Laughing Buck Farm
  • Home
    • About
    • Friends of Laughing Buck Farm Nonprofit
    • Contact / Directions
    • Who We Are
    • Meet Our Teachers
    • Testimonials
    • Featured
    • Newsletters
    • Special Payment Page
  • Programs & Events
    • FAQ
    • Summer Camps >
      • 2025 Summer Camps
    • Individual and Group Lessons >
      • LBF Lesson Payment Page
    • Farm School >
      • Farm School Registration
    • LBF Equestrian Club
    • Special Camps
    • Therapeutic Riding Program
    • Farm Tours
  • Farm Life
    • Barn Rules
    • Horses >
      • Horse Boarding
    • Garden
    • Chickens
    • Goats
    • Pigs
    • Bees
  • Blog
  • Farm Products for Sale
  • Forms and Payments

The Importance of Helmets

1/25/2015

5 Comments

 
Picture
Happy Sunday!

It was so beautiful out today, and I was lucky enough to get out and enjoy it. I’m really looking forward to the pleasant weather that has been predicted for this week. My fingers are crossed that the weather forecasters are accurate this time around!

I want to spend this post discussing the importance of wearing a proper helmet while horseback riding. Contrary to popular belief, bike helmets are not appropriate to wear while riding. I’ll admit that I did not always know this, and now that I do I want to pass on the knowledge to all the horse crazy kids and parents out there.

What’s the beauty in wearing a bike helmet to ride? It is lightweight, brightly colored, and cheap. However, bicycle helmets have liner material at the top of the head and down the sides only, with comfort foam around the sweat band of the head, which offers little to no protection. Certified riding helmets are required to provide protection for specific areas and cover almost the entire back of the head.

Bicycle helmets and certified riding helmets are also tested on different surfaces. Bicycle helmets are “tested on flat, hemispherical, or curbstone anvils. The equestrian hazard anvil has a deep and sharp design, meant to approximate the angle of a horseshoe or a jump standard edge” (American Medical Equestrian Association).

Falls off a horse aren’t the only hazard helmets protect against. They can also protect you from kicks and even swinging heads. I once worked with a trainer whose helmet was cracked when a horse swung its head toward him and smashed its strong cheekbone across the top of his helmet. He was sure glad he was wearing it that day.

Many experienced riders I see choose not to wear helmets, and while this is their personal preference, I would never mount a horse without proper head protection. Being an experienced rider does not mean your head is any safer than the head of a beginner rider. I read somewhere once that while beginner riders typically fall off of horses, experienced riders are thrown off of horses. Unseating an experienced rider is not always easy, and if the rider does come out of the saddle, it will be a much more severe fall than if they were simply to lose their balance.

I don’t allow any of my students to ride without helmets, and I like to set an appropriate example by always fetching my helmet before mounting any horse in the arena. We only get one brain, and we should do all we can to protect it.

For more information on this topic, you can visit
http://www.riders4helmets.com/



5 Comments

Braving the Cold 

1/12/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Brr! It sure is cold outside today. But the cold didn’t keep our Australian native, Evelyn, from playing with the horses. Evelyn has ridden Lady Bug and Clifford as well, but she and Syria have really clicked together. Each horse has a very distinct personality, so it often takes a few tries before I find which horse is best suited to each student. With this horse and rider, however, the connection was instant. Syria is very calm and attentive in Evelyn’s presence, and Evelyn loves to give Syria big hugs. (Warm horses are like big, furry furnaces in the winter!) Evelyn is heading back home on Wednesday, and I’m sure Syria will be anxiously waiting for her return.

The weather looks promising this week, so I’m hoping that we can get some more lessons in before more snow decides to fall. Hopefully the arena won’t be too slushy, because working in mud is never fun. But oh well! As a Colorado native, I should be used to this by now, right?

Hope to see you on the farm! Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

-Natalie



0 Comments

Horsing Around 

1/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Hello there! Natalie here, resident barn manager and riding instructor at Laughing Buck Farm. Welcome to Horsing Around, a little blog dedicated to the horses on our farm. Here you’ll find entries about lessons, camps, and all kinds of other horsey shenanigans.

We’re currently all snowed in here at the farm. Lessons have been on hold until our arena clears up a bit. It was alright when the snow was packed down, but these weird weather mood swings have left us with sheets of ice where the snow had melted into slush. Our horses were slipping all around this morning when I put them outside.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love the snow and this chilly weather, but I’m no fan of ice. I’ve got a terrible knack for falling on ice, so I always get trembly and hesitant whenever I’m walking on it. Plus, an icy arena means no playing with the horses until it is all cleared up. I’ll tell you what, I’m already getting Spring fever, and it’s only January! These could be a long couple of months.

Keep checking back for updates! I’ll be posting lots of photos and even some videos when I can.

Happy New Year!

-Natalie


0 Comments

    Natalie

    I'm the Barn Manager and Riding Instructor here at Laughing Buck Farm. When I'm not working with the horses I like to watch movies or curl up with a good book. Hope to see you around!

    Archives

    January 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly