NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

April 22, 1999

Helmet Rule Changes in N.D. 4-H Horsemanship Project

The latest agriculture census shows that the number of horses and ponies on North Dakota farms stood at 35,103 in 1997, or 41 percent above the 1992 inventory of 24,914. During the same period, the number of farms with horses increased 15 percent, from 4,074 to 4,699.

There may be potential injuries lurking within those statistics because increasing horse numbers imply increasing interest in horseback riding. For that reason, the North Dakota 4-H program is phasing in a requirement that all riders participating in its horsemanship project wear approved helmets.

"The most common cause of death and serious injury in all riders is head injury, and young riders suffer the highest percentage of head injuries," says Carmelita Lamb, 4-H Youth and horsemanship program assistant. "As educators, we feel it's important to motivate our youth, leaders and instructors to set an example and use protective headgear at all times while mounted on horseback."

Lamb says the rule changes are based on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which offers the following steps for preventing or reducing the severity of injuries related to horseback riding:

• Present educational programming on safe horsemanship.
• Urge parents to match the abilities of their children with the horse selected for the activity.
• Supervise all riding activities based on the skill level of the rider.
• Young riders, when mounted, should wear an ASTM/SEI-approved harnessed helmet, secured by a chin strap (American Society for Testing and Materials/Safety Equipment Institute).

For this year, rule changes in the North Dakota 4-H horsemanship project will affect all riders in speed events (barrels and poles). Next year the mandatory helmet rule will apply to all mounted events, Lamb says. Previously, the mandatory helmet rule only applied to classes over fences (Hunter Hack, Equitation over Fences and Green Working Hunter).

"A key to the new helmet rule is to remember that it is not an effort to avoid the risk but rather to manage the risk of participating," Lamb stresses.

For more information about the North Dakota 4-H horsemanship project helmet rule, please contact Lamb at (701) 228-2253.

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Source: Carmelita Lamb (701) 228-2253

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136