This is a ridiculous question, I know. I broke my wrist last week. I get a cast on Monday. No surgery needed thank goodness. I know the Dr said no activities for that period of time, but I am stubborn. Has anyone ridden with a cast? If so how did it go? I am a Dressage rider if that helps.
Lol! Such a horse person question to ask! :lol:
So disclaimer first - you should do what your doctor has told you to do. Falling on a recent injury could lead to a much more serious injury.
But as someone who cranked on a rib belt when I broke 3 ribs and then rode 4 horses the day after it happened, I’m not really one to speak.
My general rule is that if I can do it, I do it. I can’t afford to give my crew a bunch of time off. So I prioritize riding over pretty much everything else. But if something hurts badly/sharply, I don’t do it (or rather, don’t keep trying to push through it). When I rode with broken ribs, I was unable to do more than trail walks on 2 of my 4 horses after riding the first two…for at least a week after the accident. I would say “so I didn’t push myself,” but I see the irony in that statement after getting on in the first place.
But also, I am pretty comfortable with the idea that the odds of me coming off are insignificant enough (barring a freak accident). If I had any question about whether my horse might spook, or whether I might come off in a spook, I likely wouldn’t take the risk.
I know many people, though, who have had their wrist cast in a way that allows them to hold the reins. So I think that whether it’s a poor decision or not, you have quite a bit of company, lol! (And let’s be clear - riding with anything broken is definitely a poor decision!)
I broke both bones in my wrist. My middle finger was touching the middle of my inside forearm.
I was only a kid. I had a cast from my upper arm to my fingers in a bent shape.
There are photos of me on my shetland riding and jumping. One handed.
I wouldn’t try dressage. Maybe trail riding with one hand to start with. You can neck rein even on a dressage horse.
Bones usually repair in 6 weeks. You will be able to do more in the 5th week than the first week.
Start off letting your arm rest and heal, dont use it.
Also studies have found that if you mentally visualise using the arm, you don’t lose as much muscle wastage.
Let yourself heal.
6 weeks is a blip in a lifetime. Enjoy your time off. Read or watch movies.
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My SO got bucked off his horse during winter and landed wrists first into ice, broke both of them and had a full cast and sling on one, just a brace on the other.
I think it was an 8 week recovery but he went back to work early (riding)
My personal thoughts… broken wrist is different kinds of bones than broken ribs 
I’d be afraid that if I went back riding early, the wrist might feel fine now but I’d be inviting early arthritis in the joint down the road…
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I rode with a broken wrist. Managed to displace the bone, which had not been displaced until I stupidly overused it. And I somehow managed to rupture the tendon to my thumb. So the thumb did not work–what I had was basically a paw.
Ended up having surgery to repair the wrist (a plate was put in) and a simultaneous tendon transfer in which a tendon to my forefinger was rerouted to my thumb.
And weeks of therapy breaking up all kinds of scar tissue and teaching the new thumb tendon how to work.
I strongly suggest not riding with a broken wrist.
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I broke my thumb, had it pinned. Figured since my horse neck reined, I could ride with my good left hand; unfortunately my horse spooked into my pinned right thumb. So, stuff that you just don’t count on happens, only you can decide if maybe adding a nother 8-10 weeks to recovery is worth it.
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Thanks everyone. I will stay on the bench. I ride with and ER Dr who basically said what could happen to Maythehorsebewithme could happen. I’d rather not be off double or more. I will learn from your mistakes. I am going to watch my trainer do her thing!
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Well, I’ll be the voice that says it’s probably fine. I tripped and fell with my hands in my pocket, somehow managing to break the body of the Hamate bone in the wrist (unusual, hard to do injury. Most people break the hook).
My orthopedist was going to splint it, but I looked her in the eye and was like “I’m leaving here and going straight to a horse show. You should probably cast it”. She rolled her eyes at me, sighed something about “crazy horse people” and slapped a cast on. I rode/showed in the 3’6" A/O hunters with that cast on for 6 weeks. Then the orthopedist took the cast off and I went skiing for 2 weeks (I’ve mentioned my ortho hated me, right? LOL).
I didn’t have any pain, just some swelling. I managed it with ice and elevation. I’m sort of like well if it doesn’t hurt, then I’m good. But everyone is different and you should do what is comfortable for you!
I broke my wrist last year and had surgery.
I followed the doctors orders and stayed sidelined for the healing process. During that time, I went to the barn daily and groomed and tacked up my horse so my trainer could ride him. I watched every training ride and untacked and took care of my horse after the ride.
While it was hard to stay out of the saddle, I actually learned a lot by watching him from the ground. Being able to groom and tack him still helped me feel involved and connected with him. Watching someone else ride him helped me understand what I needed to work on and how some of my habits affected him adversely.
If I weren’t forced to be sidelined for that amount of time and watched those rides, I’m not sure I would have learned these lessons. It has given me new insight as a student.
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I broke my wrist in 2013 and had a cast. It was difficult to tighten the girth, zip up my half chaps and buckle my helmet. Riding was the easy part. IIRC I did not jump much until the cast was off and the doctor had cleared me for normal activity.
DO NOT USE THAT WRIST FOR ANYTHING BEFORE YOU ARE CLEARED BY DOC…wrist breaks are notorious for displacing AKA moving and moving you into to Operating Room for surgical repair. If you want to get on have someone else tack up for you and only hold the reins in the other hand…but beware just how much holding your arm in a way that is comfortable/feels protective to the wrist has thrown off your back/hips legs. If your grip is weak enough they will say you should not drive and if they tell you that ANY car accident would be your fault even getting rear ended…at least that is the case in my state…#thevoiceofexperience HEAL FAST!!!
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I rode in a cast against the doc’s orders. He told me not to push or pull anything. The horse was very light mouthed, so I was able to just hold that rein. It was probably a bad idea, but it ended up fine. I’m a bad patient though - I fractured my tibia and had a brace from my hip to my ankle. Was told to put no weight on it, so I rode. Had someone lift me up. That healed too.
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I rode with a broken wrist a few years ago. It was in a cast and I just cut the sleeve on a couple of my old jackets and found a large sized glove. I am a dressage rider as well!
Here’s another reason not to - you will not be able to hold the rein correctly, or have the same feel of his mouth so you are going to create a bad habit for your hand/arm on that side from compensating, probably give your horse a bad ride because you can’t use your arm as you should, and you won’t likely be able to hold your dressage whip, nevermind use it.
So unless you are going to just hold the reins in your good hand, you will be spending time undoing these issues when you get the cast off.
I know this b/c I did try riding with a casted wrist/arm and it only took that one ride to realize it wasn’t worth it in the long run. Plus the risks the others have said about making matters worse for your wrist. 6 weeks isn’t all that long and it’s the dead of winter. You will be in grand shape come spring.
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Fractured my ulna, and i rode once. Just hacking around, wasn’t planning to do anything serious. Figured just some walk/trot work was low risk for falling off, but once I started riding I quickly realized there were 1000 other ways I could re-injure my wrist. My horse rooted at the bit a couple times-- just a simple head toss, he was fresh and wanted to GO–and my wrist ached for hours after. So I called it quits, wasn’t worth it.
So no, I wouldn’t recommend it.
I know you already made the decision but I’ll post for others as well.
1: You will feel different to your horse and that isn’t fair to them
2: You run a HUGE risk of needing surgery if you mess it up. One spook is all it takes
3: How much do you like that wrist? Would you like to have early onset arthritis?
It’s not worth it.
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Mom lived in assisted living on Cape Cod, I’m in Maine. Threw my bag in the back end and tripped on some ice when I backed up to walk away from the car… It didn’t hurt much so maybe it was a bad sprain. The ER was a few hundred yards away, so i drove there. They kept asking me why i was on the Cape if i lived in Maine. And when i was going back. When you are done. I don’t need any drugs. They brought an orthopedic surgeon in to cast it because i was driving home. After he told me all horse people are crazy he looked at the x-rays and said if it lined up correctly and i was careful and it didn’t displace i wouldn’t need surgery. He reduced it and put a cast on and I left.
At home 10 days later I went back to the surgeon who fixed a really serious fracture years ago when I crashed on black ice. I still have the hardware. Same advice as I got on the Cape. If it doesn’t displace you won’t need surgery. “What about my horse?” “HORSE!!! HORSE!!!” “I’m grooming left handed.” “That’s okay.” 2 weeks of grooming, then another follow up with 2 more weeks of grooming. Then he put me in a brace. I could ride if I took it easy. I admitted to cheating when I took the brace off to take notes at a Julie Goodnight clinic. It wasn’t cheating. That was my last visit. I promised to do ice-related fractures with him and horse stuff with somebody else.
