Air vests, once most commonly associated with eventers, have gotten more popular with hunter/ jumper riders over the last few years.
While it may seem like a good safety measure to wear one, the truth is that there hasn’t been sufficient research to determine how much protection they offer and set safety standards for their use.
Eventers are required to wear hard body protectors under their air vests on cross-country. There already are safety standards in place for body protectors.
Hunter/jumper riders just wear the air vests, which unlike the body protectors, do not change their body profile–a look that is important to them. The vests fit nicely over a regular show coat and are attached to the saddle via an unobtrusive lanyard. When the rider parts company with a horse, the lanyard detaches and activates the vest’s trigger mechanism, releasing Co2 to inflate the vest before the body hits the ground.
But there’s a great deal that isn’t known about the effectiveness of air vests operating on their own, without body protectors beneath them.
There’s a lot to take into consideration when calculating the protective value of air vests for riders.
The U.S. Hunter Jumper Association is launching an extensive program of testing the air vests at Virginia Tech, which previously came up with the star rating program for evaluating helmet safety. USHJA has pledged $100,000 toward the research, which will cost a total of $825,000 and cannot begin until $450,000 is raised. Those who wish to contribute can go to this link.
On Tuesday night, USHJA presented an informational webinar with Drs. Stefan Duma and Barry Miller from Virginia Tech. It was hosted by Joe Dotoli, the USHJA’s safety committee chairman.
There are a lot of questions to be answered, from the extent of the thoracic protection offered by the vests, with and without body protectors, as to whether they also may help prevent some head injuries.
One problem mentioned is the prospect that if someone falls from their horse and the vest doesn’t deploy, the Co2 canister used to inflate the vest could prove a danger to the rider’s ribs.
Another downside is the concern that the popping sound of the vest being deployed could spook a rider’s horse or other horses in the vicinity. Companies that make vests are working on making the noise go away, but achieving it “will be a challenge.” The vests started as protection for motorcycle riders, Joe pointed out, and the cycles (of course) didn’t care about a popping noise.
Listeners to the webinar wondered whether wearing an air vest could become a rule, the way helmets did at the beginning of this century. But Joe noted at that time, the U.S. Equestrian Federation “had a good standard from ASTM (The American Society for Testing and Materials) on the helmets.”
Air vests (the black garment over the red coat) are gaining popularity with hunter/jumper riders, despite the fact that more information about their effectiveness is needed. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
To find a standard for the vests, “we don’t know until we do the science,” he explained. The study is expected to take two years after it gets under way. The sooner the money is raised, the sooner that will happen.
One of the goals of the work is to “test and rate the biomechanical performance of equestrian chest protection systems.”
Once manufacturers have information from the study, “they can design vests around the research,” Joe said.
The researchers would like to get any videos that might help them in their work. If you have something like that, send it to bmiller21@vt.edu .
A concern expressed during the webinar is whether the vest can protect someone whose horse falls on top of them. It requires a body protector for an effort to reduce the severity of crush injuries, though it is not always effective against such a traumatic accident.
Joe noted that “eventing falls have been so devastating with rotational falls.” He explained that type of fall doesn’t tend to happen in hunter/jumper competition because of breakaway cups and rails that tumble easily in those classes, while eventing involves many more solid obstacles cross-country.
USHJA webinars have aired on a number of topics. Next up on Monday June 26 at 7 p.m. is a Town Hall on the grassroots of the industry.