Rider falls can lead to severe and complicated elbow injuries—even if the elbow itself never touches the ground, said Franck-Noël Fitoussi, PhD, MD, professor of pediatric orthopedics at Armand Trousseau Children’s Hospital, part of the Sorbonne University, in Paris, France.
Specifically, the elbow gets knocked out of joint from the sheer force of the impact between the hand and the ground. And when it does, it collides with other structures in the joint leading to a fracture of the “radial neck”—the narrow part of the radius bone just under the bone’s knobby “head” in the elbow joint. In horseback riding accidents, it frequently leads to complications such as additional fractures, as Fitoussi said he noted in his study on young riders.
To prevent such injuries, Fitoussi recommended specialists consider developing protective equipment people can wear while riding. “It can’t be something that protects the elbow directly, because the elbows aren’t usually getting the initial impact,” he said. “It would need to be something designed to absorb shock in the hands or wrists, maybe like what skaters use, leaving the fingers free for the reins.”
source: The Horse