Airbag or Body Protector? What Each One Does in a Fall

A body protector is passive. Foam or honeycomb panels sit against the torso and spread the force of a kick, a fall or a knock across a larger area. European vests are certified to EN 13158, where Level 3 is the standard used for cross-country and racing, Level 2 sits below it, and the fit matters as much as the level: a vest that slides upward when you sit down is protecting the wrong part of your back.

An airbag vest is active. A lanyard connects the vest to the saddle. When the rider separates from the horse, the lanyard pulls a trigger, a CO₂ cartridge empties into the bladder, and the vest inflates around the neck, chest, back and pelvis. Laboratory testing presented at IRCOBI in 2016 recorded inflation times between 186 and 260 milliseconds and higher force absorption than conventional vests in the same impact tests.

Air vests are assessed under their own specifications rather than EN 13158 – SATRA M38 in the UK, the French NF S72-800 standard that Swing cites for the P25 AIR, and the draft European prEN 1621-4. A label that says nothing at all is a reason to ask.

Laboratory numbers are not the same as outcomes in the field, and this is where the picture gets less comfortable. A retrospective analysis of eventing fall data published in 2019 found no reduction in injury among riders wearing air jackets, and a 2024 review of the available literature reached the same conclusion, noting an association between air-vest use and more serious outcomes in some settings.

Both papers are careful about why. The comparison is not randomised: riders who choose air vests ride cross-country, ride younger horses, and fall at speed more often than the riders they are being compared with. Nobody has run the trial that would settle it.

What can be said honestly today is that an airbag is demonstrably good at absorbing impact energy in a laboratory, that the field evidence does not yet show a reduction in serious injury, and that no vest of either kind addresses the injury that dominates equestrian statistics – the head. The helmet is not the optional part of this discussion.

A body protector covers the torso continuously, from the moment you put it on until you take it off, and it goes on working for a second impact and while you are on the ground. Its weakness is the neck and the collarbone area, which most designs only partly reach.

An airbag covers more once it has inflated – most systems fill around the neck, and many extend down the back to the pelvis. Its weakness is the sequence: it needs the lanyard to pull, it needs a moment to fill, and after it has fired it is a jacket until a new cartridge is fitted.

That last line is the reason the hybrid category exists.

The Veredus VITA Vest carries a full-back airbag over an ATP40 Level 2 back protector, so the passive layer stays in place whether or not the airbag has fired, and Veredus specifies that it can be worn under a show jacket. Freejump builds the X Air SAFE the same way, around a two-density foam body with a Cordura outer. USG’s EquiAirbag EAB v4 Pro uses two synchronised airbags covering neck, chest, back and sacrum.

The trade-off is weight and warmth. Two protective layers in one garment are noticeably more to wear in a Mallorcan summer than a thin airbag shell, which is why a removable protector – the VITA Vest’s is – is a feature worth using rather than ignoring.

The trigger is the part riders actually live with. Most systems are mechanical: a ball key or pin is pulled out of the housing by the lanyard. USG’s digital Aixplorer replaces that with an electronic release and a control unit that decides when to inflate, which removes the „forgot to unclip before dismounting“ problem and adds a device to charge and maintain.

Cartridges are a running cost, not a one-off. A replacement CO₂ cartridge is roughly 22 to 25 euro, which is why the bundles matter: a fired vest without a spare is a jacket.

Fit decides whether any of this works. An airbag has to sit close to the body to inflate against you rather than around you – Equitheme is explicit that the Airsafe must be worn tight. A body protector has to be measured over the clothing you actually ride in. Both are worth buying where someone measures you.

Children are not small adults in this category. Growth means a vest fits for a season, and a system that is complicated to arm and disarm gets left in the tack room.

Both approaches exist in child sizes – Equitheme lists the Airsafe for children, Komperdell the Safety FZ Level 3 Junior, USG the Flexi Guard panel vest for children and adults. For a child riding in a school or on a lead rein, a correctly fitted Level 3 protector is the more realistic everyday answer.

Decide what you actually ride. Cross-country, young horses and hacking on roads are the cases where airbags are argued for; arena work in a school is not the same risk profile.

Check the standard on the label: EN 13158 Level for protectors, SATRA M38 or NF S72-800 for air vests. Add up the cartridges for a year of riding, not the vest alone. Have the fit checked – an unfitted vest of either type is the most expensive way to feel safe. And keep the helmet conversation separate and current.