Any firefighter would be the first to tell you, “Please wear a helmet.” They are trained in risk assessment and risk management, and no firefighter would want to be caught dead (literally or figuratively) without his or her helmet when approaching any situation that involves a large stationary object that weighs a thousand pounds, stands on toothpicks, and has the potential to fall on you. Now when you realize that that large object is not stationary–like a horse–and has an opinion (and could potentially kick, bite, or crush you) you should want to increase your protection level around it especially in situations where you must handle it and the horse is fractious or injured.

Remember, we teach emergency responders about how to handle horses in situations like when they are in a trailer wreck, trapped in the mud, upside down in a ditch. Not a time when horses tend to be calm and rational! And the first thing that they put on is a helmet to do anything with a horse. They don’t have to be told or asked to do so. They know there is inherent danger in these scenarios.

What can we learn from a firefighter about handling horses? Let’s take a look at a couple of recent deaths with horses:

This young lady had no helmet on and was riding along the road (more about on-road riding safety in a future blog). This was a preventable (most of the time) tragedy