Henry the Handyman from rags to riches

[RMJacobs]

Love the cow damage. I’m glad you got insurance to pay for it.

We were someplace with bison–Lamar Valley, maybe–driving a rental car. Suddenly there were a bunch of yahoos in an oncoming car chasing bison, hanging out of the sunroof, yelling and screaming. Bison takes a look at our car and is thinking about charging. We had nowhere to go with a deep ditch off to our right, cars ahead of and behind us, and a really pissed off bison to the left. So we just sat there and awaited our fate. Luckily the bison decided to move on, still being chased by the idiots.

If I’d had cell service I would have ratted those people out so fast. We yelled at them, but they didn’t care. I had no cell service, hadn’t had any for days, so all we could do is fume.
And think about what we would have told Hertz if the bison had rolled the car, assuming we lived to report it.

Rebecca

[RMJacobs]

What is really scary is that it’s not the first time someone asked me if I was dead. We rolled our UTV (side by side ATV) within site of a road, which was intensely embarrassing. We were both wearing helmets and five point seat belts, so we just sat there, hanging sideways, asking each other “what just happened here?” Of course we had multiple witnesses, and they asked if we were dead. We said we didn’t think so, and crawled out. At least DH waited until I was out to unhook his seat belt, or he would have landed on me. He looked at the UTV, said “I can fix this!” and popped it back onto its wheels. And off we went, although we decided not to stay on the steeply banked dirt bike trail we’d been on.

And what’s rather disturbing is that it wasn’t the first time a man was at risk of falling on me in a rolled vehicle. Way back in '78, ex DH and I were driving from LA to the 40 acres we owned in the White Mountains of Arizona, got as far as Winslow, got hit from behind and our little truck flipped four times. I was wearing a seat belt (only a lap belt in that truck), but then-DH wasn’t, so I got the joy of getting pounded by him on each roll. Fun times.

Rebecca

[hoopoe]

interesting point about rotator cuffs.

I fell and separated my shoulder. Not a glamorous riding fall, my toe caught a little dimple in the sidewalk trip and fall. My MRI showed a partially torn rotator along with other damage.

I asked if the fall did that and the surgeon said

"I cannot say half the folks in your age group have partly torn rotators with no known history of injury. "

Probably one of those injuries you wake up in the morning and you simply have. Darn those dangerous beds

[SillyHorse]

@MissusS

I broke my baby toe carrying a two-pack of franks red hot sauce to the cupboard when bringing in groceries. One bottle slipped out of the plastic packaging and fell on my toe.

I broke a toe the same way, taking a can of soup off the shelf at the grocery store. Another can came off the shelf and hit my toe hard. Pain!

[SillyHorse]

@McGurk

Next one, I was lunging my fresh horse before riding and he had a moment and took off bucking on the lunge line and pulled me off of my feet. I broke a finger hitting the ground. I was depressed for weeks over the fact I no longer had to ride a horse to get hurt, I could get hurt lunging. <<<special skills.

I got a broken finger leading a horse. Snow slid off the arena roof, another horse went ballistic, and my horse decided to join the fun. I didn’t want to let go of the reins because there were some kids riding, but once the finger broke…

[Rackonteur]

At first reading I was picturing you leading a horse named Snow. That illusion lasted only as far as the end of the first line, after which immediately I saw “off the arena roof…” lol

[SillyHorse]

[add_leg]

Back in winter 2022, I was warming up for a jump lesson, cantered around a corner and just… dismounted? But my left leg didn’t get the memo we were disembarking and stayed pointed straight while my body twisted. ACL, meniscus, dislocated patella, some other accessories with purchase I can’t remember.

I also once hooked my toe on the edge of my stirrup getting on and did a full front somersault off the three step mounting block and karate chopped the bench in front of it with my body, breaking it into pieces. I was relatively unscathed somehow; my horse had some emotional trauma over that mounting block for a while.

[Rackonteur]

Ouch!

[rockymouse]

A few weeks ago I was taking a power walk with the dogs - podcast on, all of us charging along at a good quick clip - when the middle dog just…stopped. I ran into him at speed, all of us got sort of tangled, and I fell very awkwardly.

Since I could move everything, and I could walk, I thought, oh, I just strained muscles or pulled tendons/ligaments. After three weeks, it wasn’t better whatsoever and I got it x-rayed. Broken. The proximal fibular head, broken straight across.

Upon telling my son, who now lives on the east coast, that I’d inadvertently been going through life with a broken leg recently, his response was “That is pure West Texas badassery.” Ha!

[Calvincrowe]

Reminds me of the month or so I spent walking around on a failed metatarsal fusion. Just doing my thing on an open fracture and a broken screw in my big toe. Tralala! It didn’t really hurt much more than my weird foot usually did. Found it on a follow up X-ray.

I also apparently broke a plate in half in the same foot a few years later, from riding and jumping according to my ortho. It hurt this time but just a bit so I ignored it for a few weeks but finally went in because I thought I stress fractured my little toe. Nope.

The human body and mind are remarkable.

[RMJacobs]

The last time I rode my Appy cross, I came off hard when he bolted, then made a quick left turn but I didn’t. I landed hard on my right shoulder and knocked the wind out of myself. Everyone who was with me kept asking me “are you OK?” but I couldn’t get any breath to reply.

Anyway, a friend got on my horse, rode him a while to keep him from getting away with dumping me to get out of work, then I took him up by the tackroom, unsaddled, groomed, fed, walked him half a mile out to the current pasture through all the gates, walked back, got in my stick shift car and drove home. I was sitting telling DH what had happened, when all of a sudden the pain in my right shoulder was excruciating. I had some vicodin around, took that, didn’t work, took more, and finally got in the hot tub, which helped the vicodin work.

Next morning, I went off to work, but DH took me because I couldn’t shift my car. My friend/coworker took one look at me and called my doctor to get me in same day. She took me over there, they sent me down the hall for X-rays, and my friend said she heard me shriek when they moved my arm to get the X-ray. I’d dislocated the shoulder, and found out later I had a torn rotator cuff. I never could figure out how I’d done all the unsaddling/grooming/feeding/walk out to the pasture. It was my right shoulder and I’m very right handed.

I still have the damned torn rotator cuff. All of the above happened in April 2000. I never rode that horse again–sold him for $100.

Rebecca

[Bluey]

I broke 3 metatarsals on a foot … jumping a fence.

Was too hurried to walk down to the pen gate, went over the 5’ boards and landed wrong.
Too busy for the dr that March, limped along and at the yearly checkup in October mentioned that foot was sure sore.
Dr x rayed and sent me to a foot specialist, who said three broken bones and you have been walking on that all summer? Horse people!
They had finally healed, but not quite right, lateral arch was flattened and had to wear hiking boots for the stiff thick hard sole and an orthotic in that shoe after that for years, is fine now

I hope Henry is laughing at all our war stories while recuperating himself.

[risuenaVT]

Not to mention that if you already have a history of concussions/TBIs, it doesn’t take much to get another one. I know at least two people who got concussions when they were looking for food in a fridge and bumped their heads on a shelf. They both also had a number of previous TBIs.

And even with a seemingly small bump, it can still take a while for concussion symptoms to go away.

[Fiesta01]

Late to the party but thought I’d add my most ridiculous horse-related injury.

Cleaning my mare’s stall using both a pitchfork and a rake. I set the rake down to use the pitchfork (yep, tines up). I turned back around forgetting the rake was there, and my foot hit the tines.

It was exactly like in a cartoon. The rake handle came flying up at speed and got me right in the forehead and sent me to my knees. I was holding my forehead thinking it was feeling weird. I went into the bathroom and saw the hugest goose egg. I’d never seen anything like it and hadn’t realized that cartoons weren’t exaggerating the almost instantaneous swelling and size of goose eggs.

My friend was lunging in the indoor, saw it and immediately stopped lunging to get me some ice. The ice really did help, but over the next few weeks, I had two shiners. It started with the left, under where the rake hit, then slowly drained into the other and turned all the pretty colors.

I got the strangest looks when I was in public, like the grocery store clerk was wondering if they should call the police about potential domestic abuse or something.

[Spudsmyguy]

@RMJacobs

I never could figure out how I’d done all the unsaddling/grooming/feeding/walk out to the pasture. It was my right shoulder and I’m very right handed.

After I got dumped off my young horse who bolted as I was mounting, I planned to move her to a new barn that afternoon so post dumping and in pain, I loaded my tack, trunk, garbage can of grain into my truck, loaded horse and on my way to new barn I called DH and asked him to go with me to get her settled and after to drop me off at the emergency walk in. Turned out I had a fractured vertebrae and a very badly bruised shoulder.

[Spudsmyguy]

@Fiesta01

I got the strangest looks when I was in public, like the grocery store clerk was wondering if they should call the police about potential domestic abuse or something

I scared a little girl at the store when I went out with my huge shiner. She looked up at me and her face contorted and she burst into tears. She probably thought she saw a monster.

[LaurieB]

@Fiesta01

I got the strangest looks when I was in public, like the grocery store clerk was wondering if they should call the police about potential domestic abuse or something.

That’s one good thing about living in central Kentucky. It doesn’t matter how banged up you look when you’re out in public. If people stop and stare, you just say, “Horse” and they all go, “Sure, I get it” and go back to what they were doing.

[Angela_Freda]

@Fiesta01

It was exactly like in a cartoon. The rake handle came flying up at speed and got me right in the forehead and sent me to my knees. I was holding my forehead thinking it was feeling weird. I went into the bathroom and saw the hugest goose egg. I’d never seen anything like it and hadn’t realized that cartoons weren’t exaggerating the almost instantaneous swelling and size of goose eggs

I got a goose egg like this, and a dent, when a polo pony I worked with had a clump of something on his girth area that was not currying out… So duh, I bent down to look.

My hair, bane of my existence, tickled him, and he lifted a front hoof to shoo the pesky fly that was my hair cracking me, literally and soundly in the forehead.
Heard “crunch”, saw stars.
.

[MunchingonHay]

I love all of these battle wound stories!

I broke my tibia and fibia in several places, butterfly broke it as well as snapped, including several bones in my ankle, dislocated my foot from my ankle, torn all of the soft tissue, ended up with a bunch of screws, a plate and two surgeries while being non-weight bearing for 6 months from WALKING down a horse trailer ramp… by my self!.

I was rushing to make the trailer ready to head to a clinic and my heel got caught in the hinge of the ramp, my body went forward and my foot stayed in the gap. I heard it crack on the way down. As I sat there trying to get up; my knee pointing up to the sky like it should and my toes on my right foot pointing to the right, laying parallel with the ground.

That was the injury that made me hang up my hoof pick and get a proper job.

If your trailer has an air ride suspension, make sure you release the air The trailer being higher off the ground made the gap on the ramp larger than I had expected and that’s what took me down.