Try the Back on Track riding gloves or glove liners to see if they help with your circulation/hand warmth—my friend with neuropathy swears by them. Big D’s has 20% off all their BoT items through tomorrow: http://www.bigdweb.com/Back-on-Track/products/935/
I will try and see to post pics of my loop reins,they were custom made.
Also sometimes i ride with regular reins+ladder reins hold them together ir as two sets, that way the ladder part acts as a stopper.
The nylon bike loop reins are short so if the horse has a long neck it wont work,
Rein bows suck, unless you get more than one pair to set for walk and trot/canter lengths
OP, very sorry to hear you are going through this. Don’t give up hope - it can take a long time for injuries to heal. Just a broken wrist and some screws for me took over a year for the bone, then another year before I could bear weight. But nerves can regenerate - they just do it slowly.
I don’t know where in VA you are but I know that there is a trust with Martha Jefferson in Charlottesville that assists low or no income residents with medical expenses. My mom is not eligible for social security and was denied Medicaid and disability. She had major foot surgery and a knee replacement through the trust. There’s a lot of paperwork involved, but it would be worth checking into for the surgery you need.
Can you have a friend help you on the ground with helping your horse learning indirect reining? Maybe some clicker training? You can teach them all kinds of things with it, and it might be a fun, relaxing and rewarding way to help you with your anxieties, too.
Good luck, keep trying.
Its very easy to teach a horse to neck rein. Lots of info on the net but its fairly simple you don’t need a trainer for that and you’ll also start to learn/physical memory how to use the reins by teaching the horse yourself. That said there are many people who ride w/o reins and a sensible horse can be taught to work off your seat.
sorry for your troubles.
i have a web site with incredible work, dressage and jumping , being done on bitless,reinless horses. om me if interested and i’ll find it.
David Eldredge is the polo coach at Cornell and he has a seven goal rating despite missing most of his left hand. He is also a super nice guy so maybe if you drop him a line he will have some ideas for you.
I second the back on track products.
I had a crash last year that resulted in two dislocated metacarpals. Because it was such a strange injury the ER docs didn’t catch it and splinted me for a badly sprained wrist and a cracked thumb, resulting in it taking 10 days for them to realize the actual issue. By that point it took surgery, 2 plates, and 14 screws to stabilize it. While I’ve mostly healed at this point beyond some stiffness and soreness when I’m not careful, I went through a few months of not being able to hold the reins etcetc. I credit the OT I found for myself for being able to really use it again at all… The original PT was useless.
anycase… I use a BoT wrist brace pulled up a bit further when needed. Makes a world of difference. If you can swing any time at all with an OT, get them to set you up with exercises and make sure you do them.
Hey everyone. Thanks for the support and awesome tips. I will look in to all of them. I haven’t been on COTH for a while. I was in a major funk.
Anyway, I had to stop doing anything with the horse for several weeks. My hand started acting up. 3-4 weeks ago, things got really bad again. Swelling, loss of use, major nerve issues again. I finally have insurance so the next surgery is scheduled for June 17. I couldn’t qualify for Medicaid because I own my own condo. I looked in to the plans through the Affordable Care Act but being unemployed at the time I couldn’t afford them.
I was diagnosed with RSD last week and the hand surgeon told me I would have chronic pain, nerve and circulation issues regardless. After hearing that, I knew this forum was the right place to come! Thanks for all the support.
