SAFETY DEVICE FOR RIDING

Abstract: A safety device for connecting at least two parts in the equipment for horse equipage, as riding horse equipages, trotting and galloping equipages, work horse equipages and so on. Parts of the equipage, as, for example saddle and saddle girth, stirrups and saddle, harness and cab or sulky, portions of the reins etc., are connected with connecting members (10, 12; 40, 42), which are connectable and in connected position locked in each other with the help of pullable locking means (14; 48). The locking means has a suitable connecting means (34, 36) for connection to the rider, driver or in another way and be used for removing of the locking means at a preset load of the connecting means.

Description: Safety Device for Riding. The present invention relates to a safety device for connecting at least two parts in the equipment for a horse equipage . Horse equipage refers to such equipages as riding horse equipages, trotting and galloping equipages, work horse equipages etc. When practising horse sports or also when driving work horses many times situations arise when it is of vital importance to be able to release a rider or driver from the horse or equipage. If a rider when riding or jumping falls off the horse there is a risk that her or his foot or leg gets stuck in the stirrup so that the rider in unfavourable cases cannot by himself release himself from the horse . Also when a driver falls off a work cab or a sulky it could be of advantage if the cab or sulky is released from the horse and/or if the complete harness or parts thereof, as the reins, is or are disconnected from the horse so that the cab and/or the driver would not be dragged along the often runaway horse . Many other cases are also conceivable when it would be of great value to quickly be able to disconnect parts of a horse equipage from the horse to avoid severe injuries or for other reasons . At present no suitable devices to provide such a disconnection of parts of a horse equipage are available. For a long time there have been known riding equipments provided with stirrups, where a part of the stirrup is pivotally mounted and releasably connected to the rest of the stirrup so that the forces arising when the rider falls off result in a releasing of said connection, why the rider's foot at best can slide out of the stirrup. However, such devices are not fully reliable since the foot or leg may have got caught in such a way that it is of no help that the stirrup opens up. Since the construction of the stirrup becomes complicated, these kinds of stirrups are expensive to manufacture and they require a certain amount of service or maintenance to avoid corrosion or other damage that may make the pivotable mounting inoperative. Unfortunately the known safety stirrups are ungainly why many riders refrain from using them since they usually have their own conventional stirrups that they prefer to use. The main object of the present invention is to provide a safety device, which is completely reliable in its release function and which could be used in all the positions of a horse equipage where a reliable and quick disconnection of the parts included should take place in accidents or of other reasons . Another object is to provide such a device which is cheap to manufacture and which does not require any specific maintenance to function reliably. This is accomplished according to the invention by giving the device the features stated in the following claims. The invention will now be more specifically described together with the drawings, which show embodiments of a safety device for, for example, stirrups. Fig. 1 is a plan view of a safety device to be used with, for example, stirrups. Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the device in fig. 1 along the line II- II. Fig. 3 is a plan view of one of the parts of the device in fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a sectional view along the line IV-IV in fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the second part of the device in fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a sectional view along the line VI-VI in fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a plan view, and has a detail enlargement, of a locking pin for the device in fig. 1. Fig. 8 is a plan view of another embodiment of the safety device . Fig. 9 is a side view of the device in fig 8. The safety device, shown in fig. 1, comprises two connecting members 10 and 12 intended to be connected by locking means 14. If the safety device shall be used to connect a stirrup to a saddle, for example, one, in fig. 1 the upper, connecting member 10 is connected to the saddle girth by an opening 16 for the strap, while the stirrup strap of the stirrup is connected to member 12, which has an opening 18 intended therefor. The upper connecting member 10 has such a design as is shown in fig. 3 and 4 with a U-shaped portion 20, which forms an opening 22 intended to receive a locking tongue 26 of the second connecting member 12, as described in the following, and, in the shown example, an oblong opening 16 for the fixing of saddle girth, harness or other straps of equipment in a horse equipage, and openings 24 for the locking means 14. The second or in fig. 1 lower connecting member 12 has, as earlier said, a locking tongue 26 intended to fit in the U-shaped recess 22 of the member 12. The locking tongue 26 has recesses 28, which are substantially semicircular in shape, in which recesses 28 the legs of locking means in the form of a U-shaped pin 14 are received, which may be pushed in through the holes 24 of member 10 and recesses 28 of member 12 when these members are connected, with the lower end surface 30 of member 10 in contact with an abutting surface 32 encircling the locking tongue 26, as shown in fig. 1. In this described way, members 10, 12 are kept securely connected as long as the locking pin 14 stays in place. Locking pin 14 then takes up the force directed downwards which, when the device is used to connect the stirrup strap to a saddle, is exerted by the rider on the stirrup, while any substantial force therefore is not exerted in the direction of insertion and extraction, respectively, of the locking pin perpendicular to the connecting members 10, 12. To release the device, for example if the rider falls off the horse, the locking pin 14, as shown in fig. 7, is provided with a safety cord 34, which is fixable by a spring hook 36, for example, at a suitable position on the rider such as at the leg, thigh or somewhere else. When falling, the safety cord 34 will be stretched and pulls out the locking pin 14 so that the connecting members 10, 12 will disconnect and the connecting member 12 with stirrup strap and stirrup comes with the rider, while the connecting member 10 stays on the horse. In order not to let the locking pin 14 be loosen by shaking and the like during normal use of the stirrup, the legs of the U-shaped locking pin 14 are provided with a locking tongue or a nib 38 at the ends which keeps the pin 14 in place, but yields to the force exerted on the pin 14 by a falling rider or corresponding in other applications of the device . The safety device as shown in figs. 8 and 9, is also provided with two connecting members 40 and 42, which, at its end surfaces, are designed to have cylindrical finishing ends 44, 46, which fit together, to form a hinge which, with assembled members 40, 42 is kept in place by a hair pin shaped locking pin 48, of which the straight leg forms the axle of the hinge. Moreover, the connecting members 40, 42 are provided with oblong openings 50 and 52, respectively, for connection to straps and harness in a horse equipage, as described above. In the same way which the locking pin 14 in fig. 7 the locking pin 48 in figs 8 and 9 is provided with a safety cord (not shown) , which is fixed in a fixing hole 56, so that the locking pin 48 is connected, via the cord, to a rider, a driver or some part of an equipage which shall be disconnected from the horse in case of an accident or of another reason. The locking pin 48 is manufactured in a known way of a spring material and has such a design, with a number of arcuate portions 54, which abut the hinge so that the locking pin 48 stays in place in spite of shakings or vibrations, but can be pulled out at a preset load in its length direction. The described safety devices have many advantages over prior art. For the described use to connect stirrups to the saddle in a riding equipage the rider may use his conventional, simple stirrups and only connect the safety device between stirrup strap and saddle. The illustrated devices are cheap to manufacture and do not require any maintenance to operate in a safe way. They operate satisfactorily irrespective of which direction a rider falls off his horse and the " stirrup and the stirrup strap comes with the rider so that he is disconnected from the horse. The devices according to the invention may also be used for other purposes at horse equipage such as to disconnect the saddle from the horse or a sulky or cab from the horse or other applications where need is to quickly and safely disconnect different parts of a horse equipage . Therefore, the invention is not limited to the illustrated and described embodiments but can be varied and altered within the scope of the following claims .

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A safety device for connecting at least two parts in the equipment for preferably riding horse equipage, as saddle and saddle girth, stirrup/stirrup strap and saddle, reins and bridle, wherein the two parts are provided to, for example in an accident, completely disconnect from each other by means of the rider being connected via connecting means (34, 36) to pullable locking means (14; 48), which keep the parts together and when connected locks two connectable connecting members (10, 12; 40, 42) in a connecting device that is connecting said two parts of the equipment, the locking means (14; 48), at a preset load of the connecting means (34,36), is pulled out of the connecting device so that said two parts are released. 2. A safety device according to claim 1, wherein the locking means (14; 48) is provided with a snap or spring lock (38; 54) provided to keep the locking means in a locking position until said preset load is reached. 3. A safety device according to claim 1 or 2 , on a riding horse equipage when the stirrup is connected to the saddle via a stirrup strap, wherein the connecting device (10, 12; 40, 42) is provided between the stirrup strap and the saddle so that the stirrup and the stirrup strap are disconnected from the saddle when the connection device is released. 4. A safety device according to any of the previous claims, wherein one of the connecting members (10) has an opening or a recess (22) provided to receive a locking tongue (26) on the second connecting member (12) , the first connecting member (10) and the locking tongue have, in a connected position, coincident openings (24, 28) through which the locking means (14) is insertable for keeping the connecting members in a connected position. 5. A safety device, according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the connecting members (40, 42) are designed with sleeve shaped parts (44, 46), which are connectable to form a hinge in which a pullable locking means (48) , forming the axle of the hinge, is inserted. 6. A safety device according to claim 4, wherein the locking means comprises a U-shaped pin (14) of which legs pass through two openings (24, 28) in the connecting members (10, 12) , the connecting means (34) being attached to the middle of the pin (14) waist. 7. A safety device according to claim 6, wherein the ends of the legs are designed with a nib (38) to keep the pin (14) in place . 8. A safety device according to claim 5, wherein the locking means comprises a hair pin shaped pin (48) with springing portions (50) abutting the hinge to keep the pin (48) in place.

Inventors: ADLER ANDERS, ADLER, ANDERS
Applicants: ADLER ANDERS, EQUIPAGE LEASING LIMITED, ADLER, ANDERS
Application year: 1999
Main classification: B68C1
IPC codes: B68B1, B68B5, B68C1