{"id":1215,"date":"2019-05-09T13:28:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T18:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2019-05-09T13:29:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T18:29:03","slug":"hit-air-vest-for-best-injury-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/2019\/05\/09\/hit-air-vest-for-best-injury-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit Air Vest for Best Injury Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pictured: Elizabeth Bima on her mare, Savvy, completing their first 50 mile ride together<\/em>. Photo Credit: Darice Whyte<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by: Elizabeth Bima<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m no spring chicken \u2013 I\u2019m not exactly a\nwinter chicken but definitely closer to a late fall chicken than a spring\nchicken.  As such, I tend not to bounce\nas well as I used to.  Each unscheduled\ndismount tends to leave me more sore and bruised than the last\u2026and I tend to\nland on my tail bone.  Ouch.  That tendency combined with my green and very\nreactive mare got me to thinking about airbag vests a few weeks ago.  This led to much googling and a very detailed\nspreadsheet on the pros and cons of available brands and models.  Price didn\u2019t really weight into it.  They\u2019re all stupidly expensive.    Fully armed and prepared with my vast\nresearch, I approached the husband.   His\nresponse \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t think those will do much for you.  You should research the most common riding\nrelated injuries.\u201d  I knew exactly what\nthat meant \u2013 sticker shock.  Sigh.  Wanting to keep the peace but make him feel\nguilty at the same time, I went into passive aggressive mode and told him I\nwouldn\u2019t buy one since I have plenty of sick leave and long term disability at\nwork.   Two days later I fell on my tail\nbone.  After writhing around on the\nground for awhile, I got up and shot a text to the husband angrily informing\nhim of my fate and advising I would be buying a vest post haste.  I then kissed my mare on the nose.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ordered a vest and 5 replacement CO2\ncartridges that very night.  I ended up\nchoosing the Hit Air Advantage because it seems to offer the best bedonkadonk\nprotection and appears less cumbersome than other brands.  I begged, pleaded (I may have cried a bit)\nwith the tack shop to ship my vest extra fast priority post so that it would\narrive before my first endurance ride of the season \u2013 less than two weeks\naway.  I then set about to icing my\nposterior and consuming enough Aleve to knock out, well, a horse.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vest arrived on the Monday before my\nSaturday ride.  I\u2019m really not sure I\nwould have gone ahead with the ride on Saturday if it hadn\u2019t.  My tail bone still aches and, while I can\nstill ride, I didn\u2019t relish the thought of potentially landing on it\nagain.  This, I knew, would make me\nanxious which would make Freckles anxious which would increase the chance of a\nrepeat tailbone thumping.  I was so\nrelieved when the vest arrived earlier than expected.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday morning of the ride dawned cold\nand crazy windy.  The horses were\nsomewhat fresh.  But was I worried?   Nope, nope, nope.  I had my secret weapon \u2013 Mr. Sausage (if you\nsee the vest inflated, you\u2019ll understand the moniker).  Twenty three miles into our fifty mile ride,\nFreckles spooked when we ran over some saplings and they said hello to her\nbelly.  She jumped off to the side while\nI basically stayed in place.  I could\nfeel the tension on the lanyard attaching Mr. Sausage to my saddle and had a\nmoment when I wondered if it would inflate. \nThe next thing I knew, I was wearing an air-filled corset and hitting\nthe ground.  I felt the impact but no\npain.  Awesome!!!  My little mare spooked at the sound of the\nvest inflating and ran off a bit.  My\nriding buddy (the wonderful Ethen Garn) took off after her.  It took a bit of effort to get back up since\nI was encased in sausages.  By the time I\nwas on my feet, Freckles was trotting back to me.  I kissed her on the nose, remounted and we\ncompleted the last two miles of our loop while the vest deflated.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t replace the cartridge on the trail\nsince it was my first time doing so and I wanted to take my time and make sure\nit was done properly.  After we got back\nto ride camp, vetted in and sat down for a rest, I watched and followed a video\nexplaining how to change the cartridge. \nIt was easy.  I\u2019m confident I\u2019ll\nbe able to do it quite quickly on the trail next time.  I managed to stay on the rest of the\nride.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, I\u2019m super happy I bought the vest.  Stupid expensive, yes.  But as my dear friend, Darice Whyte said, she\u2019s spent money on stupider stuff.  Hers is on order!!!   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Elizabeth and Savvy completing a vet check with Dr Glenn Sinclair. Photo Credit: Darice Whyte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictured: Elizabeth Bima on her mare, Savvy, completing their first 50 mile ride together. Photo Credit: Darice Whyte Written by: Elizabeth Bima I\u2019m no spring chicken \u2013 I\u2019m not exactly a winter chicken but definitely closer to a late fall chicken than a spring chicken.  As such, I tend not to bounce as well as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/E2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.distanceridersofmanitoba.ca\/DRM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}