A week ago, Tempe Vice Mayor Jennifer Adams said she could have died.

Adams was on her horse Sunday, Aug. 28, in a common area of Bueno Vista Ranchos, an equestrian community in South Tempe where she lives.

The horse was cantering when it began to buck repeatedly. Adams said she attempted to bring the animal under control but struggled to do so.

Ultimately, she was thrown off.

“My head just bounced off the ground,” Adams said she was told.

She was told because she does not remember much surrounding the incident other than trying to hold on and reaching for the horse’s neck to bring Bucky, who was raised by her father in Nebraska, under control.

In the process, she suffered broken ribs and a concussion.

If not for her helmet, she said she does not believe she would have survived.

And while she spent several days in a hospital before being released on Thursday, her Tempe City Council work continued. She was answering calls from her hospital room as she waited to return home.

“Nothing will be interrupted,” she said.

“I have not stopped. I have been helping constituents,” Adams said. “I like to get their issues resolved quickly.”

Her road to recovery will not be as quick.

Adams said the symptoms of the concussion persist with vision issues and headaches.

And those broken ribs make things more than uncomfortable.

“It’s going to be a long haul,” Adams said, adding that she is not allowed to walk much and that there is no therapy for painful broken ribs other than letting them heal.

Still, she said, she will be on the job she was elected to do.

She will be participating in council meetings virtually for some time and will continue to take calls and messages from Tempe residents.

As far as support, she said Mayor Corey Woods and others visited her during her hospital stay, and her surrounding community in South Tempe have been a “giant family” to her.

She offers some advice from the ordeal: “Please wear helmets while riding horses.”

One week ago, she said, a helmet probably saved her life.