Western Safety hat

[nagskeeter]

My niece has to wear a riding helmet for 4-H. She would really like to use a western hat since she will be doing barrels and showing western. Has anyone ever used one of the western safety riding hats or know anything about them? I've only found a few on the web. any suggestions?

[Epona UK]

Well Skeeter, i can only comment on those that I have actually seen, and I can't say that I've been impressed. the protection value was rounabout zilch.
Us "grown ups" in theory, can make an informed decision as to whether we wish to wear a hard hat or not, and kids seeing us ride bare headed or in a baseball hat want to look more grown up, just like us. But of course horses are unpredictable, even so called bombproof horses can have an off day.
I imagine that you think the world of your niece, and are looking forward to seeing her grow up into a young woman, and eventually have a family of her own. What if she never got to grow up. Please, keep her safe.

[myEllie]

My sister also had to wear a protection hat since she was in 4-H and she had the western style. Epona, I don't know how you can say that they have no protection value. They have to meet the same safety standards as English helmets. I don't really like the look of them compared to the standard cowboy hat, but it does look better than an English helmet for western events. My sister got hers from State Line. I believe it is made by Internation, but I'm not sure.

[Epona UK]

Hi Ellie,
I'm sorry if you misunderstood my post, I said that I could only comment on those that I had actually seen, and so far I have not seen the ones you mentioned, and therefore I couldn't pass any comment on them.
Please don't get me wrong, it's just something that concerns me. We are all old enough and daft enough to do what we please, but I would feel really bad if anyone, even worse, a child, got hurt as a result of some advice that i had given to someone.