So last week I took my OTTB for a trail ride… a short one… I’ve been working through some unreasonable fear issues and this was his 2nd trail ride & my first on him… it went vey very well… I do need to switch to a stronger bit for trails though as advised by my instructor / trainer… I broke my ring finger a little over a year ago, and when it was mostly healed… slipped on the only patch of ice in the driveway and re broke it… so now its slightly deformed and where he’s way stronger out there than in the ring… the reins really hurt. My instructor/trainer tells me that my hands are very soft & quiet and I don’t need to worry about “hurting” my horse because I worry a lot about causing him pain.
So things are going really well… I can mount alone and not panic… he stands still and has learned that he gets a piece of carrot before we start to move… very happy things are going well… then… BLAMMO I now have acute laryngitis and can’t even manage a little noice… I can still cluck though… but I can’t talk to him, or verbally tell him “whoa” or “stand” or walk on or anything! My gut is telling me that its not a smart idea to ride (we would only be in the ring because I have no voice), but I just don’t want to be a big fat chicken again since we were really starting to get places… HELP!
Whatever symptoms you have affect the ride. If you are worried, then you will be tense, he will feel it, and you will create a tense horse. I vote for staying off of him for the few days it takes to feel better and have a voice.
You can work with him from the ground, using touch aids and body language. You could work on clicker training and both of you have fun. If you just want to groom and stretch his muscle groups, that counts, too. The handling builds trust.
If you feel the need to have him ridden, ask your instructor to either ride him or suggest an appropriate rider.
DressageGeek has written about ground work. Ask her for ideas and check her threads.
Thanks… Got the covering rider thing covered! My instructor is going to hop on a few times & continue our efforts at bending and other schooling things… YAY!
He’s gonna “hate” me because she’s more of a hard butt than I am… LOL Hopeing it will only be a few more days that I won’t be able to speak…
Forgot to mention we were working on sign language? or non verbal ques for things like “come to me” etc etc… so its not all bad…
Since when was a sore throat a disability!?
Actually its a combination of my slightly deformed hand/finger now added to by an a temporary (thankfully) inability to use verbal ques/commands… My mistake for attempting to post for advice under what I thought would be the appropriate catagory… Geeez
I agree with whicker - it’s not so much your voice, it’s your body language. The voice can soothe but the body can soothe more! So it is really how you feel - if this is going to add to your tension, don’t ride!
I have free lunged with no voice and it is always amazing to me how much I don’t need to rely on my voice.
