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Dec 24 11 4:31 PM
Statistics gathered by the United States Combined Training Association from AHSA Technical Delegate (TD) reports from 1990 and 1991 USCTA-sanctioned events are included in this issue of the AMEA Newsletter. Reports from the TDs include incidents that may or may not have resulted in injury. These statistics were compiled by Lois Cozzi, Competitions Manager in the USCTA Office.
The most frequent injury to the Event Rider is a shoulder injury. Of the total number of injuries reported, 42 (21%) were shoulder injuries, the most common being fractured clavicles and shoulder separations. I personally do not feel a protective riding vest would have prevented most of these shoulder injuries. First of all, since in my experience most event riders wear the vest, the injuries were not prevented. Secondly, the newer vests can now be fitted with shoulder "pads." While some riders feel these restrict their arm and shoulder motion and do not use them, I feel the amount of force generated by a fall probably will not be absorbed by these pads. Many riders, when falling off, land directly on their shoulder. This amount of force localized to this one area is quite difficult to absorb. I am not aware of any studies on whether these shoulder pads protect the shoulder and believe further studies are warranted.
The second most common injury was "Other". Of these, most were mounted and the TD simply reported a fall without apparent injury. If you combine the "Kicked", and Spectator/Groom" and part of the "Other" categories, you find a surprisingly large percentage of the total injuries reported by TDs at the events were unmounted. Nine of these incidents involved being kicked by a horse while: in its stall, applying or removing bandages, leading a horse, walking past a tied horse being next to a horse that was rolling, and while trying to catch a loose horse. The site of the injury was usually not specified, but 9 were kicked in the head (one was unconscious) and one was kicked in the chest. Other injuries in the unmounted category included being run over by a horse (spectator), stepped on my a horse, bitten by a horse, falling on the show grounds (usually by tripping in a hole), and hyperventilation.
Twenty percent of injuries involved the head and face. Of these about half (15) involved a concussion or possible concussion and another ten involved a "blow to the head" but further comments indicated the rider was "okay" and without concussion. Many times the rider was able to complete the event. The type of headgear usually was not specified, but in 2 incidents it was noted SEI headgear might have prevented a more serious injury. The USCTA did not mandate ASTM/SEI headgear until 1991 and then rescinded this mandate later in the season. The number of head injuries was slightly higher in 1991. Five riders were kicked in the head. Three were unmounted. Of those mounted and falling off, both were noted to be kicked below the helmet but on the head. Facial injuries included fractured jaws (3), lip injuries (5), fractured nose (4), bloody nose (3), chipped or lost tooth (2), facial lacerations (4) fractured cheekbone (1), and lacerations inside the mouth (1). Some of these injuries were sustained by the same rider and given in detail here whereas in the chart are listed only once (e.g., all facial injuries combined for that rider as "one" injury.)
The percent of back and neck injuries was the fifth most common type after shoulder, head, other, and bruising. Reviewing the reports indicates the majority of these are neck injuries sustained in association with head injuries. There was one fracture of C6 reported. These did not appear to be significant back injuries. One rider was reported to have sustained a back injury and was noted not to be wearing a body protector vest. Perhaps the small number of back injuries indicates body protector vests are helping reduce these type of injuries.
The place where most accidents occurred was on cross country. Cross country involves jumping fixed obstacles at speed. If a hors hits one of these obstacles, either the rider or horse and rider will fall. The second most common area was either stadium or other unspecified. Warmup areas for the jumping phases were the next most likely place for an injury. It comes as no surprise the jumping phases accounted for 86% of the injuries. Dressage accounted for only 1% and the stable area and other accounted for 12%, again indicating the surprisingly large number of unmounted injuries.
The total percentage of injuries for all riders was 0.36% or about 4 per 1000 riders. Since the average rider shows at more than 4 events per year the number above 1 per 1000 rides. Assuming 6 rides per year, there are about 2 injuries per 100 rides per year.
The number of injuries at the Advanced or Olympic level is small, only 8 in two years. This, however, amounted to 1.3% of the competitors at this level or about 5 times that of the lowest or novice level. The denominators of the two divisions are quite different with 39 times more starters at novice than at advanced! A small difference in the number of injuries in the advanced group would make a huge difference in the percentage. Riders at the upper level have more spectators watching them, perhaps adding to a higher level of incident reports and medical attention than at the lower levels. Also, at Advanced there maybe up to 45 jumping efforts on cross country and steeplechase and 25 on stadium for a maximum of 60 jumping efforts on cross country and steeplechase. In novice there are only 12 to 20 jumping efforts allowed on cross country and 8 to 12 on stadium. At Advanced, the maximum number of jumping efforts is often used, whereas, at Novice it is not. Therefore, an advanced competitor may jump three times the number of fences at greater height and faster speed than a novice would jump. Obviously, the risk of injury increases with the number of jumping efforts not to mention the height and speed at which they are jumped. It should also be noted that one rider accounted for 25% of the incident reports at Advanced. Of the Advanced injuries, all were from falls on cross country. One involved bruises only, three fell without serious injury, one fell with a slight concussion and three sustained fractures. One rider fractured a jaw and cheekbone, one fractured ribs, his pelvis, and sustained a concussion and one fractured a clavicle. Of these 8 injuries, 6 were at CCI Three Day Events, when the horse may be more fatigued, and 3 were at horse trials. There were no non-jumping accidents in the advanced group, indicating perhaps a smaller risk by this group to sustain unmounted stable injuries.
The total number of accidents increased slightly in 1991, but the number of riders also increased by 4%. Overall, the per cent of riders sustaining injuries was low.
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