First fall at age 42 from horse...why does it hurt so badly?

[ma23peas]

I'm amazed it's taken me this long to get 'thrown'..well actually he went one way and I went the other, so he didn't intentionally try to throw me! :)

 

I hit so hard flat on my back that it knocked the wind out of me literally, I could not breathe but felt that I had not broken anything so I had to lay on the ground about 2 minutes before my lungs could take enough shallow breaths to refill up my lungs...I can only think that I've carried around that same residual air for 40 years and now I've lost it all and had to put today's polluted air back in....ha!

 

I then had horrific nausea, tried to rest but pain was so bad I needed a muscle relaxant or something...went to my doctor (he's a one man show) and they were TOO busy to see me!!!! Now I NEVER go to the doc, once for a bladder infection caused from sliding down the 90mph slide at Disneyworld (waterslide, not good for orifices) and once for a brown recluse bite..so 2 visits in 6 years! Why do I even have a doctor if I can't see him when I need him??? UGH!!! So I was forced to go to doc-in-a-box and got the xray, nothing broken, just sprained coccyx/tailbone and bruised ribs...really, I can sprain that!!! So I got some medicine and hope tomorrow won't feel as bad as I imagine...

 

Here's where you can help, share your horse falls so I feel a bit better...or any fall....I just need encouragment that this too will feel better with time!! :)

 

Tara

[RegularMom]

When I was a kid I fell off my horse quite a few times. Most times, I walked away just bruised. But I'd have the Total Body Soreness Thing. Being thrown and jarred like that, even as a young kid is quite the physical experience. ( I can only imagine it now, in my 40's, to go through that kind of thing. OWWWW! My heart goes out to you.

 

My mom always rubbed Tiger Balm into my back muscles before I went to bed, on days when I took a fall. It worked like magic, almost. The next morning, the pain would be mostly gone.

 

I recommend Tiger Balm.

 

HTH and that you feel better soon. :)

[Denisemomof4]

I was thrown at age 40 and I had a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE hemangioma which went from my hip to the bottom of my left buttock. I also broke my very thick wedding ring, got a concussion even though I wore a helmet, and have aches and bruises literally for months.

 

It took me a long time to get my nerve back up to ride again, but I only did it once before I found out my horse couldn't be ridden. :(

[simka2]

So, you want to hear about how I have no feeling on my left shin from being thrown head first into a 5' oxer and landing directly on the poles in semi-kneeling position? Still don't know how I landed that way :) Or the other time I went into another jump, but landed on my ankle and tore every ligament?

 

Oooooh, and then there was the time I feel over backwards into the creek bed (without a helmet :tongue_smilie:) Cut my head open, but didn't realize it...till a few hrs later when the blood was running down my back...yeah that was not a fun night in the ER!

 

No, really...I'm okay! I still jump on my daughters horse whenever it misbehaves...today in fact. :)

[ma23peas]

Wow!!! You guys make me feel soo much better! I realize how lucky I was....just makes you sad that you're 42 and not as spry as I once was! :)

 

Muscle relaxant helping some but boy, my right cheek feels like it's a solid rock, hope there's no hemangioma!! OUCHH!!!

 

Tara

[Denisemomof4]

Wow!!! You guys make me feel soo much better! I realize how lucky I was....just makes you sad that you're 42 and not as spry as I once was! :)

 

Muscle relaxant helping some but boy, my right cheek feels like it's a solid rock, hope there's no hemangioma!! OUCHH!!!

 

Tara

 

I mentioned my hemangioma, but right in the middle of it there was what felt like a baseball; hard as a rock and it stuck out. It was so painful that I refused to go to the dr. even though I had numbness and tingling in my left hand and arm.:eek: I was in serious pain but, like Simka, I was fine.

[Alyce]

Was training for the state fairs barrel race. Horse and I got along great and we were doing well. One day we were just slowly going around the barrels. Got to one which was near a bush. Suddenly horse reared up and threw me but in the process she reared again and actually turned me upside down. I landed on my head. Dr said if it had been another inch over it would have broken my neck. I was in a neck brace for along time. Also had severe pain in shoulder blades. Dr said it was because I had torn some of the muscles there. Tried everything for pain. Meds, Tens unit and finally cortisone injections, that's when we found out I was allergic to steroids. Took about 2 years to quite being painful all the time. I'm okay now until I have to do a lot of holding my arms up. It starts to hurt some then. Drs have told me that the pain is coming because some of the nerves got caught in the muscles as they healed so when I overuse the muscles my nerves get slightly inflammed and give me pain. Fortunately the only times I have to do that at least for any length of time is in the choir and when I'm doing basics in Karate. My teacher understands when I have to drop my arms because it's too painful even though technically you're supposed to hold them up at all times. Sometimes stretching helps. It's been about 21 years since this happened and thankfully I've been able to get back on a horse but unfortunately will only trust a trail horse. Miss barrel racing. Was a lot of fun at least until my fall.

[Barb_]

You're 42 and you fell off....a HORSE. And you're wondering why you're in pain? I'm 41 and I hurt when I get out of bed in the morning. :::shakes head:::

 

Barb

[Corraleno]

You're 42 and you fell off....a HORSE. And you're wondering why you're in pain? I'm 41 and I hurt when I get out of bed in the morning. :::shakes head:::

 

Barb

:lol:

 

I was once "launched" by a 17h thoroughbred in a bad mood. DH (who was then my boyfriend) watched me shoot straight up in the air like a rocket and come down on my head/shoulder. I remember lying there in the dark hearing really loud moaning that seemed really far away — which apparently was me — along with someone yelling "don't move! don't move! don't move!!!" I ended up being strapped to a board and loaded into an ambulance, and I vividly remember the EMT telling DH that the fact I could wiggle my toes didn't necessarily mean I wouldn't be a paralyzed. :blink: Luckily it was "just" a fractured collarbone and a couple of cracked ribs — try not breathing for a month and a half. :glare:

 

The worst part was that we were about to get married, and I'd bought a gorgeous off-the-shoulder dress, and in all the wedding pictures I'm desperately trying to hide this HUGE green and purple bruise that covered one entire shoulder.

 

Jackie

[KidsHappen]

Um, because 42 year olds are not supposed to fall at all. You are supposed get all your falling down done before puberty. Haven't you heard that it is dangerous. I don't even like standing at the top of the stairs because I have learned the hard way that I can fall from there. So sorry. Hope you feel better soon. :grouphug:

[Alessandra]

I fell off a horse onto my coccyx when I was about 18 years old. Not quite the same thing I know. I got a strong muscle relaxant and was told to sleep on my back on the floor -- not on a mat on the floor, just on the floor. The medicine made me sleepy, so it was not that difficult. I recovered in less than a week.

 

I hope you feel better!

[galtgrl]

I've ridden since I was 6 or 7, rode a ton throughout my 20's. After having kids I'd just hop on my old reliable mare...we knew eachother really well....and there were never any issues.

 

Go forward to when we bought my oldest dds first pony. I was about 35. This pony is a little 11 hand Shetland-type gelding that had some issues. The first day he ran away with my dd in the arena, I figured "I'll just hop on bareback for a minute and straighten him out...":glare:

 

About 30 seconds later I was on the ground. My ribs ached. The wind knocked out of me. And this was off a little pony!

 

It was highly entertaining for the rest of my family, though!

 

It HURTS to fall...don't do it anymore!:lol:

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Cowgirl, my horse, never threw me but she did jump onto my right foot once after something spooked her. I now have a permanently crushed toe (big toe, right foot) thanks to that experience. I was wearing cowboy boots at the time. Oh, I was 38 when it happened.

 

DH was 39 when the horse he was riding moved out from beneath him. It didn't buck or throw him but kind of side stepped in a hurry. DH landed on one knee (think engagement pose) but the jarring hurt his back and he was sore for weeks.

 

We both conitnued to ride until financial troubles forced us to sell Cowgirl (about this time last year).

[shalom22]

Here is a quote from Will Rogers that sums it all up:

 

When you're young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you're my age, you splatter.

Roy Rogers

[Haiku]

I have never fallen from a horse but I just had to come sympathize with you because I feel a kinship with you due to our sharing of a name (even though we pronounce them differently).

 

:grouphug:

 

Tara

[ChemMommy]

I was wearing a helmet but still got a nice concussion. I have no memory of the accident and was unconscious for a period of time. My left side was very painful, but nothing was broken. The dizziness and nausea was terrible and I slept for nearly 4 straight days. The confusion lasted about 2 weeks and the dizziness lasted for about 4 months.

 

And that was with a helmet! The horse took off at a gallop and I had no idea how to stay on and managed to drop the reins (I think). Anyway, I met the gravel road and was stuck there until help came since I couldn't move because of pain of nausea (that and constantly falling asleep).

 

God's blessings on your recovery. This gal is staying on terra firma for now. Recovery is much harder at 45 than I expected. I still have bursitis in the hip from the injury.

[hillfarm]

I got tossed frequently as a child. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that I was dumb enough to try to ride anything, so I always got to take the first ride on all the new horses and most ponies. I probably made a zillion trips to the optometrist to get my eyeglasses straightened.:glare:

 

My best story though, is the one time I didn't get thrown. My horse had just gotten shod and we were going along just fine. Then, of a sudden, he decides there are monsters behind every mailbox, so he jumped out onto our road, bucking for all he was worth. The road was not busy, but was paved so his new shoes made him slide around like an ice skater while he was bucking. I held on so tightly. I remember thinking that I would surely die if I fell off onto the hard road surface and his new shoes would slice me to ribbons. When he finally got it all bucked out and came to a stop, I got off, managed to keep my jello legs under me just long enough to punch him really hard right in the nose. Then I went down in a heap. All the neighbors thought I had gotten thrown and kept trying to examine me and call the ambulance, but I was just shaken up and really, furiously mad. Good thing no one had a blood pressure cuff. I could have probably blown the thing apart at that moment.

 

I haven't gotten thrown as an adult - calmer horses, more common sense on my part. However, I did take a spectacular fall on the ice when trying to clear a water source last winter. (They don't tell you to wear a helmet when doing barn chores!) And I haven't seen 40 for quite a while.:tongue_smilie:. As I soaked my aching bones, I told dh, "I'm too old for this.")

[ma23peas]

Here is a quote from Will Rogers that sums it all up:

 

When you're young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you're my age, you splatter.

Roy Rogers

 

That's what it sounded like "SPLAT!!"...whew! So glad all of you survived your falls! I thought I was being VERY conservative! I've done only groundwork with this horse for 18 months!!! We just started riding about 6 weeks ago and NO sign of anything, he won't even go up to a fast walk, he just does a slow walk (we've never asked him to go up on saddle...but he does well on lead)....I just have to keep my wits about me and go slow when adding new things for him and I need to be out there EVERY day not skip a week and jump back in....lesson learned and thank you all for your amazing stories!! Our bodies are resilient!! :)

 

Tara (Thanks Liberator! :) Me too with you!)