September 2002
Horse life; Barb Schmidt

Vaulting Safety and Helmets

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."

Next - Safety Guidelines for Vaulting