Your air vest was designed to inflate in a very specific way to protect key parts of your torso and especially for hunter jumper riders that are wearing their numbers on their backs, they're using a string to attach the number.
We often get the question: what do you do with a number string? Is it going to allow the vest to inflate? We’ve seen a number of times where somebody is using a number string that doesn't have any elasticity or stretch to it. So when the vest goes off, there's a choke point around the waist.
Our recommendation is either to get what we call an elasticated number string, which is just like a giant hair tie that is really, really stretchy that is going to be sure to allow your vest to fully inflate. Or if you're getting your number strings from the horse show office, just test them out and make sure that they have some elasticity so that the string stretches if the vest inflates.
Good luck at the horse show!
