Pro cowboys take advantage of Hight

Pro cowboys take advantage of Hight's chiropractic services

June 16, 2001

KIVIOK HIGHT OF CORTEZ CHIROPRACTIC works on the arm of bullfighter Brad Knifong of Canon City at the 71st annual Ute Mountain Roundup Rodeo at the American Legion Post 75 Arena. Hight provides chiropractic care for the pro rodeo competitors during the three days of competition.

by Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

In the chiropractic business local chiropractor Kiviok Hight sees a variety of injuries from an array of sports activities, but few can compete with the afflictions of rodeo.

For the past four years, Hight of Cortez Chiropractic has been donating his healing services to cowboys at the Ute Mountain Roundup Rodeo, in part because he enjoys the sport, but also because he never knows what ailment his next patient might have.

"It mixes it up a little," Hight said. "You see a lot of different injuries. Rodeo breaks all the rules when it comes to trauma."

With most sports Hight said there are certain categories of injuries associated with the type of actives but rodeo is completely unpredictable.

"When you get bucked off a horse or a bull there’s no pre-said way to fall," he commented.

Hight is a member Pro-Sport (formerly known as Wrangler Chiropractic) — an organization comprised of licensed chiropractors that focus on donating their time to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Hight arrives every evening before the rodeo and hangs around until well after the last bull has come out of the chute. Toting a collapsible table and a clipboard, he sets up behind the arena and the cowboys flock to him.

Before working on a cowboy, Hight asks them to fill out a health questionnaire and then inquired about old and existing injuries.

PRCA bareback rider J.W. Winklepleck said he takes advantage of Pro-Sport chiropractor services whenever he gets a chance. With a sprained knee, stiff neck and a number of other ailments, Winklepleck said that after just about every rodeo he discovers a new point of pain.

"I’ve got too many to list," Winklepleck said as he lay on the table and Hight manipulated his riding arm back into proper alignment. "A lot of the time I won’t even know (there’s an injury) until he starts working on it."

Winklepleck put in his eight seconds in Cortez Thursday night and was off to Grand Junction for a rodeo Friday, Grover today and Evergreen by Sunday. Several other cowboys appearing at the 71st annual Ute Mountain Roundup Rodeo will also ride at the PRCA Rodeo in Flagstaff, Ariz., this weekend.

With little time between one rodeo and the next, the word "recuperation" is not in the cowboy dictionary, making the sport of rodeo an endless "road of hard knocks."