Oct
Isn’t it true that just about anyone can call themselves a professional in equestrian sport? While Malaysia has an instructor training program, half the instructors (or more!) have no professional qualifications. It’s an unregulated industry. Why is that a concern? Because safety, isn’t a topmost priority to an untrained instructor. At a time when the industry is hurting, many ex-racehorses are being deleted and go from the racetrack straight into a so-called “riding academy” or become a beach pony, without any retraining. Accidents are going to happen.
In many cases, the unsuspecting public aren’t even made to wear helmets or proper riding boots, even at so-called Riding Academies.
By ‘Sportshoes’, most people will assume trainers or sneakers, without heels. Many sports trainers or sneakers have big, thick tongues too, which make it difficult to get your foot out of the stirrup, should anything happen while you are riding. If you are learning to ride on thoroughbred ex-racehorses with minimal or no retraining, then yes, unfortunately your chances of being involved in an accident, rises.
Riding without a helmet is plain stupidity. Sure, lots of us have done it, myself included. Sometime we have falls that happen that just aren’t our fault, falls that are just unavoidable. Olympians have been brain damaged from accidents that a helmet might have saved them from.
At the 2008 Olympics, Courtney King-Dye was the youngest member of the United States dressage team and was considered one of her country’s riding international stars with a bright future ahead. Less than two years later, her plans came to a screeching halt. Training at home, the horse Courtney was riding tripped, and the pair fell. Courtney hit her head and suffered a traumatic brain injury. While she was in a coma, it was feared she would not wake up. ~ Courtney King-Dye: How I came back.
If it can happen to an Olympian, what makes you think it can’t happen to you? On an ex-racehorse that hasn’t been retrained, in an unaccredited stable that calls themselves an ‘academy’, training in sneakers, with a groom who promotes himself an instructor, you raise your chances of brain trauma considerably.
Riding at centres that have no concern for safety, is when it gets dangerous, and unaffordable, if you don’t have the specific insurance cover. You might have insurance that doesn’t cover your sport. Or if it does, claims adjusters might ask pertinent questions like, “Were you wearing a helmet when you had the accident?”
Horse riding is considered a dangerous sport by insurance companies. Most riding schools do not offer any insurance, while most riders don’t realise that insurance companies exclude claims from quite an extensive list of dangerous sports. From Skiiing, sky diving and parachuting, to polo and horse riding, are excluded as dangerous sports.
Sure, accidents happen. I’m just saying if you are riding ex-racehorses without a helmet, in sport shoes, while being taught by an unqualified ‘instructor’, your accident is more likely to happen and your accident is likely to be a heck of a lot worse than for a rider in riding school that insists on boots and helmets, and with a qualified instructor teaching you to ride safely, on much quieter criollo horses, or Argentine polo ponies.
Why aren’t riding schools registered? As I wrote in The Cost of Horses, “In Malaysia, stables do not have to be registered with any authority. There are no requirements whether commercial or private. Joining an association such as the Equestrian Association of Malaysia or the Royal Malaysian Polo Association is optional, not mandatory.”
There are professional riding schools that, hopefully, teach better than they can spell, because we get all manner of Equistrian, Equestarian, and one of my favorites, ‘Horse Ridding’ stables.
Polo professionals are not exempted. The definition of a Polo Pro is one who makes his living from the game. There isn’t a training or qualification requirement or standard. Many have never even had a riding lesson in their lives. New polo pros get two years of ‘professional exemption’ in tournaments, where they don’t get counted as professionals so that they can get games to learn their playing trade. That doesn’t mean they know how or what to teach. Or that they have any safety standards to comply with.
Horse riding is a dangerous enough sport that you don’t need to take extra chances. If you are going to take lessons, go to a riding school or academy that actually has safety standards and qualified instructors.
The Pony Club conducts activities in Kuala Lumpur at the KL Academy of Polo at the Royal Selangor Polo Club. KL Academy of Polo, Selangor Turf Club Equestrian & Sports Centre, and the MEM Stables insist on qualified instructors. Yet many people will take chances riding at so-called ‘academies’ that don’t even require proper footwear or helmets.
Stay Safe everyone.
This article was originally published on Pete’s Blog-in-the-garden PBITG.com and reproduced here with permission.
