Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72098
BULL RIDING & BODYWORK Unlike their human costars, injured bulls aren't allowed to compete until they heal. "You can work on them, and they say 'I feel great!' and then they go ride a bull and get knocked off, and there goes all your work," Michael says. "But they just get up and wink at you and say 'See you tomorrow.' These are the toughest guys I know. Some ride with broken ribs, with casts on broken arms. It's crazy. They get beat up every night. But that's their job. They just want a massage to make them feel better and not be so 'cripped up,' as they would say." In Canada, massage therapists are included as part of the Canadian Pro Rodeo Sports Medicine Team, which provides medical services at about a hundred rodeo and bull-riding events every year. But in the United States, while some of the specialists on the Justin Sportsmedicine Team may be cross-trained in massage therapy, the emphasis is on caring for injuries, not on preventive maintenance. Michael would love to be part of the official team that travels to PBR events, but so far that hasn't happened. She has to cover her own costs to attend the events, and the economics of the situation restrict the number of events she attends. Oklahoma bull rider Ryan McConnel says frequent massage helps his body perform at its best. Andy Watson photo/courtesy of the PBR. "Two years ago, I could have flown to Albuquerque for $140," she says. "This year, it was $325. On a good weekend, it takes 12 to 15 massages to make it financially worthwhile for me. It's hard, because you never know what you'll make, and I do have a family, so being away on the weekends is tough." Michael, the daughter of a college basketball coach, fell into rodeo massage almost by accident. She has a degree in physical education and went to massage school intending to work with basketball players. But when she came up short in required internship hours, she looked around for a substitute. She has a long- standing interest in rodeo, so she decided she would pair the two. "We had a rodeo in Oklahoma City, and I called up those guys and said, 'This is what I'm doing. Would you be interested?' And they said, 'Heck, yeah!' So I brought my table down to the hotel where everyone was staying, and I was the most popular person there. That's how it started," she says. She doesn't try to displace the athletic trainers who already work with the bull riders. She simply tries to provide a different kind of massage that bull riders will find beneficial when they can squeeze it into their schedules. A lot of riders simply can't afford the luxury of an $85 massage. But McConnel says he'll go out of his way to get one, even if it's just 15 minutes in a massage chair at a mall. "This may not have been the thing to do 10 or 15 years ago, but now I think more and 60 massage & bodywork september/october 2011