Monday, November 7, 2011 - Ride Day at Last! But...

Finally woke up to a beautiful day, feeling well enough to venture out. Since the horse trail here is only a bit over 4 miles, we decided to give it a go. Everything was going fine for about the first mile or so, the horses were frisky after having been standing around for the past week, and I was feeling better, though still not 100 percent. We came to a nice stretch and did some trotting and a little canter, then walked a bit more, then came to another stretch where the horses’ ears picked up and they decided to canter. Unfortuntately, my horse likes to be in the lead, and when his mom passed him and started to pull away, he decided to play rodeo and pitch a fit. One second he was under me and the next second he wasn’t. I was up in the air and then I was hitting the ground hard. Probably hadn’t quite recovered enough to think that quickly to compensate, but whatever, I landed on my hip. Now that I’ve lost 40 pounds of fat, I don’t have as much cushion as I used to, and it was a hard landing. I completely had the wind knocked out of me, which was awful for about a half dozen breaths, especially considering I was still pretty congested from the illness. For a minute, I wasn’t sure I would be able to catch my breath at all. It was pretty scary. Finally I managed to pull in some air, which made my ribs hurt. I sat there for a good ten minutes just getting my wits about me before trying to climb back on board Apollo. Once I was up, though, my head starting swimming and my eyes got really sensitive to the light, everything seemed suddenly brighter. I had to climb down again, it was just too dangerous up there for the moment. I sat on the ground for another good 15 minutes or so before I finally felt well enough to get back up. It was better this time, at least my head wasn’t swimming, but I had aches and pains all along my right side. I gave Hubby my lead rope just in case (we have a McCarty setup), and we headed back the way we came at a walk, though both horses were still a bit frisky, which didn’t help, but they behaved themselves for the most part. Once we got back, I barely managed to make it inside, once more having to leave all the work to Hubby, for which I had already been feeling guilty about all week. I grabbed a few painkillers and lay down in bed again, and later when I struggled to the recliner, started alternating between heat and ice for the rest of the evening. That helped some, but there’s a possibility I cracked a rib. I’m certainly in for some bruising on my hip. Compouding the matter is that the right side is the one that has been screwed up for nearly three years, and I’m afraid it wrenched in even stranger ways, though I may get lucky and this wrenching will fix the old wrenching (one can hope : -). Anyway, this was the last thing I needed, to be laid up even longer! Now the occasional lagging cough of my cold/flu is just enough to send shooting pains all along my rib cage and right side. I’m just going to have to take it easy, considering we have a workshop to conduct next Monday!