Riding helmets: how to choose one and when to replace it
Which standards must be on the label in the EU, the UK and the US, how to fit shape and size, when a helmet is finished and why you never buy one used.
A helmet is the one piece of kit you buy not for comfort but for a single moment that may never come. It has to work once and then go in the bin. Everything else about choosing one follows from that.
Standards, and why they differ by market
An uncertified helmet is a hat. The marking sits on a label inside, under the lining, next to the date of manufacture.
| Standard | Market | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| EN 1384:2023 | EU | the European standard for equestrian helmets |
| VG1 01.040 2014–12 | EU | a stricter test, usually stamped alongside EN 1384 |
| PAS 015 | UK | adds a kerbstone edge impact and a penetration test |
| BETA level 3 | UK | BETA's own scheme, level 3 being the highest |
| ASTM F1163 with SEI | US | the American standard, certified independently by SEI |
| Snell E2001 / E2016 | US | the hardest impact energy of the group, rarer on the shelf |
Two conformity marks tell you which side of the water a helmet was sold on. In the EU it carries CE under the PPE Regulation 2016/425; in Great Britain the same hat carries UKCA. Neither mark is a standard on its own. The standard is the number printed underneath, and that is the line to read.
Minimum to buy in Europe: EN 1384 or VG1. Minimum in the US: ASTM F1163 with the SEI hologram. Two or three standards on one label is normal and it is a good sign, not a marketing flourish.
Competition rules follow the standards rather than the other way round. USEF and most American affiliates want ASTM/SEI. British Eventing and the Pony Club want PAS 015 or BETA level 3 for cross-country. Across FEI disciplines certified headgear has become the default, and the top hat has gone from a dressage habit to a rarity.
A bicycle or ski helmet does not do this job. An equestrian shell covers more of the back of the head and is retained differently.
Size and shape
Measure the circumference with a tape at the widest part of the head, about 2 cm above the brows and above the ears. The working range is 52–62 cm, in one centimetre steps. American sizing runs in hat sizes instead, roughly 6 1/2 to 7 3/4, in eighths.
Size is half the job. The other half is shape: shells come round, oval and long oval. A head pinched at the sides with a gap at the forehead means a round shell on an oval head. Same circumference, wrong block.
Fitting checks
- Put it on without the harness and tip your head forward and to the side. It should not move.
- Take the shell in both hands and rock it. The skin of your forehead moves with it, not under it.
- The peak sits two fingers above the brows; the back covers the occiput.
- Take it off after 10–15 minutes. No pressure lines, no hot spots.
- The straps form a Y under the ear, and one finger fits under the chin strap.
A helmet does not break in. The liner settles a couple of millimetres over a season, and that is the whole of it.
What is inside
The outer shell spreads the blow. What absorbs it is an expanded polystyrene liner. The foam crushes once. It does not recover, and you cannot see it: the outside looks intact, the inside is a compressed block that will not work a second time.
Some helmets add a slip layer between shell and liner, MIPS and its equivalents, aimed at oblique impact and rotation of the head. A useful thing. It does not extend the service life and it does not cancel replacement after a fall.
When to replace
After any fall in which your head hits anything. Even if the helmet looks untouched. Even if it was slow. Even if it was the first time.
After the helmet itself drops onto a hard floor from a metre or more, off the roof of a car onto concrete, say. The foam crushes from that as well.
On date. Makers state three to five years from manufacture, and five is the figure most of them settle on. Foam and adhesive age whether you rode in it or it sat in a cupboard. The date is on the inner label, not on the receipt.
Sooner if the shell is cracked, the liner is lifting away from it, the harness is stretched or the buckle slips.
A helmet cannot be assessed at home after a fall. No amount of looking tells you the state of the foam. Several manufacturers run a crash-replacement scheme, which is worth asking about before you buy rather than after.
Why you do not buy one used
Because you do not know its history. A seller may honestly not remember whether the previous owner dropped it. A helmet that has taken one impact looks new and prices like new, and protects like a hat.
The same goes for the helmet that came with the horse and for the one off a riding school shelf with unknown mileage.
A used saddle is fine. A used helmet is not. This is the one item of kit I am flat about.
Care
Not left in a car in the sun. Heat deforms the liner.
Washed with water and mild soap only. Solvents, alcohol and strong cleaners attack the shell. Paint and stickers do the same work as solvent, so they stay off it.
Removable liners are washed by hand and dried away from a radiator. Stored in the bag, not hung by the harness on a hook.
When it goes on
Every time you get on. Schooling, hacking, walking on a long rein.
That includes photographs. I have a stallion, and on a photo shoot the mounted frames are taken in a helmet. The bareheaded ones are taken in hand, from the ground. A top hat is dress for a class, not kit for a session.
About this article
The helmet is the part of the tack room with no room for a compromise on price or on taste. Everything else is fitted to the horse. This is fitted to your head and to a date on a label.
Next along: fitting a saddle.
