A trio of riders – Kasey Hayes, Austin Meier and Chris Shivers – had a pretty rough go of it in back-to-back weeks, but as the dust finally begins to settle on the Built Ford Tough Series events in Chicago and Des Moines, all three cowboys are doing better than when they were last seen.

“I’m doing great and I feel good,” said Meier, when reached earlier today on his cell phone while fishing. “I’m a little sore, but it ain’t nothing nobody else has dealt with as far as being sore."

Meier was taken to a local hospital in Des Moines after the event to be evaluated, and x-rays all came back negative. He was diagnosed with a concussion, but he already feels well enough that he said he “will be in San Antonio.”

In fact, he’s making plans to enter an Enterprise event in Liberty, Texas, on Thursday and Friday before taking part in the San Antonio event.

“I tell you what,” he said, “I came out pretty clean out of that mess.”

Hayes, who is in good spirits, is still at a local Des Moines hospital after undergoing surgery to fuse his C5-C6-C7 vertebrae, and is expected to be released sometime Monday.

Following the long surgery, doctors noted that there is no neurological damage and he is expected to be out action for three to six months.

Likewise, Shivers will not be riding in San Antonio.

He is currently doing well at his home in Jonesville, La., while recuperating from surgery to repair his broken left cheek bone and eye socket.

For more information on injuries related to any of the Top 45 riders in the world, please long onto http://www.pbrnow.com/riders/injury/.

— by Keith Ryan Cartwright