Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE
True Helmet Stories from HORSE-SENSE Readers


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My helmet saved my life. by Jodee

My husband and I were returning after going out for a ride on our new horses. We'd had them ~1 week and it was our first big ride. His horse is blind in the right eye but under most circumstances you'd never know. We were on our driveway and almost back to our barn when our other horses saw us and came tearing across the pasture; the pasture is on the right side of the drive. My husband's horse couldn't see them at first but he heard them and then he suddenly saw them. They were still working out their herd dynamics so I doubt he saw them as friends.

I can't remember all the following activities but best as I can piece it together, my husband's horse reared, he fell off and it scared my horse. My horse bolted towards the barn. His horse took off back down the drive (probably keeping his good eye on the other horses), my horse did a 180-degree pivot and ran flat out towards his buddy. I can remember knowing I was going to fall off and telling myself to grab mane but my next memory is being on the ground, hearing sirens in the distance and having my husband standing over me on a phone talking to emergency personnel. I had been unconscious for a few minutes. I don't know exactly how I hit and my husband didn't see but the back left section of my helmet is badly scuffed and the entire back portion of the interior is fractured. I ended up in the ICU with some brain trauma that I'll recover from but if I hadn't had my helmet on they say I wouldn't have survived.

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