International Helmet Awareness Day is coming up and I have been thinking about my own experiences with (and without) a helmet.

I've been riding for well over 40 years and I can't remember how many times I've fallen off a horse. Most of the time, I was wearing a helmet, but I remember falling twice without one and thinking that it was just dumb luck that I wasn't killed.

 I'm cautious by nature and started wearing a helmet long years ago, when they were very uncool. Years ago, I was riding a horse that was quite hot. The horse spooked at something, leaped sideways, tripped over its own feet and fell. I was out cold - with a helmet. I can't imagine what would have happened had I not been wearing one.

About six weeks ago, a very good friend of mine took her horse and dog on the same after-schooling hack through a path in the woods that they've been taking for years. Some minutes into the hack, her horse came galloping (riderless) home to the barn, followed by the dog. My friend was nowhere to be seen. A terrified search party went out into the woods and found her wandering back to the barn. She had somehow come off and been knocked out. Her helmet was damaged all along the front. She still hasn't recovered and it's been over a month. I have no doubt she would have been killed had she not been wearing a helmet.

Do you have a helmet story you would like to share?