Placing in every round at Cheyenne with a 30-foot score is pretty unbelievable, but to nearly 40-percent that rodeo is unheard of. Those guys deserve it, though, they hadn’t won a dime over the Fourth of July and the future was beginning to look bleak.

The real story from Cheyenne, though, might just be Lindsay Sears and her super horse Martha. She won yet another huge rodeo. She won RodeoHouston’s $50,000, Calgary’s $100,000 and now $11,000 in Cheyenne by winning the short round, placing sixth in the two long gos and winning the average. She’s got $108,861 counted toward the world standings at this point, which gives her a $20K lead over defending champ Brittany Pozzi-Pharr.

A couple other notes: Cody Wright, who just won Calgary’s $100,000 saw his little brother Spencer win the National High School Rodeo Association’s saddle bronc riding title. Riley Joe Duvall, of the Checotah Duvall clan, won the steer wrestling.

At the International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Okla., an family friend, RA Brown, won the saddle bronc riding. Congrats, RA. I feel a little old since I can remember my family taking care of his big sister, Amy, when he was born. The Brown family has a lot of history and stature in the horse and cattle worlds and it’s neat to see RA continuing the cowboy tradition for them.

If you’re following my horse saga, Deuce is still a little sore, we’ve put him on some bute, and we’re hoping the muscles are slowly readjusting now that his back is aligned properly. Tomorrow will be the true test to see if he’s coming out of his lameness at all. We’re sure hopeful, but it may require more intensive treatment. We’ll see.

First, the rodeo world. Steer wrestler Wade Sumpter is awesome. As of this writing, the Fowler, Colo., cowboy has won RodeoHouston ($50,000), Reno Rodeo ($10,966) and the Calgary Stampede ($112,500). The Calgary money doesn’t count toward the world standings, yet he’s got a $46,000 lead in the world standings with over $111,000 won. My family’s got a place outside of Fowler and Wade is my brother’s age. They became close friends and through my brother, I got to know Wade. Let me tell you, the success he’s having couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

There are always a few surprises in a rodeo season, and in the team roping there are two teams almost no one would have predicted to be in the top 10: Jojo Lemond and Martin Lucero and Luke Brown and Monty Joe Petska. Apparently these young headers paired with veteran heelers are on to something.

Next, I want to applaud the rodeo community. MSNBC.com recently reported on animal rights protestors at Cheyenne Frontier Days. As a follow-up to the story, they ran a poll basically asking if rodeo is cruel. We here at MyHorse.com sent out an alert to our readers to respond to the poll to make their opinions known. I’m happy to report that as of this writing, an overwhelming 89% of respondents said rodeo is NOT cruel. If you’d like to see the results or if you didn’t vote yet, here’s the link. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25725545/

Finally, a quick update on Deuce. The chiro came for a follow-up appointment and she was very encouraged. His back showed a lot of improvement—he’s still stiff in some places—but she’s confident we’re on a pretty quick (2 weeks) road to recovery.

I suppose that statement right there reveals a somewhat limited horsemanship perspective.

Regardless, there are a few things that happened that changed that view. First, I don’t have the money to “move on to the next one” or for that matter a string of horses from which to pick each time I need to get a job done. I’ve got two horses that have to be ready to work when I am. The other thing that changed my view was that I had some severe back and neck pain that was solved by a chiropractor. Finally—and maybe it’s because I’ve only got a couple—I’ve grown pretty attached to my ponies and I don’t like them hurting so I’m willing to do what it takes to help them.

With that change of focus in mind, our horse Deuce came up lame. During my trip to Montana, he kicked into a mesh-wire fence and cut himself. It wasn’t bad, but he had to have a month off for the wound to heal. When we brought him back, he wasn’t behaving properly. I thought he was fresh from his time off, but a few days later he was still bad. While working him on a cow, I felt him pop up coming out of his turns to the left. I knew he was hurting. I thought he must have strained a joint.

Our vet did a complete flex test and determined it wasn’t his hock (where the injury was) but somewhere higher. She theorized it was the sacroiliac area.

We had an appointment with a well-respected equine chiropractor in our area (recommended by our vet and our farrier) set up for a few days after the vet check. Our vet told us to keep the appointment and use it as a second opinion.

When the chiro came, we filled her in on the history and she went to work. As she worked down his back with very little pressure, at about the point where the back of the saddle sits, Deuce’s back legs went out from underneath him and he all but fall down. Our chiro felt she had found the problem. She worked on it for a while, checked the rest of his back and his neck and got him all adjusted. She then performed some acupuncture around the spot that she hit when he reacted so dramatically.

After a litany of instructions, she left feeling cautiously optimistic that she had found what has making him lame. We didn’t do any flex tests simply because they might have forced the spot back out of whack. In a week she’ll be back and I’ll be sure to include an update, but I too am cautiously optimistic. He seemed like a new horse, repeatedly yawning, licking his lips and—in a strange way—thanking the good doctor.

So while I might not jump all over every trend in treatment that comes along, hopefully I’m learning to--at the very least--check them out.

As you can tell from this picture, Deuce was a little uncomfortable. Hopefully the session with the chiropractor pays off.

All this got me thinking about what it means to be an American. For me, being an American means being a Westerner. I suppose if I had my choice, I’d be perched horseback with my family on some bluff watching fireworks go off, but my actual Fourth of July wasn’t a bad second. Fourth of July in the West—for a lot of people—means rodeo. People in St. Paul and Mollalla, Ore., Livingston and Red Lodge, Mont., Cody Wyo., Greeley, Colo., Window Rock and Prescott, Ariz., Santa Fe, N.M. and even Springdale, Ark., all know what I mean.

In the old days, the Fourth of July brought Westerners to town more than anything besides a hanging, and if there wasn’t an organized rodeo, there be some form cowboy competition. In the short history of our nation, many in the West have celebrated our independence the same way.

So, even though I don’t get to be around my family every year, at least I’m almost always assured the company of a good friend, an entertaining rodeo performance and some fireworks. Just like old times.

Mind you, the rodeo world is like a traveling circus. To a large degree, everyone goes to the same place on the same weekend and then picks up and individually they all head off to the next place. It’s a bit inefficient, but that’s they way of the West. That’s why it’s so entertaining to talk to a variety of cowboys over the Fourth. These guys are scattered from Alberta to Arizona, driving all night and all day, borrowing horses and trying to make a living.

When I talked to Nick Sartain, he was in a rig with 10 other team ropers, including Matt Sherwood, Jay and Randon Adams and Rhen Richard, heading from Cody (Wyo.) to Billings so they could catch a plane to Window Rock. Later, when I finally caught up with Rhen, they were laid over waiting for the next flight to Arizona.

Meanwhile—and this is all on the same day, mind you—I got ahold of Wade Sumpter. He was in Greeley (Colo.) between the slack and the evening performance.

I had been needing to talk to Kinney Harrell. I got ahold of him between Cody and Greeley, we lost our connection. I called him later that evening hoping to get ahold of him before his run in the perf, but didn’t. So I called him the next morning. Overnight, he and his traveling mates had made it to Prescott (Ariz.). By July Fourth he’ll be back in Cody.

Bobby Mote, on the other hand, went north to Ponoka, Alberta, then was planning a swing through Red Lodge, Mont., and Cody.

These guys keep a dizzying schedule, it’s a wonder they make it everywhere they go (it’s rare, but sometimes they don’t). But what’s neat to see is how they all pull together, share rides, planes and horses to get the most out of a weekend jammed with great-paying rodeos.

Keep it up guys, and best of luck this weekend!