Riding gear advice please

[seeker]

Should my dd be wearing a back protector to ride? She's 12 - and rides once a week. Walk trot, canter, jump and hacking out whenever she gets the chance. I never wore one so I haven't really thought about it, to my shame, but I notice that a lot of her peers at the stables do. Does your dc?

[SueW]

DD does but her school doesn't require her to except for certain activities. I am pretty sure that those activities DON'T include most of what takes place in the school itself but, like you, we found most of her peers wear a back protector for all lessons and a friend whose DD had given up riding offered us one along with some other equip so we took it.

[seeker]

Thank you - I feel really guilty now! She's been riding since she was 5 and has had a couple of nasty falls, but because it was never part of my riding life she hasn't had one. Will go out straight after Christmas and buy one!

[InnAFull]

My DD has her own pony and doesn't always wear a body protector nowadays for 'ordinary' riding in their rubber-floored school but she always does when riding an unfamiliar horse, or when going cross-country or jumping more than crosspoles.

They really come into their own when a fall happens over a jump if the pony stops and the rider carries on and lands on top of the jump on their back, as is quite common. If the poles are wooden you can get a nasty crack across the back that way which a body protector will cushion.