear, I had a fall that resulted in compression of the cervical vertebrae, a lumbar fracture, two concussions and a hairline fracture of the skull. That particular summer I spent in the hospital. I also lost half my senior year in high school. Although I rode after that fall, when equestrian ATSM safety helmets came on the market, I was there to put one on. The helmets were bulky, heavy, ugly and hot in the summertime (but so were the popular bouffant, lacquered hairdos of the time and we wore those). As the years passed in the places I rode and taught, helmets became the rule, not the exception, except when I was around society horses and interestingly enough, around the professional and amateur horsemen who rode them. Since I've moved to middle Tennessee, my helmet and I have been lonely in the crowd. One well-meaning lady watching me put a helmet on at a trail ride, told me she hoped it wasn't too long until I felt that I could ride well enough that I didn't have to worry about falling off so much. I didn't tell her that I thought 33 years without a fall was a pretty good safety record; I just smiled and let it go. Although I routinely suggest to parents that their children should be wearing helmets, adults, I've always believed, must make their own decisions about what's best for them with this exception - anyone who gets on a horse, at any time, at my barn wears a helmet or they don't ride. Those are the rules I've always subscribed to until now. I've encouraged helmet use in public, demanded it in private, but never preached. I'm changing my approach.

Today I'm going to encourage you to consider changing old habits and to start a new one. If you won't wear a helmet in the show ring, please consider wearing one at all other times when you're riding; insist that your employees follow your lead; encourage your clients to do likewise. You'll be ahead of the law of averages even if you only wear a helmet while working or trail riding. I'd like to use my own recent experience as an illustration. When I was cueing this mare to canter, giving an exaggerated cue behind the girth with the right leg and with the inside leg on the girth, the mare jumped into the canter just about the time my stirrup leather parted company with my saddle (I didn't know that at the time). With one leg in the vicinity of the horse's tail I came forward on the mare's forehand struggling for balance. That scared the mare who bolted, literally out from under me. I hit the arena from a distance of about six feet off the ground and landed on my head, back and with my wrist crumpled beneath me. My hand was at a right angle with my wrist, which was broken in four places. It was later discovered that I'd fractured a vertebrae in my lower back, and by the time the x-rays were processed at the emergency room, I was black and blue from hipbone to hipbone and down the front of my legs. You know what wasn't hurt - my head! I never lost consciousness, I suffered no concussions. My teeth weren't even rattled. The back of my helmet has grapefruit size dents in the closed cell foam but I was miraculously free from head injury. That is not say I wasn't in shock. My blood pressure was 68/32 for longer than the doctors were happy about, but the emergency room physician observed that if my head hadn't been protected, low blood pressure would have been the least of my worries. I'm up and back at work now. Physical therapy will relieve the stiffness after the fractures in my wrist mend and my back will recover with rest and exercise. I'm changing my safety routine somewhat. I'll close my stirrup bars from now on and I've made a sizeable investment in a pair of jointed safety irons. But one thing I won't change - wearing a helmet. I was a supporter before; now I'm a believer. By late fall, I expect to be back on my horses. Winter will come; we may make the spring show season. The important thing though is that I'll be here to do those things not much the worse for wear. So many people, some I don't even know, were kind enough to send cards or call to wish me a quick recovery. I'd like to thank them and I hope that by sharing my experience they, too, will make a decision for safety. But the people I'd really like to thank are the men and women of Toxol Helmet Company. When it counted, on a day that it was least expected, their 12 ounce safety helmet was there for me and that's why I'm able to tell you how I spent my summer vacation. Get smart (or stay smart) - wear a helmet every time, every ride. If not for yourself, do it for someone you love.

Reprinted by kind permission of Cherie A. Beatty from Walking Horse Report, July 29th 1996. Telephone 615/684-8123.