Somehow broke my hand while picking a hoof

[BookWorm]

i’m a new rider - just started a little over a month ago - and already managed to injure myself. My lesson horse is somewhat arthritic, and you have to position his hooves just so to pick them out. Yesterday I was trying to get his back hoof into position and he just ripped it out of my hands. My right hand immediately started to hurt. I thought it was just a strained tendon so I tried again, managed to clean the hoof, and got him put away.

My hand hurt, but it was still functional so I thought it was okay. A few hours later I decided to go to urgent care and get it checked out for my peace of my mind. I thought I’d be told to just ice and take aspirin, but nope. They took x-Rays, and one of the metacarpals is broken. So now I’m looking at six weeks in a cast not doing much of anything.

I’m so sad and frustrated. I worry that once I can ride again, and the progress I’ve made will be gone and I’ll be back at square zero. And I feel like an idiot. Who breaks their hand cleaning hooves? It wasn’t that the hoof came down on my hand. I’m honestly not sure how exactly I managed to do this, but I’m so upset.

[JBD]

I bet most horse people have gotten injured doing something innocuous on the ground. One of my improbable accidents was getting knocked down while putting a rein through the offside martingale.

My horse was young and tall so I was training him to the mounting block. As I was slipping the rein through, he took the littlest of side steps away from the mounting block. He didn’t step on my foot, he got the little edge of the boot sole at the toe.

This all happened at once, the side step, stepping on my boot, bumping me while my hands were in the air. With my foot anchored by his foot, I fell straight back and slammed my head. Fortunately I was already wearing my helmet and we were in a sand arena. Still, it made me see stars for a moment.

Sorry about your hand and not riding. You will be back in the saddle before you know it.

[Bluey]

Sorry about breaking your hand so easily.

Don’t worry, you won’t lose what you have learned, that will stay with you always.

Once, we were working cattle in the pens, I jumped off a fence and kept on running and doing what we were doing.

That evening my foot was very swollen and it turned all colors, from yellow to purple.

I limped on it all summer, that fall had a checkup, mentioned my foot still hurting, they took x-rays and said I broke three bones and sent me to the foot specialist.

Seems that those hand and foot bones are very flexible, but also will snap with ease.

Glad you went to have it checked out, because if it heals wrong, you may have problems later.

At least it is a bone, those heal and no sweat, unlike soft tissue injuries, that can really give trouble.

[Gamma]

That’s too bad. Good news, I rode with a broken arm, so once you have a permanent cast and it stops hurting so much talk with your doctor about what you can do! It might be a good time to learn neck reining… (Also ask for the fiberglass “children’s” casts that can get a little wet, instead of the terrible old school casts they stick on adults.)

After a bunch of bad falls, my only riding broken bone was a broken toe from being stepped on. Not even a very large horse, she just stomped all her weight down right on my little toe.

[SuzieQNutter]

You can have lunge lessons and ride one handed.

[PeteyPie]

With an arthritic horse, my farrier will do some of the work on a hoof with the horse resting it on the ground. She (farrier) will place the toe on the ground so the sole is exposed and do some of the trimming and cleaning that way. I’ve only seen her do this with a hind hoof, and at some point she has to pick up the foot to finish, but for a person just cleaning, I don’t know why you couldn’t do the same thing. You have to keep placing the hoof until the horse gets the idea, and it is really hard on your back, but it might work until your hand is better. At least you could do a basic hoof cleaning and inspection.

[Zu_Zu]

Jingles & AO for a speedy ‘healing’ and back in the saddle ~

Jingles & AO for a speedy ‘healing’ and back in the saddle ~

[TBROCKS]

[QUOTE=BookWorm;8313886]
i’m a new rider - just started a little over a month ago - and already managed to injure myself. My lesson horse is somewhat arthritic, and you have to position his hooves just so to pick them out. Yesterday I was trying to get his back hoof into position and he just ripped it out of my hands. My right hand immediately started to hurt. I thought it was just a strained tendon so I tried again, managed to clean the hoof, and got him put away.

My hand hurt, but it was still functional so I thought it was okay. A few hours later I decided to go to urgent care and get it checked out for my peace of my mind. I thought I’d be told to just ice and take aspirin, but nope. They took x-Rays, and one of the metacarpals is broken. So now I’m looking at six weeks in a cast not doing much of anything.

I’m so sad and frustrated. I worry that once I can ride again, and the progress I’ve made will be gone and I’ll be back at square zero. And I feel like an idiot. Who breaks their hand cleaning hooves? It wasn’t that the hoof came down on my hand. I’m honestly not sure how exactly I managed to do this, but I’m so upset.[/QUOTE]

You broke your hand and managed to finish cleaning out the hoof? That is the mark of a TRUE horseman. LOL. Get well soon, and don’t sweat forgetting everything you’ve learned, it will come back quickly.

[BookWorm]

[QUOTE=TBROCKS;8315129]
You broke your hand and managed to finish cleaning out the hoof? That is the mark of a TRUE horseman. LOL. Get well soon, and don’t sweat forgetting everything you’ve learned, it will come back quickly.[/QUOTE]

I did! And of course that time I had no problem getting his hoof in position, ha.

I have an ortho appointment Thursday, so hopefully after that I’ll have a better idea of how long this is going to take.

[SlabSided]

I was once picking my horse’s hooves in an outdoor wash stall in Texas, the land of black gumbo clay soil. Picking that stuff out can be quite a challenge and it always comes out in a solid, hoof shaped clump which, this particular day, without thinking, I just tossed into the woods behind me. My horse thinks monsters are coming out of the woods to eat him and jerks his hoof out of my hand and slams it down. On my big toe. I was wearing paddock boots so managed not to break anything but lost the entire nail and the toe was pretty ugly for quite awhile.

[Reign]

I’m in the same boat.

First lesson EVER and I was brushing the horse before tacking up. Literally this is 2 minutes into brushing a horse for the first time. I had my foot by his hoof and he shifted his weight juuuust so he snagged the edge of my boot. With my pinkey toe.

Rode through the lesson. Painful, but very tolerable. Checked it out afterwards, did not look good. Went to doc in a box. Broken. Took a good 8 months to get back to normal. Learned horse 101 on the first day: WATCH WHERE YOU PUT YOUR FEET.

[ladymcts]

Does it make you feel any better to know that I once broke my thumb getting up in the morning? I was sleeping on the floor (on purpose), and in the morning the phone was ringing. This was back in the day when our phones were on a table far far away and leashed to the wall. So when I got up, I put my hand down to support myself, and the shag of the rug was one-directional, so my thumb was anchored really well against the grain of the carpet, while my fingers were more with the grain and slid right out. Snap.

OK … gruesome anecdote out of the way … it does sound just a little bit like the break came easier than it should. Please be aware that there are conditions that may cause your bones to be more brittle than they should. Not necessarily saying this one isolated incident should send you to the doc for a lot of expensive diagnostics. But if you have any other issues of something “not quite right”, please see your primary physician to talk thru everything going on (you mentioned that for this you only went to urgent care).

[Doctracy]

I was also going to suggest that you ask your orthopedic Doctor if you should get a bone density test.
I fell while turning the corner from linen closet to bathroom once after a shower, when I had to jump out wet to get a dry towel. My hand landed in the toilet and I broke my thumb.
I’ve also had a cast from a car accident where I broke my hand. I rode the entire time, once I got my regular cast put on.

[Foxtrot_s]

I was just going to say get a bone density scan…either your bones are getting weaker, or you just got it caught the wrong way and it broke.

Anyway, it is advisable to have a scan for a base line to compare if there are any changes as the years go on that are more than in the acceptable range.

[HorsesinHaiti]

How old are you, may I ask? I wanted to get a bone density check the last time (of several) that I broke a toe tripping on a rock. Even with a family history of osteoporosis, I got a lot of resistance from docs about "you don’t need that before menopause unless you REALLY had no reason for a bone to break.

[BookWorm]

[QUOTE=HorsesinHaiti;8334114]
How old are you, may I ask? I wanted to get a bone density check the last time (of several) that I broke a toe tripping on a rock. Even with a family history of osteoporosis, I got a lot of resistance from docs about "you don’t need that before menopause unless you REALLY had no reason for a bone to break.[/QUOTE]

I’m 30. And yeah, I’m planning to ask about a bone density test at my next appointment in a couple weeks. I do think it snapped really easily and so now I’m worried that I’m getting an early start on osteoporosis, yay.

I have a hard cast on now that at least leaves my fingers free. I’m thinking of maybe seeing if I can take a few lessons just at a walking pace, even though mounting/dismounting might be difficult. I’ve got 2 1/2 more weeks in the cast, then we’ll see where things are at.

[BookWorm]

[QUOTE=Reign;8333730]
I’m in the same boat.

First lesson EVER and I was brushing the horse before tacking up. Literally this is 2 minutes into brushing a horse for the first time. I had my foot by his hoof and he shifted his weight juuuust so he snagged the edge of my boot. With my pinkey toe. .[/QUOTE]

I would have thought I’d be more likely to get stepped on, honestly. Breaking a hand while picking a hoof was one horse-related injury I never, ever thought I’d be dealing with.