Wrangling horses more than
just summer work for Aggie
jalen Chandler.
Photo by Julie Smiley.
By Julie Smiley
Spring is the season when many
students frantically search and inter
view for that once-in-lifetime sum
mer job. Ever dream of a job in the
mountains, riding horses and playing
cowboy — just a little?
Galen Chandler’s job may sound
ideal.
Horse wrangling in Yellowstone
National Park for the past three sum
mers and headquartered in Canyon
Village, the grand canyon of Yellow
stone, Chandler said he hopes to go
back.
A senior animal science major at
Texas A&M University from Irving,
Chandler said he got the job by
knowing who to contact. He met a
ranger while on a fishing trip with his
grandparents and learned about the
job. The summer following high
school graduation, Chandler went to
work with six other wranglers.
Each day starts about 6:30 a.m.,
feeding 60 horses and saddling 30 for
the six rides of the day. Four, one-
hour trail rides and two, two-hour
rides keep wranglers on a horse five
hours a day and working around the
barn and corrals when they’re not
riding.
Tourists pay $6.75 for a one-hour
ride and $ 11.50 for the two-hour ver
sion. “They all think they know what
they’re doing, but maybe 10 of the 30
people per ride have touched a
horse,” Chandler said. “They come
from everywhere — New York, Cali
fornia, Pennsylvania—lots of people
from the East.”
Most of the dude horses are older,
12-17 years old, docile, follow-the
leader type. “None of them can stop
or rein, and one horse, Butterball,
won’t move unless he has a horse to
follow. ”
Yellowstone Park owns half the
horses and winters them in Boze
man, Mont. The remainder are own
ed by a man from Cody, Wyo., who
uses them for hunting and packing
through the winter.
Even though horses and riders are
carefully evaluated and matched be
fore a rider mounts, Chandler said at
least three dudes fall off ever week.
“Nine times out of ten, it’' not the
horses’ fault. Most of the time the
rider loses balance, starts to yell,
scares the horse and it’s all over.
Horses in that country go to a meat
packer if they can’t be ridden, so
they’re pretty gentle.”
Broken arms, collarbones and fin
gers are the worst injuries any dude
has suffered since Chandler has
worked for the park. Even though
riders are aware of a park release for
damages and a not-responsible-for-
injury policy before they mount,
Chandler said three or four law suits
every summer are inevitable. “If
someone falls off, they want to sue. ”
He said if problems arise on a trail
ride, usually it’s from people who say
they know how to ride, but don’t.
They hold back their horse in the line
and then run up on the horses ahead.
One time, he said, a man leng
thened his saddle stirrups to fit the
length of his legs, and then mounted
with such a leg swing that he through
himself over the horse’s back and
landed in the dirt on the other side.
“That was one rider off before the
ride even started!”
Chandler cited another incident
when a man came dressed in chaps,
spurs and a gun in a holster. He was
about 50 and wanted to rent a horse
for the day. Chandler said the park’s
policy is to rent horses for organized
trail rides. The man agreed to go on
the ride, but was reluctant to take off
his gear even when Chandler told
him his flapping chaps and thick
rowels would spook his mount.
He worked from June 1 (with the
last snow falling in mid June) through
the first of September at $3.45 an
hour in 1979. Each wrangler is given
his own horse to ride, which is a little
better animal than a dude horse, and
a string of seven to nine head to care
for and feed.
For $5.75 a day, they can live in a
bunkhouse, next to the horse corrals,
and are fed three meals a day. Rides
are conducted seven days a week,
but the wranglers take turns getting
two days off a week.
On his a days off, Chandler said his
idea of relaxation is a ride to Hayden
Valley, in the park, to see herds of
buffalo and elk. He said at times he
has seen 300 buffalo at once and a
bear or two. However, most of the
bear have been moved out of the
park for tourist safety.
Chandler said recruiting extra
workers is important about four
times a summer — when the hay
truck comes to be unloaded. “We
went into Canyon and told guys who
didn’t know better that the wrang
lers were having a hay party at the
bunkhouse. We’d get them out
there, unload the truck, drink a little
beer during and after and get it all
done.”
The people he works with, said
Chandler, are the part about his job
he likes the most. One wrangler
works full-time for the park, driving
a snow coach and conducting tours in
the winter and wrangling in the sum
mer. The head wrangler, 26, attends
the University of Montana at Mis
soula part-time and works with the
horses in the summer. Another
wrangler, “a drifter too,” find a good
job for the nine months he is not
working at the park. Chandler said
the perfect job would give him leave
of absence every year to be back in
the park for the summer to work.
Chandler was a finalist in the
Texas High School Rodeo Finals as a
member of the Irving High School
Rodeo Team. He placed fifteenth out
of300 bareback riders in 1976. While
living in Irving, he said he showed
horses, mostly western pleasure
classes, and “playdayed” whenever
possible.
Chandler, 22 and a member of
Squadron 12 in the Corps of Cadets,
said he reports for work June 1, after
graduating in May, and will stay in
Canyon Village until September 6.
After wrangling, he said he wants to
work in feedlot management in Mon
tana or Texas.
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