Inflatable
air jackets (vests) for horse riders have been available for several years. A
gas canister, connected by a cord to the horse's saddle, is discharged when the
cord is pulled during a fall, inflating the jacket in a fraction of a second.
Air
jackets aim to disperse the force of impact in a fall and reduce compression of
the chest. They do not of course provide protection against head injuries and
other serious types of injury.
But
do they reduce the risk of injury in falls? Recent research suggests otherwise.
Lyndsay Nylund conducted a study into the riders’
use of air
jackets and the severity of injury in fqlls occurring during eventing
competitions. Nylund, a former international gymnast and coach,
now runs clinics training riders to fall safely*.
The work formed the basis of a thesis at Faculty of
Health Sciences, Discipline of Exercise and Sports Science, The University of
Sydney, Australia. In a retrospective analysis of FEI eventing competition data,
Nylund related the severity of the injury resulting from a fall to whether the
rider was wearing an air jacket at the time.
Between 2015 and 2017, 1819 riders fell
wearing an air jacket and 1486 riders fell while not wearing an air jacket. He categorised
the injuries as either 'no/slight injury' (3203 riders) or 'serious/fatal
injury' (102 riders).
Statistical analysis of the data showed that the use of
an air jacket was significantly associated with serious/fatal injuries in falls.
The research has been published in the Journal of Science
and Medicine in Sport. Nylund writes: “Riders
wearing an air jacket were over-represented in the percentage of serious or
fatal injuries in falls compared to riders who only wore a standard body
protector.”
He adds that riders
wearing an air jacket had 1.7 times increased odds of sustaining a serious or
fatal injury in a fall compared to riders not wearing an air jacket.
What is the explanation for this finding? Could it be
that riders wearing air jackets feel better protected and so take more risks?
Are air jackets worn by more advanced riders on more challenging courses?
Nylund suggests that further work is needed to understand
the reason(s) for the identified association.
For more details, see:
Do
riders who wear an air jacket in equestrian eventing have reduced injury risk
in falls? A retrospective data analysis.
Nylund
LE, Sinclair PJ, Hitchens PL, Cobley S.
J
Sci Med Sport. 2019 May 25. pii: S1440-2440(18)30588-7.
2 comments:
This reseach seems flawed unless the falls are only compared within the same eventing category ie. all 1* falls, those with airvest, those without airvest. As it is very true the rider with an airvest tends to be a rider in the higher level eventing class. I do however think a horse that is involved in a fall with an airvest gets a big scare from the vest inflation and could then be at risk of further performance issues for the next year in my experience.
This reseach seems flawed unless the falls are only compared within the same eventing category ie. all 1* falls, those with airvest, those without airvest. As it is very true the rider with an airvest tends to be a rider in the higher level eventing class. I do however think a horse that is involved in a fall with an airvest gets a big scare from the vest inflation and could then be at risk of further performance issues.
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