Recently, I banged my knee while working on opening and shutting a gate from horseback. I've done it before and received some bruising that I generally ignore. This last time, though, I was in the car on my way home and lifted up the knee of my sweat pants. (Yes, I wore sweat pants riding. They're comfortable and warm, okay?) When I moved the fabric, part of it stuck to my knee before slowly peeling off. When I got home, I discovered this:
X-rays, you say? I took a tumble off my first horse, Honey, when I was around 16 years old. We were cantering down a road, and by road I mean we were galloping down a racetrack, getting ready to pass another horse in the backstretch (in my head, at least) when Honey got other ideas. She decided that it was time to practice her reining skills, and did a lovely sliding stop. She slid for about 6 feet (you could see the drag marks in the soft gravel on the side of the road), and that was without any reining training whatsoever! Or without being polite enough to cue me in to her plans.
I flew off over her right shoulder, performed a somersault, and landed on my back in front of her. The air disappeared from my lungs and it took me what felt like forever to be able to move. I slowly turned myself over, gasping for breath while trying to get back to my feet. Honey watched me for a minute, then took herself the last block or so home.
My back hurt. I was stubborn enough to get back on her once I had cried and limped my way home, to finish going home the right way instead of with a crash. The next day I went in to get my lower back x-rayed to make sure I hadn't broken anything. The x-ray was really neat looking, there was a sudden curve in my spine at my lower back because I couldn't lay flat on the table- it hurt too badly. I was lucky and hadn't broken or sprained anything, but the doctor outlined with his finger tips on my back the basketball sized bruise that was coming in.
To this day there are times when it hurts to lay down flat, but I can breathe through it and eventually am able to settle into it. Doing exercises that involve laying on the floor and putting weight on my back, like scissor kicks, are too uncomfortable for me to do.
Sometimes I get a twinge that goes from my right hip through my lower back, but I'm pretty sure a fall off Rocky helped with that one. I think I posted about this one earlier, so I'll do a quick synopsis rather than getting into the nitty gritty of things. He got scared on a trail ride, spun and bolted with me. I lost my right stirrup during his spin, and ended up sliding off him while he ran "for his life." I skidded across the grass, getting grass burns on my face and arm but, more painfully, I landed and slid on my right hip.
Directly after the accident it wasn't so bad, it was stiff and hurt but not that terribly. The worst part was for a solid four days after I fell, I had a really hard time lifting my right leg. Which sucked because my bedroom and the bathroom were upstairs, making me look like an old lady whenever I went up to bed or had to use the toilet.
That about sums up my riding injuries. So far I have been lucky and nothing has been broken, knock on wood. How about for you?
No comments:
Post a Comment