The big hat debate

Recently the whole debate about whether or not a helmet should be compulsory to wear in the dressage arena has arisen, as I am sure you are all aware. The introduction of a safety top hat has turned the world of dressage upside down, turning everyone’s attention to perhaps valuing safety over looks. The development of this hat, which meets EN1384 safety standards, was spurred on somewhat by the Olympic dressage rider Courtney King-Dye’s accident back in March 2010. Whilst schooling her horse at home he slipped and fell, knocking her unconscious, fracturing her skull and leaving her in a coma for almost a month. Courtney was not wearing a hat. Now if this isn’t reason enough to wear a hat every single time you ride then I don’t know what is. Courtney now cannot stress enough how important it is to wear a helmet that meets the current safety standards – quoting from her website;

‘When I first wrote on my website after the coma. I said I was all for wearing helmets, but I didn't want helmets to be all my accident means. Now I think it should be. What else could it mean? It's exactly that that helps save people from injury. It saved a few people we all know from having to go through what I went through. Guenter Seidel, Liz Austen, Debbie McDonald. They're three great riders who have had recent falls and didn't always wear a helmet before my accident. I've said before that if my accident saves ONE person from going through what I went through, it's worth it. That's THREE that everyone knows... Definitely worth it. I can tell myself that my accident is definitely beneficial because of that. Without it, like Lauren Sammis said, it's
just a simple tragedy. This gives it meaning.’

Courtney now no longer plans to wears a top hat to compete in, and calls herself ‘silly’ back when she used to wear one. So clearly, the introduction of this new safety top hat is nothing but a good thing. But will it catch on? Courtney’s accident may have provoked other riders to wear hats more frequently temporarily, but a year on we are still seeing riders both competing and riding generally without helmets on. Proof that possibly the message is yet to really catch on – and that this new hat may take some getting used to. Will riders really sacrifice appearance for safety? I certainly hope so.

The debate continued when a photo of the Queen was published earlier this week. It showed the Queen riding along with two of her grandchildren. Queen Elizabeth was not wearing a hat – sparking outcry from the safety-conscious of the equestrian world. It is well known that she very rarely rides with a hat, and instead chooses to replace it with a headscarf. At the age of 85 it is wonderful that our Queen is still riding (I certainly hope to still be in the saddle at that age!), and although yes it is a risk of safety to be on a horse without a hat, if anyone is allowed it surely is the Queen. I am not in any place to tell our Queen what to do, and I am certainly not going to judge! In this photo I believe what you have to focus on is the fact that the two children are wearing helmets, one even in a body protector. This is what is important.

I may have somewhat contradicted myself here, yet my message I hope is still clear. Wearing a safety-approved hat whilst riding is perhaps one of the most important pieces of advice for any rider to listen to. There is no technical understanding about it, no complicated nonsense to get your head round, just simple pure facts – they save your lives. I can give many examples of riders who have had their lives saved by simply wearing a hat; Oliver Townend at Kentucky 2010 and Elizabeth Power at Badminton 2011 are among the recent. If Courtney King-Dye had have been wearing a hat she wouldn’t have had to go through the trauma and life-changing experience that her accident brought upon her. A year later she still isn’t back to normal – do you really want to risk that happening to you? Can you afford to ruin your life in that way, or possibly even sacrifice it? I believe the answer to that is no. No more lives should need to be affected or ruined by the lack of a hat whilst riding. They save lives – it’s a fact.