Dr. Richard Bend |
Richard Bend, D.C., Davenport ’65, doesn’t just provide care for
patients who take a tumble or two now and then. He also cares for
people who accept falling as just part of their jobs—specifically
rodeo cowboys and cowgirls.
The New Baltimore, Mich., resident has been a chiropractor at the
Longhorn World Championship Rodeo in Detroit for the past 15
years, 12 of which he was part of a team of chiropractors who belong
to the Michigan Association of Chiropractors (MAC). But before
MAC members joined in, there were three years in which three
Palmer chiropractors provided all of the care.
“Before that it was just me, Dr. S.S. White from Traverse City, Mich.,
and Dr. Paul Rumph of Waterford, Mich.,” said Dr. Bend of the 1972
and 1974 Davenport Campus graduates who ventured into rodeo
chiropractic with him in the early ’90s.
“Our cowboys and cowgirls have over the years discovered that the
improved nervous system function of a chiropractic patient gives
them an advantage over the other contestants,” added Dr. Bend. “Our
cowboys and cowgirls compete at other venues and have to ask the
providers at those places to ‘check my spine before I compete’.”
Dr. Bend’s four children have taken after him by becoming
chiropractors and providing care at rodeos, as have
the children of Dr. Rumph and Dr. White.
When not a rodeo chiropractor, Dr. Bend is heavily
involved with horses. Since 2002, with the help of his
horse, Willy, he has been Michigan’s Champion Cowboy
Mounted Shooting competitor. He has even found a way
to combine his love of horses with chiropractic. Over
the past 12 years, he has ridden the Michigan Trail
Riders Association Shore-to-Shore and raised $35,000
for Kentuckiana Children’s Center in Louisville, Ky.