Horse Illustrated Magazine

I never liked wearing a helmet. I had all the lame excuses: too hot, too heavy, can’t see. Yet, I was an instructor and my insurance company required that my students wear helmets. All the while, like most of my colleagues, I was still riding in a baseball cap. After a while, that nagging little voice in my head, the one that whispered “hypocrite,” really started to bother me. On went the helmet, but grudgingly, because of my pride.

But then I started meeting people like Pinnie Sears. Now I wear my helmet for the right reason—to protect my head, not my ego.

Olivia “Pinnie” Sears is like most of us—horse crazy, good rider and doesn’t take stupid chances. But on April 11, 2007, Sears, a lab technician, took her new horse, Julio, a Mustang gelding, on a trail ride in the Montague Plains, a wildlife sanctuary in Massachusetts. But the Pinnie Sears who went out isn’t the same one who came back.

**For the full article, pick up the October 2007 issue of HORSE ILLUSTRATED.**

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