Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025

FEI Proposes Working Group To Evaluate Air Vests

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Once primarily worn by eventers over their required body protector on cross-country, air vests today have moved into other jumping sports and can be seen on riders from Olympic gold medalist Laura Kraut to low-level hunter competitors. But there’s little research into—and no certification to test—their efficacy in equestrian sports.

The Fédération Equestre Internationale hopes to change that.

It has proposed a working group to tackle the problem, which is up for final approval by the FEI Executive Committee on Jan. 22. The group would include both a scientific panel and an advisory panel, FEI Medical Committee Chairman Mark Hart said. The advisory panel would be comprised of national federations—currently including the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Ireland and Germany—that have pooled resources to research vests. The scientific panel is comprised of experts in fields such as biomechanics, materials engineering, AI testing, modeling and computer simulations. The group would also have athlete representation and someone from international standards bodies such as ASTM International and the British Equestrian Trade Association, which currently certify vests and helmets in the U.S. and Great Britain, respectively.

Olympic show jumpers like Laura Kraut have started wearing air vests in the ring, but there are currently no standards governing the equipment. Kimberly Loushin Photo

“It isn’t the FEI’s job to create the standards,” Hart said. “Our job is to go out there and help create best practices or [determine] what is the science behind something, because the certification falls on the international standards bodies.”

He stressed that the standards bodies aren’t mandated or funded to perform research; they rely on scientific literature to come up with standards for their region.

“The FEI and the [national federations] are trying to find evidence-based data to enable the standards bodies to set standards,” he said.

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Once the working group is formally approved, the scientific panel will evaluate current literature, determine where gaps exist in research and what projects are ongoing, and pinpoint where their research should begin.

“We have manufacturers that we’re working with on this, too, as far as working with materials—what can and cannot be done from a practical point of view?” Hart said. “Like helmets, we know we can make them safer, but they’re going to be four times as thick, and that’s not practical.”

Hart has also reached out to other sports that utilize protective vests, such as motocross, skiing and horse racing.

Hart noted that, as with all safety initiatives, this project will be ongoing. The group will continue to evaluate new research and new materials and look for ways to continue to improve.

“The enemy of good is perfect,” he said. “We’re not going to get there; things are going to change, but we need to be moving in the right direction. That’s our goal as a national federation and international federation, to promote health and safety of our athletes, and it’s an important thing to do.”

While air vests will be the working group’s primary objective, he also noted that traditional body protectors will also be reviewed.

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“We also feel an obligation to make sure we stay on top of this and look at the new evidence and make what we have better,” he said.

The U.S. Hunter Jumper Association attempted a push for vest research in June 2023, when it launched a $825,000 Equestrian Safety Vest Research Campaign. USHJA pledged $100,000 to the effort, but its online fundraising campaign raised just $4,565 of the $450,000 needed to begin research in cooperation with the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, which began conducting independent research on equestrian helmets in December 2022 after a successful fund raising campaign.

The initial goal was to develop tests for vests similar to those used for helmets, but as USHJA and the U.S. Equestrian Federation looked at the problem, it became apparent that there’s no true testing standards, the literature was lacking, and the few existing studies were contradictory, Hart said.

“This is a bigger problem for air vests because they’re getting adopted, manufacturers are making claims, and there’s no evidence to back it up,” he said. “So the USEF and the FEI can’t really make recommendations that [aren’t] based on facts. We talked about that, and we figured, ‘Wow, this is a bigger problem than just a U.S. problem; it’s a worldwide problem.’ ”

“This is a bigger problem for air vests because they’re getting adopted, manufacturers are making claims, and there’s no evidence to back it up.”

Dr. Mark Hart, FEI Medical Committee chairman

USEF then approached the FEI about spearheading the project so that major stakeholders could take ownership and pool their resources, Hart said. While the FEI has the seed money needed to launch the project, additional fundraising will happen in the future, and equestrians will be able to donate through their national federations.

USEF has started information gathering toward the effort. On Dec. 30, it emailed its members a survey on body protector and air vest use. The short survey asked members whether they use a body protector and/or air vest and in what situations, reasons they choose not to wear one despite owning it, factors that went into the purchase, and what types of injuries wearers believe their equipment prevents. It is also collecting data on the brand, model and, for body protectors, the safety standard it meets. The online USEF survey is open through Jan. 31, and data collected will be shared collaboratively with the FEI working group.

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