Frangible Pins

Photo by Tricia Booker

I found a great article on frangible pins that is from the British Eventing website. British Eventing is the governing body of equestrian sports in England and the article has valuable information on how the pins work, when they should be used, as well as documented incidents of when the pins broke and prevented serious injury of both horse and rider.

I also found a blog from EventingUSA written by Dan Starck, co-chair of the USEA Eventing Course Designers/Builders Committee & Member of the USEA Safety Committee that explains the "frangible pin rule" adopted by the USEA and USEF (United States Eventing Association and United States Equestrian Federation respectively) in 2008. This rule had already been in place in England for several years and was supposed to be implemented in the U.S. in 2007, but was delayed due to trouble finding a reliable supplier. I would be interested to find more information on the dearth of pin suppliers...

Both of these articles contain very promising links that I will explore in later posts.