WEG 2010: Slowly, helmets are being used in dressage

Dressage competitors at the World Equestrian Games look pretty snappy in the top hats they usually wear.

Unfortunately, they do not offer the protection that a helmet provides. According to the New York Times, the tradition of wearing top hats in dressage is changing. Helmets are required in the jumping sports, but not dressage. “The vast majority of dressage riders were not wearing helmets in the practice arena.

Many of those riders come from Europe, which has dominated dressage for years and where top dressage riders typically do not wear helmets,” reports the New York Times.

Helmets are required in equestrian sports that involve jumping, including eventing and show jumping. But in the highest levels of dressage, a balletlike test of a sensitive horse’s training and gaits, riders wear a top hat, which provides no protection. Although serious falls are less common in the competitive dressage arena, accidents can occur at any time, when horses slip or misbehave or when they are startled. Many dressage riders never wear a helmet, even while practicing.

But it seems that is beginning to change. At the World Equestrian Games here this week, a few prominent riders have been wearing helmets in the practice arenas.

At the world games, three of four German dressage riders warmed up in helmets, including Matthias Alexander Rath.

Rath was present when the United States Olympian Guenter Seidel was seriously injured in a fall in June. Seidel was wearing a helmet. “From that day on, I said it’s stupid not to wear a helmet,” Rath said.

Steffen Peters, an American dressage rider and the 2009 World Cup champion, could normally be recognized in the practice area at major competitions by his baseball cap. Since King Dye’s accident, he has traded his cap for a helmet.