Because of the cost, you can buy a cycle helmet for half the price of the cheapest horse riding helmet, some people are tempted to wear cycle helmets for head protection whilst horse riding.
But protective headgear is sport-specific and a helmet designed for another sport is not suitable as it will not have the correct safety standards. eg. bicycle helmets are designed to sustain impact from the height of a fall from a bike not from the height of a fall from a horse.
Detailed studies about the type of head injuries common to a sport are used in the design of protective headgear. As most falls from bicycles are forward bike helmets are designed to protect the top of the head. If you look at an equestrian helmet you'll notice that it covers more of the head, especially the back of the skull where protection is needed to help prevent basal skull fractures.
Equestrian helmets are also designed to withstand kicks from a shod horse, bicycle helmets are not.
According to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute most cyclying accidents occur when travelling at a speed of ten miles an hour therefore cyclying helmets are designed to withstand impact at this type of speed. A horse's canter is faster than this and a fall at the gallop could be at thirty or forty miles an hour, a cycle helmet could not protect your head but an equestrian helmet is designed to sustain impact at those sort of speeds.
- A horse elevates a rider eight feet or more above the ground? - A fall from as little as two feet can cause permanent brain damage.
- Horses gallop at 40 mph. - A human skull can be shattered by impact at 4-6 mph.
- Head injuries account for 60 percent of deaths due to equestrian accidents.
*Equestrian Medical Safety Association
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