Vancouver woman dies after fall from horse

[schwung]

She died of a head injury and was not wearing a helmet.

www.komonews.com/news/local/87315782.html

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - A Clark County sheriff's officer says a 57-year-old Battle Ground woman has died of injuries suffered in an apparent fall from a horse.

Sgt. Kevin Allais said deputies were called Wednesday evening to a boarding stable in Hockinson after a horse returned without its rider. A fellow rider went looking for the missing woman and found the body of Candace Morrison about a mile up a gravel road owned by a timber company. Allais says Morrison had not been wearing a riding helmet and suffered head trauma.

An autopsy is pending.

Morrison was a music teacher at Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver

[cricket]

I keep my gelding at a mainly Western barn. They keep cows and a lot of people at the barn do penning and sorting. I'm almost the only adult that wears a riding helmet and sometimes I feel a little silly.

Thanks for reminding me why I need to continue to where that helmet.

[trillium]

I have heard about this accident many times on the news today. It is a tragic accident and I feel bad for the womans family.

The one thing that is bothering me about the news coverage is the fact that I have heard the horse "threw" her, or she was "bucked off". If no one was there to see it, why is the horse being blamed? It could of been spooked and the woman could of lost her balance. She could of had a medical problem which caused her to fall.

[bsnlark]

This is one of those issues where there will never be just one answer....
It's PERSONAL CHOICE as it is in many hotly debated issues..

Had this particular rider been wearing a helmet and her horse got spooked and ran off, would the headline be something like...... Rider wearing her helmet dies because she rode alone,
That issue wasnt mentioned,but had there been someone with her would she still be alive helmet or not ?
and she was riding on rural timber land, so ya never know wat mite be lurking around the next tree and spooked the horse.

A helmet didnt save me from getting tossed and knocking my own teeth out, or anyone can walk out to get their mail and bammm ur a gonner.... or the lady in a parking lot ( Damascus, Or ) putting her groceries away and some idiot drives thru and hits her, maybe if she had been wearing her 'shopping helmet' as a precaution , she mite have lived...

now seatbelts, thats a whole 'nuther issue...I'll swear by those !! ;D

[kuntrylivin]

I agree that when it's your time to go, it's your time to go...however, I do think there are certain precautions that we can all take to (hopefully) not tempt fate. Short of wearing a suit of armor, there are always ways we can get hurt, but a helmet is a proven way to avoid many head traumas. I've definitely received my fair share of "non head" injuries. But for the most part, limbs heal, skin mends, but we only have one brain and we sure do depend on it for a lot of things. So to me, it certainly can't hurt to protect it. I might not always look the coolest, but that never did matter much to me anyhow.

[coconut]

Yep...I'm a helmet wearer, my business is *ME* so the head must be functional. What I probably should do is wear it around the house. I still have a dull ache in the back of my head from being knocked out in a bathroom cleaning incident last October. A helmet would have been handy that evening.

I do feel sorry for her family & students and hope she the moments prior to her accident were filled with her passion for horses.

[wildwoman]

I myself should have had my helmet on while trailer loading a couple weeks ago-Joe wigged out after he was tied and the recoil when the snap broke hit me on my brow bone-the helmet would have caught that-as it was I got lucky. I grew up no helmet-rode some rank dude horses-never a helmet-no one ever thought of that back in the stone ages-but now-I don't even think twice about it when riding-and now-while doing other stuff too.

[cardicorgi]

Very sad. She had also apparently been bucked off several months ago, too. "One of her students, Amreal Presler, said Morrison suffered broken ribs a few months ago after she was bucked off a horse... " www.kptv.com/education/22808021/detail.html

It is an ad nauseum and frustrating discussion to both sides - you are either a strong proponent of helmet use, or you aren't.

Fwiw I am one of the latter. I wear one EVERY time I'm on the back of a horse, and frequently when I'm on the ground too although that's often by default.

Where I ride, we are required to wear helmets - no exceptions. Doesn't hurt that I grew up in Pony Club, which mandated them too, so it is habit for me.

I think insurance companies will eventually take the driver's seat in this.

[shekaberry]

Back when I had a horse, I only wore a helmet when I jumped or was on the trail. Just hacking around the arena there was no helmet for me. I was, also, late teens/early twenties and knew the horse very well and was on predictable footing with a lower chance of a fall occuring.

Fast-forward to early thirties and riding zany green-broke horses, its every time, every ride. Broken bones heal, head-trauma not so much.

[cardicorgi]

That's the thing - while we can train and make sure our horses are truly broke, but there is no such thing as a bombproof horse - even the sanest/steady eddies have moments.

Life involve risks no matter what - of course. People die sitting on their couches (trees falling through roofs, etc).

Horses are 1200 pound prey animals - ours is a risky sport/lifestyle.

Why NOT obviate the risk at least some by wearing a helmet?