Top Hat... you cruel mistress

Every time I see my top hat, it calls to me. It represents all that is holy about dressage and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (hours of sweaty, frustrating rides = the rainbow, in this case). The day you show in a top hat, is the day you enter the big leagues.
How tempting to wear one at Third Level... maybe we could sneak it in to our Second Level test, pretending that we barely had time to hand out Grand Prix mount off before warming up for this class.
Let me use this blog post as a reminder to myself and everyone else: Resist temptation and wear a certified helmet, especially when others are wearing them in your class and the "everybody is doing it" excuse won't save you either.
The last time I considered wearing my top hat just "for the fun of it", the horse I was on went from 0 to maniac in about 2 seconds flat. I stayed on, but boy was I shocked after he was half dead in the warm up. It just goes to show, just when you think you are safe enough to wear a fur-covered piece of cardboard, your "lazy" horse throws you on your head.