Woman tames wild mustangs with tender loving horsemanship

They say music soothes the savage beast - but so does Judi Chapman.

In Chapman's case, though, the wild recipients of her calm and tender love certainly aren't savage. They're simply mustang horses fresh from the desert wilds needing the tender training required for trading the range for a ranch.

"The first thing you have to do is convince them that you're not going to eat them!" Chapman says, chuckling softly. "To them we're the predators. So my job is to get these horses completely comfortable with humans - completely comfortable."

Most wild mustangs around the country are rounded up from the range and sent straight home with a person or family who may not know the special approach these spirited creatures often require. That wild reputation is another obstacle these horses just don't need.

"My goal is to help train these animals so they are ready for adoption," Chapman said. "Then it's my job to find them all good homes."

All this training means Chapman isn't just helping make some great pets. She's also saving lives.

She says too many people underestimate the challenge of training a wild horse, which often leads to unhappy and unhealthy situations. That's why Chapman also rescues unwanted mustangs, plus any other breed of abused or abandoned horses from around the county.

This Yuma ranch woman, strong and sturdy like a mustang, has been training wild mustangs and adopting them out for about seven years. Chapman got into her special calling after she adopted her own wild mustang and fell in love with the breed - and its cause.

Wild mustangs are gathered up around the West each year by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It organizes roundups and adoptions about once a year to maintain healthy numbers for herds still roaming free of cowboys and fences.

Nevada and Wyoming boast the most wild mustangs, while Arizona ranks highest in wild burros, according to Roger Oyler, wild horse specialist for the local BLM office.

"Some of these horses have genetics that go back to the Spanish mustangs, but most are related to the wild horses that until the 1800s ran all over the Midwest," Oyler said. "As our western progression came, the horses got pushed back into the public lands, which back then nobody wanted."

Locally most mustangs and burros are caught in the desert around Yuma Proving Ground. Last year's roundup yielded about 20 horses.

"Throughout the West where BLM has wild horses and burros, we are supposed to maintain them in a way that allows them to fit in with other uses for those public lands," Oyler said. "The numbers locally have actually remained pretty steady."

Chapman figures she's trained about 60 horses. In addition to her own horses, she may have about 15 mustangs scattered around several properties at any given time.

Not only is it rare that mustangs get this kind of training, Chapman's whole approach to winning over the horses itself amounts to a charming rarity. Call her a "horse whisperer" and she'll probably kick you out of the corral, although the term is pretty accurate.

Chapman prefers the label "natural horsemanship." This style of training forgoes whips and intimidation in exchange for an almost hypnotically gentle approach that revolves around the horse's psychology and never betrays its worth as a fellow living and feeling thing.

"There is no need for manhandling or abuse. You treat the horses with utmost respect and you do a lot of positive reinforcement. If you meet mind to mind with a horse, they will be willing to do anything for you. But first they must have respect for you and you get there by meeting them on their level."

Natural horsemanship defines the best of patience. Trainers often start out by simply spending time near the animal, decreasing distance and increasing contact slowly but surely. A trainer may initiate contact, for example, by lovingly stroking the air several feet away from the animal.

Chapman learned her approach from nationally known cowboy and horse trainer Wayne Fagin. She studied with him for about eight months.

"I slouch a lot. Women are a lot better at this than men," Chapman said, laughing. "I drop my shoulders, tuck my butt under and I don't make eye contact at first."

It's slow work, but Chapman typically gets her first hand-on-horse touch within the nine hours. Some horses will accept a halter placed on their head within a few days - or a few months. A major goal Chapman strives for is earning the ability to pick up and raise a horse's hoof from the ground.

"They can pick up on how you feel without you saying a word. If you walk into that corral nervous, they know it. You have to be able to be in control of yourself before you can start working with them."

Chapman works with her horses twice a day, in general spending two hours a day on each horse, in the end racking up about 10 hours each day. She's got so much work, in fact, that she's taken on an apprentice, Dustin Crawford, who raves about his teacher's ways in the corral.

"She's like a horse," Crawford said. "She understands them. She picks up on their moods just like you pick up on human moods. She's got a real gift."

She's turned Crawford into a real champion of mustangs, too.

"The mustangs are kind of an American cornerstone," the 22-year-old cowboy enthused. "They may not be as big as other breeds, but they have that true all-American attitude of never quit and never die. They make good friends, too, just like a loyal dog."

Chapman added that mustangs boast better health than many hybrid horses since they haven't been genetically altered and they come from unpolluted blood lines.

"They have good immune systems and they have better hooves, hair and teeth."

That's the honest sales pitch Chapman gives families interested in adopting. But her job doesn't end with convincing someone to take a horse. Chapman insists on meeting each family and going to their ranches or corrals to see if everything's up to snuff for her beloved babies.

"I want the absolutely best homes for my horses, a place where they can enjoy the good horse life that they deserve. They didn't ask to be put into this situation. So they deserve to go home with just the right family, one that's going to love and take care of them."

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ON THE MARKET FOR A MUSTANG?

-To contact Judi Chapman, call 928-502-9470

-Adoption events are held every third Saturday in Kingman. For details, call the BLM office there at 1-928-718-3700.

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Darin Fenger can be reached at

dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.