Shane Rose is in a makeshift hospital bed in his family’s lounge room, but he is confident he will be riding for Australia through the grounds of the Palace of Versailles at this year’s Paris Olympics.
The triple Olympic medallist still has no memory of the training accident on March 14 that has left him bedridden.
“Nothing’s come back to me at all, but I know what I was planning on doing. I’d set up some exercises, cross-country jumps,” Rose said.
“I assume a horse has just got a little confused or made a little mistake and he’s fallen, and most probably fallen on me, and I very kindly cushioned his fall.
“He sort of smashed me a bit in the middle here.”
No horses were injured in the accident and Rose’s champion horse Virgil was not involved.
Multiple broken bones
The accident caused 18 breaks.
“I have three breaks in my elbow, and then I had a big break in [my] femur, which they’ve put a rod in and then I have four breaks in my pelvis and the worst ones at the back where near the sacrum,” he said.
“Apparently it is split right through, but it’s not displaced … so they have just left it be.
“And there are three breaks in my transverse processes, which are the bones on the sides of your spine, and then seven ribs on this side and apparently one on the other side but I think it is probably an old one.”
Just days before the accident, Rose had confirmed his qualifications for the Paris 2024 Olympics as part of the Australian eventing squad.
Rose breaks horses and over the years has been injured many times, including breaking both wrists, arms, legs, a thumb and five ribs.
He was once kicked in the head and placed in induced coma for a week, requiring facial reconstruction.
But speaking to the ABC from his property at Werombi, south-west of Sydney, Rose said this was the first time he had broken his pelvis.
It is this recovery he is most focused on.
“They’re not letting me do any weight-bearing for four weeks,” he said.
“The surgeon was saying that in a normal person with the injuries that I have, it would be 10 to 12 weeks non-weight-bearing, so they’re certainly allowing me to push the envelope.”
Clock ticking
With just over 100 days to go before the games, Rose is already pushing the boundaries of his recovery and briefly mentioned the pain of some strain in his legs after some stretches.
“At the moment I am not really in much pain which is good, it’s just frustrating,” he said, adding that the next couple of weeks would involve intense discussions with his medical team.
“I’m hoping that somewhere between six and eight weeks from the injury that I might be able to start doing a little bit of riding on some quieter horses.
“It’s four months post-injury to the Games, so I’m pushing it fairly tight.
“Ideally I’d like to be at least eight weeks in the saddle beforehand, so it’s tight, but I am confident.”
Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Thursday