Saturday, May 12, 2007

Riding Helmets Part 2 - Finding the Right One

So now I know all about the standards and why we should make sure to always use a certified helmet when riding. Next is to actually start looking for just the right one. My first stop was Ebay, which had a wide variety of choices in new, used, certified, non-certified with sizes and colors galore and prices ranging all over the place. The online tack shops were just about the same with too many options and features that made my head spin. At least now I had an idea of the range of prices out there and what to expect so my next stop would be the local tack shops.

I also took some time to look up fitting guidelines to make sure that what ever we ended up choosing would work as it was designed to. I found that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs had the best advise for finding just the right helmet. Some of the best suggestion they made were:

1. Put the helmet on and wear it around the tack shop for several minutes.
   It should fit snugly from front to back and from side to side, but not so tightly that it gives you a headache.


2. After wearing the helmet for about five minutes, take it off and look in a mirror. In addition to checking your hair, look for marks on your forehead. If there are marks, try the next bigger size.

With a print out in hand of the names, sizes and prices of the various helmets that I thought would work we jumped in the truck and off we went. Our goal was a schooling helmet for everyday use. We choose to look at both Troxel and the International brand helmets due to the pricing and pretty colors they carry. Finding the right fit really was a task. Sizing was all over the place and the sizes in one model varied from another model even though the same company made them. Of course that makes sense because no one person has the same size or shaped head. We really liked the International because the “dial” fit mechanism on that brand was tucked up near the nape of the neck while the same feature in the Troxel seemed to ride lower and irritate the wearers neck when she imitated the 2 point position required in jumping. We also really liked the Troxel Capriole helmet which had a different type of “dial” mechanism which was positioned much better and didn’t actually dial but rather was pinched together and was a smaller item in general and laid much flatter against the wearers head. Of course that helmet was a bit more expensive and had velveteen flocking which was something we really didn’t want so we ended up with the International Equi-Lite in bright purple.

Over all our adventure buying a helmet really was a trying experience and required us traveling to 3 different shops to find just the right one. We ended up going back to our first stop the next day to pick up the one that fit the best. My advise to you if you are in the market for a new helmet is to remember that helmets vary in size and shape, several helmets will need to be tried so plan on spending quite a bit of time. You will end up having "a bad hair day" but should be able to find a great helmet.

posted by Chris @ Real Horses @ 3:12 PM

1 Comments:

At 11:15 AM,  Tracey said...

LOL...definitely check your hair!

Good article. Also liked your photoshop job on the perch. Very nice! I'm just beginning to dabble in PS. We were recently in Oregon State and visited the wild horse corrals. Never saw any horses in the wild, so I've been busy photoshopping then into the desert =)

 

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