FORT WORTH, Texas ―  Internal injuries are a bull rider's worst fear.

Unlike broken bones, a rider can feel something's wrong or seemingly not right, but they can't see the damage and they've been conditioned to compete in spite of pain. Oftentimes they're unaware of the extent of the injury until much later.

And, at times, it can prove to be too late.

Harve Stewart and Ben Jones were lucky.

Despite missing substantial time, both will recover from recent injuries - Stewart (kidney) and Jones (spleen) ―  and will eventually return to competition. 

"It's given me a whole new lease on life."

Stewart was injured at the Dickies Iron Cowboy IV, in Arlington, Texas, back in early March.

He's yet to be cleared to compete, but underwent his most recent CT scan last week and is awaiting a report from a local doctor in Stephenville, Texas. In the meantime, Stewart has begun training and working out at a gym after being cleared to do so in early June.

The 25-year-old said he started slow.

Stewart's beginning to regain his strength after three months of not being able to do anything while his kidney healed; but the "trickiest" part of his recovery has been a lack of endurance.

"I'm not near in the shape I need to be, or want to be," he said, "but it's getting that way. Constantly working at it is the only way to make any progress on it." 

WRECK: Harve Stewart takes a hit from Mick E Mouse at the 2013 Dickies Iron Cowboy IV in Arlington, Texas.

Stewart's been training at a local gym in Stephenville three times a week, while Jones started a light training routine this week in nearby Decatur, Texas.

Both riders have lost weight.

However, Jones lost a substantial amount ―  roughly 28 pounds. His wife Christy said he weighed between 151 and 153 pounds before the wreck, which happened in the opening round of the Built Ford Tough Series event in Boise, Idaho, and he had gotten as low as 124 pounds at one point.

Jones currently weighs 137.6 pounds.

The Jones' are training together. They do a light workout in the morning and some swimming in the afternoon. The Australian native said he plans to start working with a local trainer in another couple weeks.

"I can't do too much heavy lifting yet," said Jones, who hasn't smoked or drank in nearly three months.

Jones injured his spleen and spent a week in a Boise hospital before being released.

Two weeks later, he suffered severe abdominal pains and did not check into Denton (Texas) Regional Hospital until rodeo legend, and Ring of Honor member, Larry Mahan urged the 34-year-old to seek medical attention.

RELATED: Ben Jones undergoes emergency surgery

"I reckon they always say the older you are the smarter you are," Jones said. "So you're better off listening to the older ones, that's for sure. I don't listen to too many people, but if Larry says something I pretty much listen to him. I've never seen Larry worried and that was the biggest worry for me, that Larry was worried."

Mahan contacted his friend Dr. Mark Jenkins.

Jenkins is a longtime friend of Mahan. In fact, he keeps a couple of his cutting horses at the Mahan ranch in nearby Sunset, Texas. Jones said he had met Jenkins years earlier when he spent some time living with Mahan. 

Having been told in Boise that everything was OK, Jones said he "didn't know who to trust" despite the intense pain.

"I never felt pain like that in my life," he said.

According to Jones, Jenkins and his staff told him that if he had waited another week "it would have been a mess because everything would have gotten infected."

Unlike Stewart, who is taking a more deliberate approach to returning, Jones said he will compete two weeks from now in Big Sky, Mont.

He got on one practice bull ―  "a quiet little fella" ―  last Friday to gauge where he's at, and said he hopes to eventually get on a few more practice bulls at J.W. Hart's ranch in Marietta, Okla., before heading up to Montana and then resuming the BFTS in Tulsa, Okla., in mid-August.

Jones said that being listed in critical condition certainly gives him another outlook on the sport of professional bull riding.

WRECK: Ben Jones is stepped on by Old Soul in Round 1 of the 2013 PBR BFTS DEWALT Guaranteed Tough Invitational in Boise, Idaho.

"It's definitely given me another outlook for sure, but it's just part of it," said Jones. "It goes with the package I suppose. I don't know how to say it, but I know it's worked me up in a lot of ways. I've only got three, four years left at the PBR level, you know what I mean?

"I haven't drank, and I'm not going to drink, and I'm not going to smoke. It's given me a whole new lease on life ―  like going to the gym and everything is like when I got back here in 2007".

Jones has finished in the Top 20 of the world standings for the past three years and been a regular on the BFTS since 2008.

He was competing at Touring Pro Division events for three years prior after missing the better part of five full seasons because of a well-documented, drug addiction that led him to "some dark places with people you never want to meet."

Jones made his BFTS debut in 1998.

"Instead of taking everything for granted, it's time to go hard again," Jones said.

While Jones is ready to compete, Stewart said he has yet to set an exact date for his return.

"I haven't really set anything down on a schedule or planned out my bull ridings or anything like that," Stewart said. "I'm still kind of playing it by ear. When I get released to ride I'm definitely going to get on some practice bulls, stuff like that and start slow, but I haven't set a plan yet.

"It's like being given a second chance and I'm not really going to let that slip through my fingers. It's lit a fire under my (butt), that's for sure. I want it, and I've never been more hungry to go get it."

Follow Keith Ryan Cartwright on Twitter @PBR_KRC.