Granted, I’ve been more cautious since my accident, but my latest concern has been about jewelry. As the weather here has gotten warmer, I noticed my rings was getting tighter. To the point where I wasn’t sure I could get my engagement ring off without a considerable struggle.
That got me thinking. Could I get it off quickly? Back when my daughter was a few months old, I broke my hand when my horse slipped coming into a jump. We took the whole thing down and I hit my hand on a standard. Luckily, back then my rings fit a little looser and I managed to get it off before my hand swelled up. Excessive swelling can cause you to lose a finger. No joke.
But there are more reasons than broken bones why riders should be careful about their jewelry. When I was a teen, our trainer wouldn’t let us wear dangling pierced earings when we rode — she’d seen too many girls with ripped earlobes after they caught those earrings in their horses’ manes.
I once had a favorite pendant go flying (into a patch of poison Ivy, as I later learned) when I caught my crop in a necklace while jumping. The good news? The chain broke. The bad news? I had the worst poison ivy ever, all over my legs.
Rings, too can get caught. On manes, on halters, on bridles, and more. The consequences are often not pretty and can result in nasty breaks, degloving and even — yikes — people losing their fingers altogether. Wearing gloves can help, but some people have been badly injured even then.
Now that my imagination has been primed by my accident, I decided to look for a safe ring to wear a the barn. I don’t like to take my jewelry off because I lose it. Finding one that met my requirements was not easy. First I tried a silicone ring, which stretched. Nice idea, but kind of ugly. So, I looked for an adjustable ring, which I could remove in a pinch.
At long last, I found one that I love — it’s comfortable, elegant, expandable, and the hand hammered finish is really pretty. The ring is made by Etsy seller AAurous.
I haven’t taken it off since I bought it, but I’m confident that I can if I need to.
Do you wear your jewelry to the barn?
I hear ya on this one! I was wearing my Claddagh ring at the barn years ago but I somehow managed to just barely catch it as I chucked a leaf of hay through a stall window. Wouldn’t you know, my heart was “taken” at the time and the heart on the ring was facing inwards so it stabbed right into the top of my finger. I have the scar more than 10 years later. Still love that ring but I don’t wear it to the for horse chores anymore!
Glad that all that happened was a scar! When I broke my hand, I couldn’t wear my rings for almost a year. It took that long for the swelling to completely go away.
I met a woman my first year riding who only had 9.5 fingers because her ring got caught in a lead rope. When I met my husband, I cautioned him not to spend a ton on an engagement ring, because I wasn’t going to wear it very often. And I still don’t, just in case.
are the rings you found on Etsy real gold or silver, or just the color?
It appears that you have found the best of both worlds. I would expect that the open design would allow the ring to ‘fail’ before your finger did.
The last time I saw a ring design like the one you purchased, I wanted it so badly. I’m not a bling kind of girl, my sole bit of jewelry is my wedding band. Which, I wear to the barn because I also wear gloves. But anyway, I was in a suq (market) in Saudi Arabia and wandered into a jewelry shop. Of which there are MANY………..the Saudis love gold and that’s about all you could get, I believe it’s the only form of jewelry they wear. They sell only 22K and 24K gold, and weigh it to sell it at the price gold is going for at that time. Anyway I saw a split ring like the Etsy one. In 22K gold…the open ends carved into amazingly realistic lion or leopard heads, the eyes real rubies. It was gorgeous…and far too expensive for me. I still think of it. It’s the only bit of jewelry that I ever lusted for.
They are real. I bought the gold one when it was on a wicked good sale. It was probably the first few days it was up. I liked it so much I bought one in sterling. I’m not really a ring person but this appealed to me. The one you describe sounds amazing!