Returning to riding -- what's with the space-age helmets?

[neen]

Hello all

Like many people on this board, I'm returning to riding after long gap -- 15 years! I took myself off to Frogpool Manor yesterday for a spot of shopping and came away very happy with boots, gloves and jodhs (I seem to have gone up several sizes over the years...) -- but my goodness, the hats! I was looking at the Champion Universal, the one that looks a bit like a cycle helmet and a bit like something from Space 1999. And so light! Can something that light really protect your head? Do the vents really stop you getting sweaty? And, as a 36 year old who remembers Space 1999, would I look a fool in one?

I dithered about in the shop, and finally decided that only the New Rider boards would hold the answers -- so here it is, my first post. Has anyone tried these hats?

Thanks to you all, by the way, for much entertainment over the last few weeks, and for giving me the impetus to finally get back in the saddle.

[Esther.D]

My husband has the world's sweatiest head in riding hats :D and has found the Troxel Gold has made an enormous difference - he can now ride without looking like he has just come out of the shower :D So yes they do seem to make a big difference to sweating, as no traditional hat design has been as successful as this one in keeping his head at a comfortable temperature.

[bexj]

Hello and welcome!!

And also welcome to the "mysterious-world-of-horses-which-has-changed-drastically-since-the-late-80's"!

I know how you feel, and beleive me, this is just the start of it!!

OK, so having been told that my trusty hat with plastic chin cup was no longer up to standard, I purchased a Champion kids hat - ok on comfort but the size of a large saucepan - there was so much padding inside it! Then recently I bought a Dublin Onyx helmet, which is one of these lighter wieight helmets, but doesn't look too space-1999. The difference in both how my head feels much more balanced, and also the lack of sweaty hat-hair is amazing.

Hope you enjoy both NR and your return to the saddle....I'm sure you'll find it both addictive and invigorating!

[Stella2]

Hi and welcome :)

The results of Crash Tests show the lightweight, cycle helmet type actually often stand up better to impact than the traditional types! And yes, they do keep your head cooler!

[HairyCob]

Hello and welcome! Both to New Rider and back to riding!

I'm with you on the space age thing- don't like 'em! I ride in a 'tradiditonal' velvet covered hat- bought recently and up to all the current standards, but I'm a total traditionalist when it comes to hats... and being a little wierd, kind of like the 'sweaty head' syndrome... I clearly remember loving the smell of the inside of my riding hat as a child! As an adult, it doesn't hold the same allure though!;)

Despite being a traditionalist regarding hats, I have to admit to loving the fact that I am no longer restricted to beige or black 'nylony' Johds and green or green turnout rugs... I adore my multi-colour check full suede seat cotton lycra johds, and I LOVE the range of colours avaliable in rugs... not sure but I think the bright purple turnout I spotted at my local tack shop will be finding it's way onto my ned very soon!;)

[pedantic]

Yea me and my daughter have the lightweight grey cycle type helmets with the slits, I like the lightness and slots keep head cool in summer, but now the cold is here I pull a black wolley hat over it to keep my head warm.
Riding and ideas may have changed a lot but people still seem to be rude opinionated and heads firmly up their backsides in the horsey world, horses havent changed they are always honest with you, they let you know exacltly how they feel

[neen]

Thanks for all the replies! I'm going to try one and on and see if I look like a pillock. Although if it's going to stop my head sweating, maybe it doesn't matter what I look like.

I was astonished by the range of coloured jodhs at Frogpool, though neither my riding nor my figure is at a standard I'd want to draw attention to with the jazzier numbers! I came away with plain black in the end -- maybe next time I'll be bolder. Sadly I don't have a horse of my own to dress up, so I'm spared the temptation of multi-coloured rugs.

I'm loving getting back into riding, I must say. It's such a stress buster! Years ago I used to stress *about* my riding -- now I feel my blood pressure drop as soon as I step into the yard. Love it, love it, love it.

[Little Dolphins]

Know what you mean, Neen! I got a Harry hall impact hat which pretends it's trad, but in reality sits too high on my head, I think, to look properly dignified.(comfy tho') I used to like peeking out from under the velvet brim of my old Harry Hall (circa nineteen sixty-splot!), which was brown with a lovely green and yellow silk lining. Yep. Hairy Cob, know what you mean as well; the sweaty hat thing!It was a good "I've been riding" whiff, I'd say.
Got some very expensive jodhs(only because they were the only pair in shop big enough for me)(my excuse), which have fab. fleecy lining. Might wear 'em as pjs tonight... Some of the gear has definitely changed for the better!

Hope you enjoy your new hat and your return to riding!

[Pink's lady]

Beleive me, the ventilated hats are a wonderful invention - until you ride in the rain:rolleyes:

Just make sure you get a good make of hat (that fits obviously). Champion are probably the best 'traditional' hat, and Troxel make the best endurance type hats. In fact, I have both.:D Ooo, and a GPA;)

[pedantic]

Ah yes jods, rack after rack of lovely differnent types colours for the layyyyyyyyyydeeeeeeeezzzzz, BUT the mens are yuk, two colours one shape, soooooo I wear ladies jods :p, one pair I bought for the suede bottom bit to help stop slipping around in the saddle, the other pair cost over £40.00 with the sticky bums covering in the butt and inner legs for same reason as before, works well as long as the saddle isn't too shiny, just had to get used to the zip flap going the other way :o

[ANN H]

I've got a Champion Universal which I bought from Derby House about two years ago. When I was trying it on the lady in the shop actually said to me (I don't like these very much!). Having said that, neither do I now. They're lightweight and stop your head from sweating but they look awful!

[cazrider]

Hi Neen and welcome:)

Ah yes, the hat thing. I have a lovely Charles Owen velvet hat, seems huge and makes my head feela bit top heavy, but I got used to it. However, I am comsidering getting one of the ones with ventilation etc, after coming to the stables in spring to put on my hat which I keep hanging up, to find that a delightful sparrow had created a nest in it. Sadly, I hadn't spotted this in advance and only found out when I'd put it on my head.:rolleyes: Cue much hysterical laughter from friends at the yard. That taught me to put it away.

Pink's Lady, I hadn't thought about the rain problem!

[hApPiNeSs]

i have the champion universal and it is a lot comfier than my old hat. it doesnt look too 'space age' - just like a cycle helmet - but i must say i dont like the silver ones. yuk :p

[Esther.D]

Ah yes jods, rack after rack of lovely differnent types colours for the layyyyyyyyyydeeeeeeeezzzzz, BUT the mens are yuk, two colours one shape, soooooo I wear ladies jods :p, one pair I bought for the suede bottom bit to help stop slipping around in the saddle, the other pair cost over £40.00 with the sticky bums covering in the butt and inner legs for same reason as before, works well as long as the saddle isn't too shiny, just had to get used to the zip flap going the other way :o

Stephen has the same complaint! Plus men's jods are always twice the price for the same thing :rolleyes:

[Trewsers]

Pedantic and Estherd - have you / other half not tried the Jods at Robinsons??? Their robust ones are £16 and my OH has tons of pairs of them - they're a really good fit - I must admit, they're the only ones I think really suit him. I'm glad he found some mens ones - don't think I could have talked him into wearing ladies no matter how confident a person he is!!!:p :D

[Esther.D]

No he hasn't - thanks for the tip Trewsers! And we were in Robinsons not long ago but never looked at the jods :rolleyes: Am about to order some stuff from there so will have a look.

[raingodz]

Hi Neen, I too am a fellow returner with a 15 year gap, when I went to look at hats I fell in to a world of confussion - back in the 80's our local tack shop had either skull caps or classic riding hats with a little bow at the back! (I always wanted a skull cap but my mum would never let me have one - not sure why!), in the end I opted for a Champion Ventair, which I find very comfatable, and light. I don't think it has been warm enough to tell if the vents stop you getting a sweaty head.

As for Jodhpurs, I was at Robinsons super store and they had 50,000,000 kinds for women (or so it seemed) and 4 kinds for men (there were several empty rails where they had sold out as well - including the really cheap ones)! And of the mens ones that they hadn't sold out, they were either too expensive (£75+) or didn't fit very well. So robinsons did not get a sale from me that day! Why does no shop have a good (or even halfway decent) stock of mens jodhpurs (I would wear jeans but they give me real problems with my bionic knee!) and I don't like buying them mail order because I like to try them on... sorry... rant over...

EDIT: I liked space 1999 :o

[pedantic]

Glad it's not just me with the jods thing, the girl at our local tack shop was really helpful and didn't seemed bothered I was trying all these ladies jods on, now all I need is an excuse to wear my wifes underwear :D, not really ;)

[RustyMary]

I haven't got round to buying riding clothes yet as it's still very early days for me, but it's music to my ears to hear that there is lots of choice for women. Roy and I are both cyclists and there is fabulous choice of cycling shorts in wonderful colours for men, but women's ones are always black and boring - it took months to find me a (still fairly dull) blue pair! :o

[horse trainer]

they arnt that good my frend had one she had one and whan she fell off
and cract her haerd open and she had to B rust to hospical and had her heard glood back to geather so they are not advisabal so dont get one
u dont want to b rust to hospical too they are not very very helpful:p :) :o

[Skib]

I'm a bit confused about hats. Are the slotted ones really OKay and where are the test results?
When my beginners' basic hat wore out, I replaced it with top of the market High Spec Gatehouse which was best buy in the Your Horse hat survey. It also happened to fit my head which the Charles Owen didn't. The Survey said was v. important to get the right shaped hat for your head.
This summer I really liked my friend's ventilated Troxel and wanted to buy one for hot weather. But an instructor on the yard who was actually wearing a Troxel, told me to stick with what I have, that my hat was an eventing hat, much safer.
I did know my hat was designed after a woman had a bad fall and the doctors told her father she would have been much better off, if riding hats met the same standards as motor cycle safety helmets. It has always protected me well.
But I had hoped the slotted sort might have got stronger. Stella can you remember where you read about the slotted hats?

[raingodz]

As far as safty of hats goes, I presume that you have to trust the standard tests, my Champion Ventair complies with PAS 015:1998 and B.S.EN1384:1997 so I hope that means it is a safe hat. So I would hope that if these "slotted hats" complie with these standards then they should be safe enough.

[MadWoman]

The ventilated hats are really comfortable, and I never have a problem with getting my head wet in the rain (comes of having thick hair, I suppose). I have always thought that the shiny ones look awful, so I wear velvet covered ventilated hats (the Troxel Capriole at the moment) which is smart enough to do anything in - I have cometed and shown in it, and there are at least two of us who regularly hunt in one. Comfort and smartness can be combined!:)

[Jodie & Ru]

Neen - just wondering where you are learnig to ride seeing as you went to frogpool? I don't live far from there myself.

Agree with the huge hat syndrome, i recently bought a new velvet covered hat and a look like a boulder head.

[notpoodle]

i know what you mean! when i started again, i was confused by een skullcaps as theyre not the done thing where im from! i also found that the little plastic chin things had disappeared again etc. still befuzzled by the lightweight hats as well, so i still have a velvet-y one :rolleyes:

i hear theyre quite good though, the ventilated ones (or Skunk helmets, as I like to call the stripey ones!)

julia
x

[*Sez*]

I bought a Troxel hat when I went to try out Jacob for the first time and it looked huge on my head! Proper egg-head! However, it was good and light weight and fairly cheap, but somehow got damaged within a couple of months. So I went and bought a jockey skull cap, just the same as the ones I wore as a kid. It was a great little hat, comfortable, not too sweaty, but not so light weight as the Troxel. However, it lasted about a fortnight until Salsa bolted with me and I ended up flying into a fence after his emergency stop. The strap at the back of it had somehow come undone and the whole thing sailed off my head mid-fall! So I think my next hat will be something that is a lot harder to shift - I was lucky I only bumped my head slightly on the fence. It would have been a lot more unpleasant if I'd been riding on the road!

[neen]

I used to like peeking out from under the velvet brim of my old Harry Hall (circa nineteen sixty-splot!), which was brown with a lovely green and yellow silk lining.

Crikey, that took me back! I used to borrow a hat with the green and yellow silk lining when I was a kid. My own childhood hat was lined with purple silk. Now you've got me wanting a traditional velvet cap again. I saw someone today with a navy blue one and it did look lovely.

I also noticed today, for the first time, that there's a mirror by the hat rack at the stables. I hadn't quite realised the full extent of my bubbleheadedness in my borrowed skull cap. Whatever I get for myself, it cannot possibly look worse than that!

Jodie, I'm in Blackheath, and I'm riding at Willowtree. Both the people and the horses are lovely and there's the added bonus that I can easily walk there from home -- not something I was expecting to find in London, I must say. Although today I took the bus because I was wearing my new boots :cool: . Whereabouts are you?

[Clipperchuck]

...

[claire hodgson]

i just bought a troxel - in blue - rather smart, I thought and childs size for my small head so cheaper. But I keep my old sweatbox skull for cold cold days ...

[neen]

Well, the deed is now done, the hat is bought. I did try on the Champion Universal, and it was a pretty good fit and SO light and comfortable -- but it was just so cold today, the appeal had faded somewhat. I decided to maybe try it again when the weather warms up! Meanwhile I got a Charles Owen Rider 2000 which should keep me toasty warm (and safe, obviously!) till spring.

Thanks for all the great advice!