Found out something today

My driving horse is trained to respond mostly to my voice. That way, as my arms are weak from my back trouble, I can control him without hurting my back. Today I went for a drive, the first time since my surgery, only to discover that with my paralized vocal cord, he can't hear me!
I had another experienced horsewoman in the cart with me, though it was her first time in a cart rather than in the saddle, so I was feeling pretty safe and we went out for about an hour and a half. As we approached the first stop sign, I cued my horse to stop and said 'whoa', but he could not hear me and knows that to stop I tell me not cue with the reins. LOL. As we got close to teh stop sign he kept glancing back at me with this look of "It's a stop sign, do I stop?" and finally he just decided we were rolling though stop signs today.
Sigh. Apparently, as at this point I am told we are 'waiting to see' if my voice comes back on its own for the next 18 months, just in case it doesn't, I am going to have to retrain my horse! He wasn't dangerous, just confused!
All in all, I had a great time with him and he is a great boy who would never hurt me - after all, I can ride him with a broken back. We just have this one little problem that i did not explain to him that I have no voice anymore!