You may have noticed our clinical teams wearing hard hats when treating your horses. This is a move being implemented by equine vets globally to help mitigate the risk of serious head injury.
Statistics show that out of the serious injuries sustained by vets and support staff, most injuries are not caused by the patient itself, but by environmental factors. Examples would be a sudden movement or a kick, either of which result in a loss of balance and then a fall. This can cause injury by colliding with a fence, stable wall, hard surface or equipment, which has the potential to result in a serious head injury.
We fully respect most of our patients are amenable and well-behaved. Yet as prey animals, horses are often at their most vulnerable when sick or injured. So, it is unsurprising that they may react out of character and then purely by accident create a scenario which could lead to a life changing injury.
When our teams wear helmets, it is by no means a reflection on the behaviour of your individual horse or pony, instead our aim is to make the working environment safer for all concerned.