Dal Pinson was forty years old and making his last trip to the national finals in Las Vegas, and he came with a bad knee and little more than a hope and prayer of even finishing the week.  Ten performances in as many days is tough on any bronc rider, and Dal didn't have high expectations . . . at least, not at first.  His marriage had ended some years before, due partly to Dal's inability to get past the death of his only son.  He handled that tragedy like all the others in his life - he sucked it up and went on with his career as one of pro rodeo's best saddle bronc riders.  But Dal was a changed man.  He went from being a light-hearted joker to a loner, and everyone knew that something inside him had gone missing . . . or had died with his son.

In Vegas, Dal agreed to do some community relations work for a doctor friend who lived there.  He agreed to go with some fellow cowboys to a children's burn center, and that's where he met Willie Hickman, a seven year old boy with crippling injuries and an uphill battle, but with the heart of a lion.  He also meets a woman that week, a lady journalist from Canada who'd come to town to cover the rodeo.  All at once the loose ends of his life start to come together as his friends and family come to Vegas to cheer him on, and Dal is forced to face the ghosts of his past . . . and a life ahead without rodeo.  At a crossroads, Dal struggles to decide what to do with his life, but he knows one thing for certain.  He has a rodeo to get through, his last finals, and he finds inspiration in a boy's courage against tough odds.

Dal has a good week, covers his horses and rides well enough to go into the final round with a lead.  And in that final go-around, he draws Baretracks, the toughest to ride saddle bronc in the country.  Dal has drawn him twice before, and has never completed a ride on him.  Now he draws him again, this time with a leg that is giving him fits, and a world championship at stake.  And in the hours before he makes that final ride at Vegas, Dal comes to grips with a life pulled apart by misfortune and grief.  The man who stands on the galley ramp the next afternoon, looking down at the rankest bucking horse in the world, is a man with a mission and a new outlook on life.

PMC,  11/11/07