When our ancestors ventured over the seas or across mountains and plains to settle this country, they didn’t have life, health or disability insurance.Risk was inevitable.

Despite all our progress, risk will always be a part of life. Many activities that we enjoy today involve risk taking—for many that thrill is a big part of the fun and excitement. It can be easy to forget that inadequate preparation (or just plain bad luck) could turn a good time into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. So reducing risk is a worthy goal.

Opinions differ, however, about how far to go. As technology presents new means to reduce the risk of serious harm from an accident, debate rages over how the new advances should be utilized. Some believe that decisions on safety matters should remain strictly the concern of the individual. Others believe that certain areas should be addressed by society as a whole. In our society “mandated safety” occurs relatively slowly and tends to be limited to begin with to two specific situations: those that affect children (or others without the ability to protect themselves), and those situations that can have a direct impact on others.

Our federation, which makes the “laws” (rules) for our sport, is currently balancing opposing sides of several arguments. This isn’t a new process. It took many years, and plenty of controversy, before the mandatory ASTM/SEI-approved helmet rule for junior hunter/jumper riders went into effect. Joe Dotoli spent untold hours, over several years, to get this accomplished, and many people in coming years will owe Joe a debt of gratitude. We’ll never know who has benefited most, however, since it’s impossible to gauge how serious a fall “would have been” with different headgear.

With the growth in the sport, as well as the expanding safety options available, the job of the federation becomes more and more complex. For this reason, USA Equestrian formed a new committee to focus solely on these issues. The Safety Committee is an active group because every member has a genuine interest in the sport.

One issue that the Safety Committee has considered is the use of the relatively new “safety jump cups.” As a course designer, I have a particular interest in seeing greater use of approved cups for the back rail of spread jumps. The technology was first developed and put into use in Europe prior to the 1994 World Championships, and FEI-approved safety cups have been mandatory at every FEI-sanctioned competition worldwide for several years now.

From my seven years of experience with them, I know just how effective they are in reducing the number of horse falls and near falls over spreads. I don’t know of a single course designer who would not concur.

After the FEI rule had been in place for approximately two years, our federation passed a rule to make the use of FEI-approved safety cups mandatory in national classes of $25,000 or more. As a result, it’s now been more than a year since I have seen a “main jumper ring” at a major competition without them. Nevertheless, we still have lots of people competing over jumps built without them`at smaller competitions that don’t offer a big-money class, and in the second or third jumper rings at all but a handful of major shows.

Frankly, I just don’t know how our federation can justify not requiring a safety precaution for all classes, especially ones in which children and amateur riders take part. Yet the Competition Management Committee and some show organizers on the Jumper Committee, as well as the National Hunter Jumper Council Board of Governors, have turned down a proposal to this effect each time it has come before them.

The reason or reasons cited? They all come back to cost. A cup that will release the jump pole freely and instantly at a precise amount of pressure (and not before) simply cannot be manufactured and sold for the same price as a simple welded or molded jump cup.

Creating a design that works, and getting it approved, without violating patent laws, is no simple task. Nor is setting up the manufacturing process. Considering the relatively small market, designing and producing this kind of specialty equipment is more a labor of love than a smart business venture.

Looking at the current list of 12 to 14 manufacturers of approved cups, it’s no surprise that they’re all European. Many countries, many horses, many jumping competitions—together with a public focus on the welfare of the animal in a high visibility sport—have all created a market that far exceeds ours.

As a designer of thousands of jumping courses, I can count on one hand the number of broken poles I’ve seen since I’ve been using safety cups. Even more importantly, the fall of a horse is truly a rare occurrence whenever the cups are in use. In fact, it’s been over a year since I last had a horse fall in competition.

That’s why the International Jumping Riders Club took the lead in requiring safety cups at competitions throughout Europe.

The development of safety cups has followed the path taken by almost every new technology. The original manufacturers are now on their third- or fourth-generation product, each displaying further refinement. Conveniently, the cup used today at international championships is one of the least expensive on the market.

In 1996, I paid more than $1,500 to purchase enough safety cups for my use in a single arena. Today’s cost is less than one-third of that amount for a far better product.

A one-time investment of approximately $500 per competition arena will provide every rider and every horse with a dramatically higher level of additional protection. Yet, some consider this to be too high a price to require organizers to pay.

The NHJC has suggested that safety cups should not be required until someone in this country figures out how to produce a cheaper product, and I, obviously, disagree.

I believe that it’s time to require a proven product at every USAEq-sanctioned show jumping competition. But the Safety Committee will be presenting a compromise rule change proposal at USA Equestrian’s next board meeting. The proposed rule would permit the substitution of wooden jump pins on the back of spread jumps in all schooling and warm-up areas, as well as in any jumper class that does not offer prize money, or in any class at a show that does not offer a “full” jumper section (i.e. $10,000 or more in total jumper prize money). FEI-approved Safety Cups would become mandatory with the start of the 2003 competition year for any prize-money class at any show offering a full ($10,000) jumper division.

Wooden pins are far less satisfactory than approved cups due to the comparative randomness of their behavior, but they are cheap and easily available at any lumber or home supply store. We hope this will be acceptable as a satisfactory compromise.