Nearly half of surveyed horse riders who never wear a helmet say they would do so if it had a better fit.
The online survey, reported in the journal Concussion, garnered responses from 2598 riders through social media, with 1969 of them, or 75.8%, saying they always wore a helmet.
However, the remaining 629 riders said they only sometimes, seldom or never wore a helmet. Of these 629 riders, 306 said they would wear one if it provided a better fit.
Of those who did not always wear a helmet, their reasoning for sporadic use was that they did not want to (41.4%), they forgot (36.3%), the helmet was too hot (44.3%) or the helmet was generally uncomfortable.
Among these 629 riders, 57.4%, or 361, said they believed helmet use was unnecessary. A total of 15.6% said they would not wear a helmet more frequently under any circumstances.
Participants in the survey, organized by Ansley Grimes Stanfill and her fellow researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, were aged over 18 and rode at least once a month.