British Eventing Helmet Inspections

William Fox-Pitt on cross-country with
an inspection sticker on his helmet harness.

Last week, when I was looking at some of the safety details on the BE web site, I noticed that they state every competitor at every horse trial has his/her helmet inspected before cross-country and show jumping to insure the rider is wearing an up-to-date, regulation/approved helmet before starting that phase of the competition. The inspector will tag acceptable helmets with a piece of yellow tape to show that the rider has had the helmet checked and that it is acceptable for competition. 

This actually answers a question I had about why -- when viewing photos of competitors like WFP, Pippa Funnell, Zara Phillips, Andrew Nicholson, Mary King, etc., riding at British events -- I would notice these helmets with a yellow strip on the harness. I always wondered what kind of helmets they wore (since I know that several of them wear Charles Owen) with the colors on the black harness straps. It isn't an earth-shattering revelation, I know, but it's one of those little thoughts I had where I made a mental note in the back of my mind, and then all this time later, I find information that fills-in that blank for me. Mystery solved.....

Zara Phillips with an approved helmet sticker
in the show jumping phase of a 3-day event.