RIDERS4HELMETS ANNOUNCES LARGEST EVER HELMET GIVEAWAY AND CHANCE TO WIN AN iPAD2

As someone who has worn a helmet on horseback my entire life, I've never quite understood why people don't.  Just seemed to me that horses being what they are, something is bound to happen and any precaution one can take would be sensible.  Wearing a helmet was no different to me than, say, wearing boots with a heel, gloves, or not standing directly behind a horse's hind end.

That being said, I will admit that I never wore a helmet while riding a bicycle until I was an adult.  Given the hills where I grew up and the speeds we hit descending them, this seems foolhardy at best.  I can only surmise that it never occured to me or my parents because no one other than Tour de France riders wore helmets back before the Flood.  But I digress...

Our friends at Riders4Helmets passed this news along to me and I wanted to help spread the word: 

The popular helmet awareness campaign Riders4Helmets.com has partnered with generous sponsors to offer the largest ever giveaway of riding helmets with a combined value of over $6,500, in addition to a highly sought after iPad2. Visitors to the Rolex Kentucky 3DE (April 28-May 1) may visit the Riders4Helmets area in the “old” indoor arena to register for the giveaway, receive helmet safety literature, and, have the opportunity to participate in helmet fitting demonstrations (times available online). Equestrians who are unable to attend Rolex may register for the giveaway by visiting www.riders4helmets.com (see giveaway tab on website). The giveaway closes midnight on May 1st, 2011.




Riders4Helmets would like to offer sincere appreciation to all of the sponsors who have made this giveaway possible. The iPad2 giveaway is kindly sponsored by: Riders4Helmets.com, EquestrianCollections.com, Horseshoes by Design, Triple Try Farm, Rise Systems LLC, Equestrian Aid Foundation, Broadstone Equine Insurance, New York State Horse Council, Rancho Los Ecuestres, Evadi Farm. The helmet giveaway is kindly sponsored by: GPA, Samshield, Troxel, Charles Owen, International Riding Supply (IRH), Tipperary, Ovation, Devon-Aire, Pegasus and KEP Italia.


Riders4Helmets horse and rider logo wear will also be available for purchase at Rolex, the proceeds of which will be used to fund educational events such as helmet safety symposiums. The logo wear collection is sold exclusively online by EquestrianCollections.com who are donating 100% of all proceeds from sales of logo wear to the Riders4Helmets campaign, in support of their efforts to increase the use of helmets by the world-wide community of equestrians.


The Riders4Helmets campaign has rapidly gained the support of equestrians around the globe. In the United States it was the organizer of National Helmet Awareness Day in 2010 and hosted the Riders4Helmets Helmet Safety Symposium in January 2011. Plans are already in the works for International Helmet Awareness Day 2011, and the 2nd Riders4Helmets Helmet Safety Symposium, both to be held summer 2011. “We are delighted at the support the equestrian world has shown Riders4Helmets,” said White.


For more information on the Riders4Helmets campaign, visit http://www.riders4helmets.com/ or contact Lyndsey White at lyndsey@riders4helmets.com. You can also follow the campaign at www.facebook.com/riders4helmets and http://twitter.com/riders4helmets.


Riders4Helmets was founded in early 2010 after Olympic dressage rider Courtney King Dye was seriously injured in a riding accident. King Dye, who remained in a coma for a month following her accident, was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and is currently undergoing rehabilitation. Jeri Bryant donated her helmet campaign t-shirts (featuring the slogan “Strap One On–Everyone’s Doing it”) to an eBay store set up to raise funds for King Dye, and a partnership was formed, resulting in the Riders4Helmets campaign.