Protection vest

[monkeytree]

Hi

My dd is 9 and helps a lady with her horses, in return she has some free riding lessons. I thought about buying dd a protection vest - she is mainly lead and doesn't jump but as a mum I feel she should have everything in the way of safety. Can anyone give me any advice about this please, not sure where the best place is to buy this type of jacket/vest from best quality etc.

The best thing to do is go to a tack shop and talk to them about options. They are called body protectors and the tack shop will help with fitting one correctly.

When I was getting my son one , the most important thing for me was comfort and at that time we went for a race safe - we went to see them and had him measured - they actually did a made to measure one for him (not sure if they still do that) and it lasted him a couple of years.
I just bought him the new version (he had finally outgrown his old one - provent I think it is called and he loves it - I think it will be worth the extra money as riding a summer he would get really hot in his old one, whereas this has some breathability.
My advice is to do somewhere where they have loads of different styles and brands , so your daughter can try on the different styles and find the one that is most comfortable.
I actually think the best place to do this is at a large horse show where there are loads of diff retailers and you can just go around the diff stands.
When I was shopping for one for my daughter (who rides nowhere nearly as much) I did research and thought right - I am going to get "this"brand , but in reality it just didn't fit her well and we went for another one that was far more comfortable.

Def. go to a good shop and try on as many as possible. DD got hers last Summer and the lady fitted her various versions as some come in different length to suit each upper body shape. I think we spent over an hour there.

A friend measured herself and ordered online, she got a telling off from the riding school staff as they saw it didn't really fitted properly. In the end the vest was adjustable enough but it is a dangerous thing to do.