Zara Phillips of Great Britain looks on during the Dressage event on the second day of the Badminton Horse Trials on May 2, 2008 in Badminton, Gloucestershire, England.Jamie McDonald/Getty Images
Courtney King-Dye said she's cried only five times since her accident 22 months ago, when her dressage mount tripped during a schooling session and she fell with him, her head bouncing off the ground.
The 2008 U.S. Olympian still has lasting effects from the accident. Her speech is comprehensible, but "you can clearly tell something is wrong with me," she wrote in an e-mail yesterday. "It's far from normal."
She walks rather independently, but usually with a cane. She can't take stairs without help. Her balance is "highly untrustworthy."
She rides therapeutic horses, patient enough to put up with her. She cannot urge them into a trot. "I plan to ride international Grand Prix again some day," she said. "But I'll be okay if I can't."
She notes that she was in too much of a hurry that March day in 2010 to don a helmet.
King-Dye's accident sent shock waves around the sport of dressage, in which competitors at the highest levels wear stylish top hats, not helmets. Three-day eventers ride with helmets, and so do show-jumping riders, for obvious reasons as they jump formidable obstacles. But what are the odds of a rider falling off a dressage horse, in a sport that is all about subtlety and horsemanship?
One U.S. dressage rider called King-Dye's mishap the "9/11 of the dressage world."
The accident resonated with Akaash Maharaj, the chief executive officer of Equine Canada. On Jan. 1, Canada will become the first country to require dressage riders at all levels – even Olympic – to wear approved helmets at all times at the event location.
"I am very proud of our dressage committee for taking this step," said Equine Canada president Michael Gallagher. "I can guarantee we will not be the last."
The U.S. Equestrian Federation issued a rule earlier this year requiring dressage riders to wear helmets – but only urging those at International Equestrian Federation events to don them.
The British federation is looking at changes to match those of Canada, and Spain has also made changes to its rulings.
Not everybody feels that the changes are necessary. Half of the group at a British vote were against it. Still it passed.
"If they want to make it mandatory, then start putting helmets on people on golf courses," said one long-time equestrian aficionado. On an informal survey of 350 respondents on a safety-awareness website, 90 per cent of riders said they did not wear helmets because they were experienced enough and didn't need them.
"Beginners up to 18 should have helmets," said one international rider, who did not want to be identified. "But at that level, chances of somebody falling off are slim. Chances of a horse falling down are slim. So do you swing the pendulum to the other extreme? I think it might be just a little bit drastic.
"It can happen of course. I understand why they have the rule. I do not put it down. But you are losing the classical art of dressage."
However, Lindsey White, a British-born founder of a website Riders4Helmets.com, formed after King-Dye's accident, said change always engenders resistance. Her campaign is meant to educate riders on the dangers of head injuries and it's snowballed into symposiums and Helmet Awareness Days in the United States.
Last June, top U.S. dressage rider Gunter Seidel broke his pelvis when he mounted a fractious young horse that bucked incessantly. He had been wearing a helmet, which prevented further injury.
"I get e-mails weekly from people who feel a helmet saved their lives," King-Dye writes. "Bummer it took my accident to bring attention to safety, but it makes me feel like my accident served a purpose for the greater good. In any horse sport, the unexpected must be expected."