If a horse falls on you and all you’ve got to show for it is cracked ribs, you’re lucky as hell. I know an experienced rider killed when her horse tripped at the walk and fell on her. It’s literally, a ton of bricks. A horse weighs 1200 lbs. If its weight falls on your ribs, a fatally crushed torso is what’s going to happen unless you are insanely, freakishly lucky somehow.
Don’t let the horse fall on her – say the horse fell, and threw her clear. Then her injuries are likely and believable. Plus, being thrown clear is the likely result in the situation of a sudden change in momentum. The horse stops, you keep going.
Thanks Hello Again… I am glad you mentioned that. I had the horse falling on her because I once read a news story or something like that (I know it wasn’t fiction) and that happened to some guy and he broke 3, or was it 4, ribs. But yes, seeing as a horse weighs about as much as a two-ton-tessy (has anybody ever actually MEASURED one of those so we know what we’re talking about when we use that saying? :dubious:) it would make a lot more sense to have her fly off in some new direction and have the horse fall where she’s at. But the horses wouldn’t get impaled from that would she? (I didn’t think so but now I feel I had best double-check!)
I ate the top of a rail fence once breaking ribs and dislocating shoulder, the x ray tech at the er was a really nice looking woman who asked me to take my shirt off but I couldn’t work the buttons and there was this really sweet intimate feeling between us when she leaned close and unbuttoned my shirt…gotta be a place for that in a horse opera!
Thank you for the idea, slowlearner… But I don’t think that would work, because first of all, my character’s a girl, and second of all, because EVERY horse typed book has a romance in it. I want to do something original, not imitate everybody else… and third of all, ha ha, you don’t know my character… that whole scenario would evoke eye rolling and a couple of sarcastic comments from her. And she’d likely tell that nurse to “keep her hands to herself!” But thank you for the suggestion, I just don’t think it’d work out…
Down in Nashville, Tennessee (oh yeah)
There’s a sight you oughta see (oh yeah)
But as long as you can’t get down there
I’ll tell you all, so listen to me
There’s a girl named Tessie Town (oh yeah)
And she weighs about four hundred pounds (oh yeah)
She’s fat and fair, but she don’t care
'Cause the boys all hang around
Thanks for your help guys! A little later when I have time I will post a basic description if the scene so you can tell me if there’s anything that seems wrong it.
I broke a few ribs bicycling not long ago; it was excruciating (I sat on the ground trying to catch my breath for a bit, and while it didn’t immediately hurt if I wasn’t moving, I couldn’t use my arms/torso to help myself stand up; tried to get back on the bike but no way).
I went in for x-rays (unpleasant) and a chat with the doc: for 900 bucks I was told to let pain be my guide.They gave me one of the incentive spirometers (yeah, I tried to use it wrong). For the first week the very worst thing was moving into a prone position: I developed a sort or sideways roll method which reduced the need to use torso muscles. Breathing hurts; breathing deeply (like you’re supposed to with the spirometer) really hurts. Bending down and such was an ordeal; after the first day or so if I dropped a pen or something I’d just sort of sigh and kick it over into a corner and get another one out of a desk. I wore clogs a lot.
About three days in I lost control and sneezed, and it was like a little personal Armageddon: so very horrible.
After three weeks I was able to toodle to work the 1.5 miles on an upright bike; after four weeks I could do a 35-mile ride. By eight weeks I was pretty much right as rain.
Oh yes, the lovely ER wait times. I waited for SEVEN HOURS the time I broke 7 ribs and collapsed a lung. SEVEN hours, while everyone in town with the sniffles sneezed on me and was seen FIRST.
Of course, when the doctor finally DID see me, he nearly shit a squealing worm when he realized I had a pneumothorax. They immediately knocked me out and inserted a chest tube, which he told me they usually do just with a local anesthetic, but mine was “so bad” he didn’t think I could handle that…
May I offer a suggestion? Blake has a point when he explains how unlikely the scenario you’ve written would be (and yes, you researched it by reading books and talking to someone, but have you actually gotten out on a horse, handled a rope, and been around livestock? First person experience always trumps second person experience.). One of the reasons it’s so unlikely is because of the number of errors - roping the bull instead of herding it, slack rope instead of taut, not keeping an eye on the bull to see its reaction, the bull not needing to build up speed, and so on.
Working with horses is inherently dangerous. You know this. Your character could get herself hurt in just as dramatic a way and to exactly the same extent if you chose for her to make a mistake.
One mistake. That’s all. And anyone who works in a dangerous job can tell you that all it takes is one mistake. She’s tired because she didn’t get enough sleep. She’s distracted because she just walked away from an argument. She’s angry. She’s daydreaming. She’s worried. She’s preoccupied. All it takes is one moment when she’s not focused on what she’s doing, and it’s just long enough for her to do something wrong.
If you chose to write it that way, you make your character more sympathetic (who among us has not completely screwed something up because we weren’t paying attention?), you have more control over the details of the incident, and the incident has more verisimilitude. You also give yourself more leeway in how your other characters will respond, giving you a better handle on what conflicts you want to explore. For instance, her boss completely blows off the severity of her injury, because he doesn’t want to deal with bills or paperwork. Her mentor is furious, because she darn well knows better. Her dad wants her to call off the whole horse thing, but her mom wants her to soldier on. Et cetera.
Personally, I’ve never cracked a rib. I’ve heard stories from my mom, who’s a nurse and has had a lot of patients who’ve done it. One of the things she mentioned is that they could just never get comfortable, and narcotic pain killers are not always recommended as they depress the need to breathe, creating an environment for pneumonia.
If you want to get really dramatic, you might give her a flail chest.
(I didn’t think so but now I feel I had best double-check!)
But thank you for the suggestion, I just don’t think it’d work out…
A little later when I have time I will post a basic description if the scene so you can tell me if there’s anything that seems wrong it.