North Platte, Neb. (June 1, 2015) – Dr. Lawrence Schufeldt donates his talent, every June, to his favorite sport.
The North Platte, Neb. chiropractor has tended to cowboys’ and cowgirls’ sore muscles every year at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo since 1990, and he makes sure they’re well taken care of.
At each of every four nights of rodeo, Schufeldt comes early to the rodeo grounds as cowboys and cowgirls wait in line to have the chiropractor loosen and ease sore muscles so they are ready for competition. And after the rodeo, they’re back in line, waiting to get another treatment after they’ve roped, rode, or wrestled.
Schufeldt grew up on a ranch in Grant County, competing in junior high and high school rodeo as a team roper and bull rider. After graduating from Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa, he came to North Platte and began his own practice.
He began volunteering his chiropractic services to the Buffalo Bill Rodeo, along with a dozen other pro rodeos across Nebraska and Kansas, in the early 1990s. At the time, he worked with the Wrangler Sports Chiropractic Program, a program begun by Ed Corley, a chiropractor and brother to the North Platte rodeo announcer Randy Corley. The design of the program was for chiropractors to offer their services for free at pro rodeos to those cowboys and cowgirls in one of the most physically-demanding sports, and a sport that, along with no contracts, provides no free sports/athletic care.
Schufeldt worked not only the Buffalo Bill Rodeo, but spent about twelve weekends throughout the summer at rodeos in Crawford, Gordon, Valentine, Burwell, Kearney, Hastings, Lincoln, and McCook, Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, and in Kansas, at Phillipsburg and Dodge City.
As he and his wife Jeannie’s three daughters grew up, he’s cut his rodeo chiropractic down to just the North Platte rodeo, so he was able to attend his girls’ activities, which included 4-H horse shows.
He doesn’t watch a rodeo the same way a fan would, he says. He’s looking for injuries as they happen. “It’s changed the way I watch rodeos. I don’t watch for the entertainment, I’m watching the contestant to see if they’re getting injured or not.” And he doesn’t look at only for the few seconds of the ride or run. “I watch from the time they nod their head or cross the line till the time they go out of the arena.” By observing closely, he’s often able to see how the injury occurred.
Schufeldt served as the Prairie Circuit coordinator for the Wrangler Sports Chiropractic Program for several years. The Wrangler program dissolved and was replaced by the Pro Sports Chiropractic, and Schufeldt attends their annual convention, held in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo.
He has missed very few Buffalo Bill Rodeo performances, and loves to volunteer at the rodeo. “From the rookies to the world champions, they’re all grateful” for his work, he said. “They’re providing entertainment for the crowd, and if we can help them, it makes it all better.”
Schufeldt was honored at last year’s Buffalo Bill Rodeo with a buckle in honor of his twenty years of volunteering. He was hesitant to step into the arena to accept it: “I wasn’t really wanting to go out there,” he said. “I like to be out in the back. But it was nice to be recognized and honored.”
As a volunteer, he is not reimbursed for his time or travel expenses, but he doesn’t mind. The Buffalo Bill Rodeo committee offers meals for him, and “a good thank you, and that’s all we expect.”
And this June, from the seventeenth through the twentieth, he’ll be back at the rodeo arena in North Platte, meeting with contestants and making sure their aches and pains are cared for.
The Buffalo Bill Rodeo is June 17-20 at the Wild West Arena in North Platte. It begins at 8 pm each night, with tickets ranging in price from $7 to $15. Tickets can be purchased online at NebraskalandDays.com, at the NebraskalandDays office at its new location at 2801 Charlie Evans Drive (at the Wild West Arena), and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or call 308.532.7939.