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Vaulting Safety and Helmets
September 2002
Horse Life; Barb Schmidt
VaultCanada, the national committee that
oversees equestrian vaulting in Canada,
is pleased to see the new ASTM helmet rule
for junior riders. However, the committee
is adamant that this rule not be extended
to vaulting. The use of helmets in vaulting
has been well researched and the overwhelming
consensus is that helmets not only fail
to increase safety in vaulting, they can
actually be a safety hazard. VaultCanada
is especially concerned about reports from
Ontario where a vaulting trainer has been
forced to use helmets because of a provincial
law mandating the use of headgear for riders.
In light of the confusion over helmet
use, vaulting trainers are being cautioned
that the use of helmets is not endorsed
by the Risk Management Plans for this sport.
In May 1996, the American Medical Equestrian
Association researched the issue of helmets
in vaulting. Dr. Robert Faulkner, MD, examine
sports injury records and interviewed coaches
in several countries before reaching the
conclusion that vaulters would not benefit
from the use of protective headgear.
Dr. Faulkner first surveyed American vaulting
teams and found evidence of only one head
injury that required medical care in the
previous five years. In this incident,
the child fell from a horse and landed
in a sitting position. Although the child's
head never touched the horse or the ground,
she did experience amnesia and confusion
for the rest of the day and was diagnosed
as having a concussion. It is highly unlikely
that a helmet would have been useful in
this situation.
Dr. Faulkner then took his study to Europe
where there are now over a hundred thousand
vaulters. He interviewed Ulrike Rieder,
an FEI-O judge and president of the German
Equestrian Federation's vaulting committee.
She reported only one significant head
injury in the past several years.
"I was also
able to interview vaulting coaches from
Sweden and Denmark. They reported
a similar absence of head injuries in their
countries. It is of interest that Sweden
and England did require helmets for vaulting
for several years. Both countries decided
that helmets did not contribute to the
safety of their vaulters and discontinued
their use.
"United States and European vaulters
have joined their gymnastic colleagues
in taking the position that helmets are
a hazard to their sport. Potentially, they
adversely affect balance and can interfere
with peripheral vision. An additional consideration
in vaulting is that in many of the up side
down positions, the vaulter's head is pressed
against the horse's back or side in order
to stabilize the vaulter while the horse
is cantering. Any potentially movable object
between the vaulter's head and the horse
could be unsafe for the rider. I was able
to find no one in the vaulting community
who supports the use of helmets." In
addition to Dr. Faulkner's findings, the
vaulting community contends that helmets
make it very difficult, if not hazardous,
for vaulters to perform proper 'bail out" procedures
and safety rolls.
The Equestrian Medical Association report
commends the sport of vaulting for its
high standards of safety. Young horses
are not permitted in competition and a
horse that gives any evidence of being
out of control is immediately eliminated
from competition. The horse is controlled
from the ground by a longeur who keeps
the horse in a controlled circle. This
vaulting circle produces sufficient centrifugal
force to ensure that an unstable vaulter
will usually land well away from the horse.
The environment is controlled by using
deeper footing than is usually desirable
for any other equestrian sport and no fences
or other solid objects are allowed in the
vicinity of the vaulting circle. Finally
the vaulter is trained from the beginning
how to dismount from a moving horse, either
intentionally or unintentionally, in a
controlled and safe manner. Safety dismounts
are practiced and falls critiqued as a
routine part of training.
After reviewing
several hundred hours of videos of equestrian
competitions ranging
from backyard horse shows to major international
events, Dr. Faulkner states that "no
equestrian discipline gives as much attention
to techniques for safely dismounting a
moving horse as vaulting. This may ultimately
be vaulting's greatest contribution to
equestrian safety. Even beginner vaulters,
when they have a serious loss of balance
or stability, are taught not to attempt
to recover or hold onto horse or tack.
They push away from the horse and accept
a rolling controlled fall.
"Although we might believe that vaulters
would benefit from the use of helmets,
there is at this point no evidence of the
existence of a head injury problem in vaulting.
It is perhaps instructive to note that
in the two countries with a trial of helmet
use each independently decided to discontinue
their use. … It may well be that
the gymnasts and vaulters are correct in
their assertion that helmets would not
contribute to safety and could be a safety
hazard."
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Vaulting