I recently had the pleasure of attending a First Aid update course to keep my First Aid and CPR skills current.
All Equine Canada certified coaches are required to keep their First Aid current by attending these updating clinics once every three years. Really, everyone should be familiar with basic first aid and CPR — not just coaches.
This session was unique in that it was all “horsey folk” — we were all coaches in an equine discipline. The instructor, a veteran paramedic who has many years with being an active paramedic in Calgary as well as handling the duties at a wide variety of equine events including many years at Spruce Meadows, was a wealth of information and had many real life stories of incidents in the equine world.
She had an interesting perspective on us “horsey folk”. In her experience, us “horsey folk” tend to be very stoic, accept that coming off a horse is part of our world, and we tend to just get back in the saddle and carry on. She said she has seen many coaches and trainers just tell their recently “dumped” students to shake it off and get back on the horse. In many instances that is just fine but there are times when that attitude is really not advisable.
I must say it was an eye opener because I certainly fall into the category of getting back on and riding. In fact, I can recall my grandmother telling me “it takes 100 falls to make a good rider” — I haven’t hit the 100 mark and certainly do not want to succeed in hitting that number.
One topic we did discuss at length was head trauma. Hitting your head when coming off a horse is a very common problem. Our instructor said the term “concussion” really doesn’t express the gravity of the situation – it really should be referred to as a “brain injury”.
As more research is done, we are learning the long term effects of these brain injuries.
Currently, detailed research is being done on players in high impact sports (football, hockey etc.) and the implications of the hits to the head — we as riders can occasionally experience those kinds of hits although not with the frequency of a football player. Even though many of us do wear helmets, a helmet cannot protect the brain from rattling around in your skull if you receive a serious blow to the head. Your helmet will certainly protect your skull and absorb some of the impact, but your “grey matter” is still being jostled against the skull and that can have serious health implications.
Another significant area that us “horsey folk” should be cognizant of is internal injuries as a result of a kick or fall. There were numerous incidents cited about folks who received a kick to the body or hit the ground hard coming off a horse. In many instances, the person was able to get up, walk around and apparently just be quite sore.
In reality, there were internal injuries to the spleen or liver then ended up being very serious and, in a couple of cases, life threatening. It really does give a person food for thought. While the instructor was talking about these incidents, I was thinking back to a “spill” I suffered while home alone riding on my own property. I came off the horse so hard that it broke my helmet and I know I was “out” for some period of time. While I didn’t fracture anything, I was in tough shape.
I managed to crawl back to the barn, regain my feet, unsaddle the darned horse, hobble to the house and proceeded to sleep for hours. When I did wake up, I was black and blue and in a lot of pain. In retrospect, I did many things wrong but, when your brain has been rattled like that, one does not think clearly. My first step should have been to phone 911 (with the cell phone that was in my pocket when I hit the dirt).
Fortunately, it all turned out well but, in the future, I will be remembering what I learned in my first aid class and handle things differently.
Be careful out there and keep your first aid current.
