Topic summary
Horseback riding
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Equestrianism.
Head injuries
Horseback riding is one of the most dangerous sports, especially in relation to head injury. Statistics from the United States, for example, indicate that about 30 million people ride horses annually. On average, about 67,000 people are admitted to the hospital each year from injuries sustained while working with horses. 15,000 of those admittances are from traumatic brain injuries. Of those, about 60 die each year from their brain injuries. Studies have found horseback riding to be more dangerous than several sports, including skiing, auto racing and football. Horseback riding has a higher hospital admittance rate per hours of riding than motorcycle racing, at 0.49 per thousand hours of riding and 0.14 accidents per thousand hours, respectively.