Minor rant

I'm not the type of person to rant on Facebook, and I try to simply not post anything on pictures that bother me.  I've been noticing a disturbing trend lately, and it BOTHERS me.  I haven't said anything there, but I'm saying it HERE!

Riding at a WALK in the field ... notice that helmeted silhouette?

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, PEOPLE.  There, I said it.  I'm noticing it mainly in my "friends" that are the 20-somethings ... you know the feeling.  Turn 18 and now you have all that glorious freedom to go bare-headed.  I understand the temptation to let those luscious locks fly free as you canter around the ring.  I'm not so sanctimonious as to say I've NEVER done it.  I have w/t/c and even jumped a small crossrail with a bare head, and I'm dang lucky I stayed on.  Think about it:  HOW many times have you been on your horse, then BAM!  On the ground wondering what the he!! just happened.  My fall off Audrey Pony a few year ago; I was DONE.  All I had planned to do was trot over ONE more pole, then call it quits.  Well, as I trotted to it (the one she'd trotted a dozen times already that day), she suddenly gathered her hind end under her, leapt over it like it was a 3'6 jump, slammed me in the face with her head, then spun around and dumped me so hardcore I got a concussion ... WEARING my helmet.

You know ... you've all got LOTS of friends.  And those friends are mostly horsey friends, MANY of those teenagers.  When you post pics of you riding your lovely horse sans helmet, you're sending a message that it's cool and normal to ride without one.  Even if you think you're invincible ... be a role model.  Ask Courtney King-Dye if she would have made the decision to wear her helmet the day she fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury.  She was just out hacking ... WALKING.  Her horse either spooked or fell or something and off she went.  That's the argument for wearing helmets.  Horses are ANIMALS.  They can fall in a hole, trip over their feet, accidentally run you into a tree branch, or get scared enough to temporarily lose their mind.  WHY risk your health?  I just don't get it.  The argument against helmets is the age old "Well, if it's my time to go, it's my time".  OK.  It obviously wasn't CKD's time to go ... now she gets to live life as a handicapped person and can barely talk coherently.

Anyway, that's my Rant of the Day.  Posting pics on Facebook of you riding in your ballcap doesn't amuse me, it infuriates me!