VCBH: Unpopular

This current blog hop of L's is a potentially dangerous one. I like it.

What is one unpopular horsey opinion you have?

I have to say that I was very excited to read the responses to this one.  I really thought this was going to go downhill fast when in fact, so far I have found most of the responses fairly level headed and sane.  Come on, people.  Be wild.

So what is my unpopular horsey opinion, you ask?  Here it is: 

I don't actually care if you wear a helmet.

I know that in this day and age of rider safety, it is all the rage to be pro-helmet.  I am not anti-helmet.  Far from it.  I'm pro-choice, you could say.

I think I get this perspective from my Western background which, needless to say, does not lend itself well to the helmet craze.  I personally wear a helmet every time I ride, but in my barn, for instance, I am one of only three adults who does.  And I've also not worn a helmet.  

And I will do it again.

If tomorrow I entered a Western pleasure competition on a horse I relatively trusted, I'm breaking out the cowboy hat.  No doubt in my mind.  

Yeah.  That's right.  That ain't no helmet.

Don't get me wrong.  I have my limits.  I think that children should wear helmets.  I think that green riders should wear helmets.  I think that good riders on unpredictable horses should wear helmets.  Heck, I would even wear a helmet riding Walker in a Western competition if he so much as looked at me with a hairy eyeball before the class.  In fact I did that in a show once - changed to a helmet at the last minute all because I felt so much as the wind change in an unfavourable direction.

I actually got into an argument with a friend about a month ago who barrel races.  She bought a new horse and was insulted - scratch that, she was livid - that I suggested to her that her "totally bombproof four year old" might not be so totally bombproof.

And as a Western rider, I feel the need to add the plug that there are many Western riders out there who wear helmets, just as there are also many English riders who do not.  

But at the end of the day, I'm not your mother.  Riding is a dangerous sport.  Riding vests can also be life-saving but we don't all wear them either.  I am not the helmet police.  And I'm also not a hypocrite.  I have no place scolding.

I agree wholeheartedly with this Mind Your Melon campaign.  If we can encourage more people to wear helmets, then this is a good thing.  Safety should not be unpopular. 

If you ask me if you should wear a helmet, I will probably say yes every time.  

But if you don't wear a helmet, I'm probably not going to shame you into it either unless I recognize an overtly dangerous situation.  What makes one ride more dangerous than another, you ask?  Well, that's what makes it an unpopular horsey opinion, doesn't it.