While many would shy away from grabbing a horse’s leg to extend and rotate it, Dr. Kinal Patel, a chiropractor of humans, horses, dogs and cats, was in her element as she did so to the 21-year-old steed, Mariah, at Northfield Stables in Heber City. 

For many boarders and their horses, Northfield Stables is their happy place away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. The 20 acres are surrounded on all sides with the serene emptiness of the North Fields, a freshwater wetland area, with towering Mt. Timpanogos on the horizon.

Patel has spent as much time as possible in that environment since moving to Heber City last year, not just for the views, but to help her animal friends, too.

As Patel adjusted Mariah, the horse lifted one of her right legs, not to kick her doctor, but as her way of saying, “Help me out, here!” She has an uneven trot thanks to soreness on the right side of her body.

Patel gives Mariah adjustments once a week. The horse has arthritis in her hock and stifle joints in her hind legs, in no small part because her previous owner neglected her. Mariah’s current owner, Amy Hartquist, bought her nine years ago from a boarding barn in Washington. 

“She had at least two incidents where she reared up and flipped over with a saddle on, before I found her,” Hartquist said. “And she grew a whole baby without any nutritional support. They just threw her out in the field, and they were like, ‘Have a baby!’”

Patel said that, in her experience, saddles are the number one reason horses become lame. If a saddle is too tight, pinching the scapula while a human sits directly on the horse’s spine, it can create long-term health problems that can be worsened by running and jumping in high-octane events.

“It’s like an extra small bra, when you can’t fit into it. … You need space for their vertebrae to move around,” Patel explained. “But they try their hardest to please the owner and move.”

The goal of Mariah’s treatment is to make her healthy enough to be ridden. 

Patel’s treatment began with rubbing essential oils onto Mariah’s body to soothe her. Then, she performed a series of adjustments across Mariah’s body, extending her legs, pushing down on the spine and massaging the temporomandibular joint in the jaw.

As Patel performed the latter adjustment, Mariah involuntarily stuck her tongue out and flatulated. While stinky, that indicates the horse is relaxed and signals the treatment is working, Patel explained. Yawning and nuzzling up are also positive indicators.

By the time Patel wrapped up the treatment by enveloping Mariah in a pulsed electromagnetic field blanket, which massages the horse with vibrations and uses magnetic fields to stimulate cellular repair, the horse was falling asleep on her hooves. Hartquist’s anxious girl was completely relaxed.

Usually, it’s the horses that are in the most pain that have negative reactions, nipping, kicking or bucking if Patel tries to touch them. 

“You just have to keep calm and give the horse some space, and go back to see why it bucked back or reared up. It’s obviously pain or discomfort,” Patel said. “You don’t come in like you own them. It’s a kind of respect.”

Dogs can also be dangerous, but they’re typically easier to handle. 

For example, 13-year-old border collie poodle mix Beau didn’t resist when Patel picked him up and adjusted his legs. 

Beau suffered a neck injury last year. His owner, Ashley Peatross, didn’t see it happen, but he assumes Beau tripped on the stairs.

“I was upstairs, and he came up, and he was pretty much crawling,” Peatross said. 

After a month of trying to manage the injury, administering anti-inflammatory medications and carrying Beau outside for every bathroom trip, Peatross scheduled an appointment with Patel.

“She came over and did one adjustment, and after that, he went from barely being able to move to being able to move around and take care of himself,” Peatross said. “After two or three treatments, his quality of life was way better.” 

Patel entered chiropractic medicine because of the positive effects it had on her own life.

Patel was born prematurely, which resulted in lifelong health issues, particularly asthma and constipation. She didn’t discover chiropractic care until she was a pharmacy student at Western Illinois University. A friend recommended it to Patel, who had injured her knee while playing soccer. Patel was surprised to find that adjustments lessened the severity of her other health conditions. 

“I was literally hospitalized all the time for those two things. So, I was like, ‘If medicine didn’t help, and this is helping?’ So, I switched careers,” Patel said.

She earned her doctorate at the Logan University College of Chiropractic in Missouri in 2012, later opening a practice in Illinois with her former husband, where, among their many patients, the pair treated professional athletes from the National Football League and Major League Baseball.

Patel became interested in animal chiropractic after an experience she’d had with her dog. Then, Patel acquired a certification in animal chiropractic at the Options For Animals College of Animal Chiropractic in Kansas in 2018. 

“He got a nerve nicked by a veterinary procedure,” she explained. “When he came back, his right hind (leg) wasn’t working, and he was peeing himself. Gabapentin would make him absolutely neurotic and crazy, like, teeth out at patients, because he’d come to work with me. My girlfriend, who does show dogs and show horses in Florida and Pennsylvania … came and adjusted him, and it was magic.” 

She moved to Heber City last year after her divorce and soon found a family of sorts at Northfield Stables, where she spends her Sundays providing adjustments to animals. 

While treating human patients is fulfilling, treating horses, cats and dogs provides Patel with her sense of purpose.

“My goal is to give back to the ones that can’t speak,” she said.

Patel’s practice, Heber Valley Chiropractic, is located at 2 S. Main St. She also expanded to Park City last month and is located within Park City Fit at 4108 N. Forestdale Dr. 

Appointments can be booked at hebervalleychiropractic.com.

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Of the roughly 25 Wasatch High School students who qualified for the Utah High School Rodeo State Finals at the Wasatch County Event Complex late last week, seven will advance to the national finals next month in Nebraska. There, these cowboys and cowgirls will vie for a winner’s saddle and belt buckle, along with the chance to meet college recruiters and potential sponsors.

For most of the students, the four-day gauntlet of bronc riding, bulldogging and goat tying was a lesson in how to brush the dirt off their chaps and get back up after being thrown to the dirt, both literally and metaphorically.

“It’s definitely been a marathon trying to avoid burnout and have consistent runs and have fun. It’s been quite the journey,” said junior Isla Bell, who competed in breakaway and team roping events.

Breakaway roping involves the competitor roping a fleeing calf while on horseback. Team roping is similar, except the target is a steer, and there are two competitors — referred to as a header and a heeler — who rope the animal’s head and legs, respectively.

“It’s like catching a fish,” described Eva Hunsaker, a fellow junior and breakaway roping competitor. “It’s just a great feeling.”

On a hot day like Friday, the key to managing sweaty hands is baby powder, Hunsaker explained. Still, her lasso came short, in part because her little calf was as speedy as a shotgun.

Breakaway roping was challenging for Bell, too, in no small part because her breakaway horse of five years, Jerry, tore a deep flexor tendon mere days before the event. 

“His career is over,” Bell explained. “I had some really amazing friends offer me a horse to use this week, but I’d never ridden it before, so it was just a rough time trying to get the whole run to click.”

Ty Bingham, Bell’s stepfather and the director of the team, explained that the horse she had borrowed had come from an unlikely person: her rival.

“They’re competing against each other, and one of her competitors is like, ‘Hey, jump on my horse,’” he recalled. “That’s a very common thing in rodeo. Whatever you need, your competitors will typically do it for you.”

Although contenders came from all over the state, Hunsaker said everyone was more like friends than adversaries as they chatted in line for events and played an evening kickball game together.

The almost familial bonds of the rodeo world are rivaled in closeness only by the bonds competitors have with their animals.

That was true of Hunsaker and her steed, Holy Smokin’ Cayenne, or Cayenne for short. Hunsaker has been riding Cayenne since she was in eighth grade, but they only became best friends once they started rodeoing in Hunsaker’s freshman year. 

“Now, my parents say that we’re a lot alike,” joked Hunsaker. That includes both horse and rider’s fiery red manes.

She continued, “We’ve worked together super well, and I can feel what she’s feeling. … We just want to compete the best we can. No matter how fast the calf is, she always gives me a shot.”

Hunsaker’s love for Cayenne has blossomed into a desire to become an equine dentist.

Bell, on the other hand, hopes to work in marketing, ideally for a western-themed brand. She already has the poise and unwavering confidence of someone used to speaking with the media.

Her communication and public speaking skills can be owed to her experience serving as the vice president of the Utah High School Rodeo Association. In that role, she helps organize events like dances and activities during the state finals, votes on changes to state high school rodeo rules and bylaws and acts as a role model for her fellow competitors.

Next school year, Bell will be president of the association. She also plans to train hard and “kick some butt.”

Just as rodeo is a family tradition for Bell, it plays the same role in senior Jenna Jepperson’s family.

Like Bell, Jepperson switched horses after one of her team roping horses sustained an injury. She borrowed her older brother’s horse, which had a lot more energy than hers did.

“If you get after it, it’s going to bring out even worse in you,” Jepperson explained.

Something similar could be said about Jepperson’s brother, though he has been one of her greatest mentors.

“Me and my brother have gotten closer in ways, but we also know how to fight pretty good,” Jepperson laughed. “But it’s drawn us so much closer. He knows what bugs me and how he can help me when things are going wrong.”

And in rodeo, anything can go wrong, Jepperson explained, from ripping a brand-new pair of pants mid-competition to eating dirt. The key to enjoying rodeo is resilience.

That’s something Jepperson’s younger sister, sophomore Lydia, is learning, as well. She’s figuring out how to focus on the good aspects of a bad run and control her feelings amid high-pressure competition.

Now that Jepperson has graduated from high school, with plans to serve a Latter-day Saint mission in Pennsylvania and attend nursing school afterwards, she will carry the lessons she learned in rodeo with her.

“It is great to win, but you’re going to lose more, and you’ve just got to keep your head up and keep going,” she said. “Otherwise, you’re going to get stuck there and not go anywhere.” 

Here are the seven Wasatch High School competitors advancing to the National High School Finals Rodeo in July.

• Genevieve Graham: Rodeo Queen
• Sam Haderlie: Steer wrestling
• Jack Rodeheaver: Saddle bronc riding
• Westin Simpson: Bareback riding, bull riding
• Colton Smith: Trap shooting
• Wiley Thomas: Bareback riding
• Ellie Thompson: Barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat tying, All Around Cowgirl

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The annual Summit County Fair in Coalville is in full swing with carnival rides, mutton busting and more. The fair will continue throughout the end of the week. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

Link to full gallery here: https://parkrecordphoto.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-Summit-County-Fair-2017/

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The town of Kamas held their annual Fiesta Days festivities at the rodeo arena over the weekend. Attendees were treated to a rodeo, demolition derby and more. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

Link to full gallery here: https://parkrecordphoto.smugmug.com/PHOTOS-Kamas-Fiesta-Days-Rodeo-and-Demo-Derby/

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Paige Natter calls the Starbucks on Park Avenue her second home, and those who work there her second family. Employed as a barista there, she feels a real connection to the Park City community.

“I’ve met a lot of wonderful, diverse and unique people there, both co-workers and customers,” she said.

The Silver Creek resident said moving to Park City changed her life for the better.

“I love that this city is full of active and strong people who are grateful for the outdoors and respect nature,” Natter said.

An accomplished horsewoman, Natter loves nothing better than riding the abundance of trails in the area, which she calls “beautiful and full of life.”

Natter, who grew up in Salt Lake City, has a deep love for horses. She said her connection with all animals, not just equine life, developed intuitively.

“I’ve always felt I have a very intense connection with animals,” she said. “I believe we can all be very much in tune with nature and all that the outdoors can offer us if we are willing to listen.”

Horses have been in Natter’s life since she was 8 years old.

“I love riding horses and find so much joy in spending time with them,” she said. “They’re very intuitive animals, full of such sensitivity and overwhelming power.”

In addition to her day job at Starbucks, the 20-year-old multi-tasker is also a full-time student at the Utah Valley University’s Wasatch campus in nearby Heber. She’s working toward a master’s degree in behavioral science and plans to specialize in equine therapy.

“It’s a type of therapy that uses horses to help people who are struggling with mental health issues, such as depression, post–traumatic stress disorder, autism or general anxiety.

“I don’t believe humans were meant to feel as much pain as our world has in it. I want to help people understand that it doesn’t last forever and help create ways to deal with life’s battles.”

Natter speaks from self-experience. She recently went through a tough time when her horse passed away, but has sense turned to nature and animals for comfort.

“My most meaningful animal companion was my horse Red, who died in 2015,” she said. “It was the most painful and heartbreaking loss I have ever experienced. I grew immensely from this loss. I made a Native American prayer stick and did a very special ash-spreading ceremony in the Book Cliffs last summer.”

In her precious little spare time, Natter takes to the slopes.

“My dad taught me how to ski when I was 4 years old, so skiing has been in my life for a long time,” the 20-year-old said. “Over the years I’ve become somewhat decent at it.”

Natter “relaxes” at her other job as a house sitter for another family in Silver Creek, taking care of their home, horses, cows and dogs.

“I love nothing more than being around animals and taking care of their needs, so this ‘job’ is the best thing that could have happened to me,” she said.

A practical young woman, Natter has a backup plan if equine therapy is not in high demand.

“I will most likely go in the direction of a holistic psychotherapy practice, using mindfulness tools to help people really recognize what is happening within their minds and bodies in the present moment,” she said. “We must be aware of what is happening within and around ourselves in order to make changes.”

Regardless of the path Natter chooses, she said it will likely wind through the Park City area.

“Living and working here, I’ve found that most of the people who live here full time are genuine and full of compassion,” she said. “The natural beauty that surrounds Park City is like something out of a fairytale. Every season has something beautiful to offer.”

Steve Phillips is a Park City-based writer and actor. Send your profile comments and suggestions to him at stevep2631@comcast.net. 

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