Showing posts with label medical armband. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical armband. Show all posts

March 16, 2014

USEA Rule Change and RoadID Contest!

Eventers, have you heard the news?  We no longer have to wear medical armbands for the show jumping and cross-county phases of events!  Instead, we are now allowed to wear RoadID-style bracelets:




Haven't heard of RoadID?  They make emergency contact and medical information bracelets for athletes of all kinds.  In the event that you're rendered unconscious, the RoadID can provide first responders with vital information, including your name, the phone number of your emergency contacts, and allergy information.  The "online" version, which is required under the new USEA rules, also gives first responders a link to a webpage where they can access your full medical history.

They also have an app that will allow, for example, your husband to track your solo trail ride's progress so he can call to check on you if he sees you stop moving on the map - how valuable is that for those of us who have to do conditioning or trail rides?  It's way better than calling Nick to say "if you don't hear from me in an hour, something happened."

RoadID Slim - one of the many versions of RoadIDs you can buy.  This is the one I chose.  The bands are interchangable, so you can have a black one for work and one in your XC colors for riding!

The rule change is great news for eventers (personally, my armband is bigger than my tiny arm, doesn't stay up and has always been my least favorite thing about eventing), but after an accident a coworker of mine had last fall, I truly believe equestrians of every discipline should have one.

A serious bicyclist, he was on a lazy social ride with his sister when something happened - no one knows and he doesn't remember - but when she looked back he was lying on the ground unconscious with a serious brain injury - the one time he didn't wear a helmet while biking all year.  Because he didn't have his wallet on him, he was listed as a John Doe for the first part of his two-week ICU and hospital stay, which later caused insurance problems for him.

What if he had a serious allergy to one of the medicines they gave him while he was unconscious and they didn't know about it?  What if he had a history of concussions?  Silva Martin's recent accident proves that the most serious of accidents can occur to equestrians in the most benign of settings, and so every equestrian should have one.

My "offline" RoadID.  I will be getting a second "online" plate to use at events, but since I have no medical history to speak of, I prefer the offline version day-to-day.  The online version only has two customizable lines, and for the rest, you have to go online.

RoadID has graciously offered to sponsor a contest for CobJockey readers!  The grand prize winner will receive a $35 e-coupon to spend at RoadID.com, which should cover the entire cost of the RoadID, and two runners-up will receive my tell-a-friend e-coupons, worth $1 off of a RoadID.com purchase.

To enter:
- Like RoadID on Facebook
- Follow RoadID on Twitter
- Comment on this post with why you would like a RoadID

Contest ends in three days on Wednesday, March 23 at 7pm EDT, so get on it!

* I was not compensated by RoadID.  I purchased my RoadID, liked it enough to want to offer a contest, and then reached out to them.

May 15, 2013

XC Schooling!

You know what's really hard?


Sitting at my desk pondering the logistics of moving the Probation department from standard PC's to zero client-based virtual desktops when I am one hour and five minutes away from leaving work early to go to the barn for Connor's first off-property XC schooling!

The five of us that will be showing at Greater Dayton this weekend are taking the horses over in the lovely 85 degrees and sunny weather today in order to school them at the facility that they'll be at this weekend.  I'm excited about what that extra level of familiarity will do for my otherwise spooky pony.  He's only schooled XC on the property before.

Since I filled out my USEA medical card for the first time this morning, can we talk about the fact that they ask for your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER on it?  The social engineering/armchair Red Flag Law expert/ network security girl inside of me went "Noooope!"  Do they really expect you to put your SSN on a piece of paper that regularly gets lost/maimed/dropped in a pond/etc?  I won't even put mine on official forms unless the person I'm handing it to can tell me why they need it and what happens to that piece of paper after it leaves my hands.  They can have my insurance number while I'm unconscious, but wait until I'm coherant in the hospital to get my SSN.  Anyone else refuse to fill out that line?