With a smile on his face and determination in his eyes, Essex County warden and Lakeshore mayor Tom Bain continues to recover.

Bain says while riding on Tuesday morning, the stirrups on his sulky broke, causing him to lose control of his young horse.

“I was going a training mile or practice mile with my two-year-old Philly and she bolted," says Bain.

He says he was thrown about 10 feet before landing on his shoulder.

“My son had just stopped in to see how things was going and saw me go around the first time,” says Bain. “The second time he saw the horse go around without me so he knew there was trouble."

Bain is a long-time horse rider, saying the force of his landing cause a number of painful injuries.

“Well they've sort of been finding more as they've been going along, unfortunately," says Bain.

He has five broken ribs, a shattered collar bone plus a broken bone in his back. Doctors also say he has blood in his lungs.

“That seems to be the main problem is the blood in the lungs,” says Bain. “They're waiting to have that clear up before they let me go."

To make matters worse, Bain learned in hospital that his long-time-friend and horse riding partner, Leamington councillor Rick Atkin had passed away.

“Well that was really traumatic,” says Bain. “It's something I didn't need at the time, in fact I had not seen Rick Atkin for two days and as a horse partner, he's there every day."

Despite Bain's laundry list of injuries, he has an ambitious goal of returning to work on Monday, less than week since his accident.

Bain says he plans to be released from the hospital on Saturday.

“I'll have to take it easy, but I want to be back on the political job, at least part time, on Monday,” he says. “When I'm back in the sulky, that may be months from now until the bones heal."

Since the accident, Bain's wife of 46 years, Brenda, has been by his side.

“I'm just so thankful that the injuries weren't any worse than what they are," says his wife.

Meantime, both Lakeshore and County Council members have stepped up to fill in until he returns.