FCE Rider Safety Survey Part I

Thank you to everyone who completed the 'Fraidy Cat Eventing Rider Safety Survey! The survey is now closed and am I thrilled with the 288 unique respondents.

There's a lot of rich data that I'm hoping to parse into meaningful insights. In particular, I love the commentary adjoining most questions. For example, the following cloud is built off your comments from the question digging into the various pieces of gear you have used that have been directly involved in an accident (for better or worse).

Actually - the commentary was pretty telling in that particular instance bc many of you scratched your head at the question, observing, 'This is all just regular gear, I don't understand the point of this question!'

While other comments were more along the lines of 'Oh girl, grab yourself a cup of coffee and sit right on down bc I have a little story to tell you!'

That difference, right there, is exactly why I conducted this survey. We are programmed to learn through experiences. We know what we have lived. And as our individual experience with horses grows (86% of survey respondents have been riding for 10+ years), we naturally tend to give more weight to our own experiences, while discounting the likelihood of things that haven't already happened to us. The more we have seen, the more we think we've seen it all.

The following chart looks at the number of responses for each piece of gear listed, distinguishing where respondents felt like the gear caused an accident or contributed to the severity (grays) or instances where the gear prevented an accident or reduced the severity (blues).

  

A lot of time could be spent unpacking the above chart - what does it mean, and what are the implications? How can riders use this information to make better choices about gear?

My three key takeaways from are as follows:

• The old faithfuls require care and attention too. Bits, girths and stirrups are most commonly involved in accidents, for better or worse. These are arguably the critical components of standard gear, regardless of discipline. Survey data reaffirms that problems with this gear can and will lead to an accident, while simultaneously demonstrating that they also play a key role in keeping riders safe. Bottom line: be conscientious about the basics. 

• Neck straps are a winning proposition. Neck straps are the single piece of gear exclusively cited for preventing or reducing the severity of an accident, with over 40% of survey respondents giving them credit. As there is no apparent downfall to riding with a neck strap according to this survey, riders may see real value in adding one to the standard getup. 

• Riding gloves make life better. Or, at least according to the survey, riding gloves prevent things from getting worse. A full quarter of survey respondents claim that riding gloves reduced the severity of an accident. These are an easy and cost-effective method to diminish risk.

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More thoughts to come on the survey and resulting findings soon. In the meantime, the participation contest winner has been drawn via Excel's random number generator.

Congrats to Hannah R - you should receive your $25 Riding Warehouse gift certificate via email today!