Wyoming
Chad Madsen Of Afton Owns Wyoming's Largest Horse Herd — And Knows Them All By Name
Blaze a new trail in the wilds of Wyoming with just about any outfitter or dude ranch in the state, and chances are you’ve ridden on one of the thousands of horses owned by Chad Madsen.
Madsen is the owner of Yellowstone Horse Rentals in Afton, Wyoming. To say it’s an empire is no stretch. When Madsen looks out on his herd of 2,500 horses in winter, he sees a horse horizon. Nothing but horses from near to far.
The horses are sent out to dude ranches and outfitters across Wyoming and beyond in the summer. Then they rotate into hunting parties in the fall.
Wintertime, there are some horses that go out into the Wyoming winter for sleigh rides and the like, but most of them take a trip to Madsen’s Pavilion Ranch for a well-earned vacation.
They’ll get new shoes and shots, as well as all the hay they want, until it’s time for them to get back to work, taking tourists on adventures in the Wyoming wilderness.
Believe it or not, Madsen said he knows every one of all these 2,500 horses by name, as well as all of their individual quirks. It’s all part of ensuring every customer across the state gets the horses they’re going to like the best.
“With new horses, we’ll send in a description with the do’s and the don’ts,” Madsen told Cowboy State Daily. “Whether this horse is a good kid horse or a good lady’s horse or a guide horse.”
Some ranches have favorites, Madsen added, and those favorite horses will go back, year after year, to the exact same ranch throughout their careers.
If, on the other hand, a horse isn’t working out at a particular ranch, Madsen will rotate that horse to a new group, making sure it has the right fit.
“One horse might be hard to catch, but he’s a really good ride,” Madsen said. “Another might be fast in the line when they’re walking. It just kind of depends on the horse.”
-
Some of Chad Madsen’s horses run through the western Wyoming snow. (Photo by Skye Clark and courtesy Chad Madsen) -
A blue-eyed horse seems unfazed by the western Wyoming snow. (Courtesy Chad Madsen)
Building A Horse Empire
Madsen didn’t start out to build the largest horse herd in Wyoming. His family had an outfitting business with its own herd of horses, so he was familiar with them and loved working with the animals.
Then in high school, he worked in the horse-leasing business.
“When I was 21, that guy wanted to sell his horses, so I talked the bank into loaning me some money to put down, and he financed me on the rest,” Madsen said. “That was 350 head of horses 25 years ago in the middle of March.”
That was as big as Madsen figured he’d ever get. But times changed, and Madsen was just ideally positioned to fill a growing need.
“When I first started out, a lot of local guys in the fall had their own horses,” he said. “But now, nobody wants to own their own horses just to go hunting.”
Wyoming outfitters, meanwhile, have a short, eight-week season.
“You just can’t financially justify owning horses for that,” Madsen said. “Dude ranches in the summer can’t really justify owning horses for a 12-week season either.”
For Madsen, the timeframes all work out well for all three of the tourism industry’s biggest needs.
“The horses coming from their summer releases are in good shape,” he said. “They’ve been getting used all summer. So that’s really a lot better than owning a horse who is fat and out of shape and doesn’t really want to go up the hill to go hunting.”
Buying Them Gentle
Madsen travels across the country every winter to stock up his herd with gentle horses.
“Our goal is to buy them already gentle,” Madsen said. “We don’t really have any tricks other than that. There’s no substitute for work. Horses that work for a living are the ones you want.”
Madsen will buy 250 to 300 new horses every year, and goes to auctions all winter long, making sure he’s all stocked up for the summer.
“We like the draft crosses,” he said. “They’re not all draft crosses, but we like quarter horses. The bigger frame, bigger boned, bigger-footed horses.”
Madsen buys horses from the “ground up.”
He looks at their feet, he looks for a sound body, and he looks for that friendly, gentle temperament that means they’ll be a happy horse for a dude ranch or outfitting group.
“Generally, you want to buy them in the prime of their life,” he said. “We don’t always do that, but that’s what we want.”
He does still buy older horses though. They are often good for children.
“Not every horse you buy is gonna work,” he added. “That’s just how it is.”
-
Chad Madsen driving a team of his horses on a winter sleigh. (Courtesy Chad Madsen) -
A pair of horses named Faceoff and Stardust at Chad Madsen’s ranch in Afton, Wyoming. Despite having 2,500 horses in his huge herd, Madsen says he knows every horse by name and termperament. (Courtesy Chad Madsen) -
Chad Madsen’s horses are identified by their J Box Dot brand. (Courtesy Chad Madsen)
West Is Short Horses
One reason Madsen travels far and wide to buy horses is that the West is short on them — and getting shorter all the time.
“Some of the bigger cow outfits still use horses, but it’s not like it used to be,” he said. “There are a lot of cow outfits that don’t use horses at all anymore. They use four wheelers and side by sides.”
These days, he’s finding some of his best stock from the Amish, in the Midwest. That’s because the Amish are still very much in the horse business. They still primarily use horses for transportation, farming, and other work.
The shortage of horses has made what Madsen does even more important for the state of Wyoming’s tourism industry.
“The outside money that this brings back into the state of Wyoming is actually pretty remarkable,” Madsen said. “And a lot of that money is coming from outside the state.”
Huge Economic Ripple Effect
Madsen wouldn’t name a specific figure for what his horse herd brings to Wyoming, but said it’s in the millions. That money gets used to buy hay and other supplies for the horses, as well as fix or buy equipment, and shoe horses. It also pays worker salaries, who in turn go out and buy clothes, food, and all the other necessities and wants of life — a huge ripple effect that makes Madsen’s operation a vital prong in the tourism industry.
“I’ve always been kind of proud of that,” Madsen said. “The fact that these horses bring a lot of money into the state. As far as being essential to the tourism of Wyoming, they really are. They’re bringing in a lot of money for the state and helping (tourism) across the state.”
Madsen, meanwhile, loves what he does for a living. Nothing looks more beautiful to him than that horizon full of beautiful, spirited horses, manes and tails flying in a Wyoming wind.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
Summer is Wyoming’s season for turning over rocks, poking into holes and walking with a perpetual hunch looking for snakes.
Herpalogists, the zoologists who study amphibians and reptiles, are out scouring the landscape and herping, the term used when they are actively flipping rocks and searching stream beds to find Wyoming’s elusive snakes in their native habitats.
Sometimes those finds can be unexpected. The fork-tongued reptiles appear on a trail when least expected.
Recently, a foot-long “nightcrawler” suddenly moved like a snake and slithered into the rocks, its tail disappearing into the shadows. Rather than a shapeshifter, this was an elusive rubber boa, Wyoming’s tiny constrictor snake that can look like a giant worm at first glance.
These rarely seen creatures are more common in the Cowboy State than most people realize.
“I personally don’t feel that any of our snakes in Wyoming are terribly rare,” said Matt Rasmussen, vice president of the Wyoming Herpetological Society. “However, a lot of them are very rarely encountered because they spend most of their lives either underground or under rocks.”
Rasmussen said most of the secretive snakes in Wyoming only come out at night or when conditions are right — typically warmer, humid times. The rubber boa, for instance, showed up on a day when it had rained and then the temperatures spiked hot.
Rasmussen helped found the new Herpetological Society two years ago to teach others to herp. He said it’s possible to learn more about our state by flipping rocks and seeing what is beneath.
“That’s the great thing with Wyoming,” Rasmussen said. “There is so little known about the herpetofauna — the frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, etcetera — that live here, and so little known about their distribution.”
He said Wyoming is known for “large charismatic megafauna” such as bison, elk, moose and deer rather than the harder to find animals. As a result, no widespread surveying has been done on smaller non-game species. Wyoming Game and Fish has even asked for community members to help by reporting rarely seen reptiles and amphibians.
-
The Great Basin gopher snake is a non-venomous snake found primarily in the western United States and parts of southwestern Canada. You can find these snakes in a wide range of habitats; grasslands, woodlands, and deserts. -
The plains hognose snake can be mistaken for a rattlesnake but is harmless to humans. -
The Eastern yellow-bellied racer is incredibly fast, alert, and primarily hunts during the day using their sharp eyesight. Harmless to humans but feisty and will bite and musky-spray if cornered or handled. -
The smooth green snake is completely non-venomous, quite secretive and rarely seen. The Wyoming Natural Diversity Database said they are mostly found in localized pockets within southeast and south-central Wyoming and the Black Hills area. Their habitat are moist meadows, marshes, stream edges, open woods since they can camouflage in lush vegetation. This snake feeds almost exclusively on insects and spiders such as crickets, grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Elusive, Not Rare
While most people think of the more common bullsnake or venomous rattlesnake when discussing reptiles, Rasmussen said Wyoming is home to many harmless snakes.
According to Rasmussen, a few snakes, such as the colorful pale milk snake and rubber boa, could be considered rare in Wyoming. However, he believes they are just harder to find and most people are not aware of them unless they stumble across them.
“There’s the plains black-headed snake, which we really don’t know much about their distribution in Wyoming,” Rasmussen said. “They’re just not studied and have a limited habitat.”
This tan snake with a black head is small and feeds primarily on centipedes and ant eggs. Rasmussen cautions that when found, rather than kill the strange looking snakes that are harmless, report finding them to Wyoming Game and Fish and leave them in their habitat.
In this way, Rasmussen said, herping can be fun. He encourages people to get into the action.
“There are some other really small fossorial snakes like smooth green snakes, which live along creeks in the mountains and eat caterpillars and spiders,” Rasmussen said. “Then there’s the Black Hills red-bellied snake, which is a very small snake that eats slugs, worms and snails primarily.”
People are often surprised that Wyoming is home to such a large variety of snakes. He especially likes to show off a milk snake, which is harmless and eats lizards and even baby rattlesnakes.
“It is a beautiful, almost tropical-looking animal that lives right here,” Rasmussen said. “They are just rarely encountered.”
-
The northern rubber boa is found in the northwest corner of state such as Star Valley and east into the Bighorn Mountains. They are a small, docile, non-venomous constrictors that are rarely seen since they are excellent burrowers and climbers. The Wyoming Game and Fish consider them vulnerable/secretive and track sightings to help build their statewide database. -
The pale milk snake is not a venomous coral snake and is found in the Bighorn Basin, eastern plans and southeastern corner of Wyoming. They are rare to see because they spend their life hiding under rocks, within rocky outcrops, badland scarps, ponderosa pines, and shortgrass prairies according to the University of Wyoming. Since they are so secretive, spotting one in the wild is a rare treat and Wyoming Game and Fish is asking the public to report any sightings for their database. -
The plains black-headed snake is completely harmless because it’s mouth is too small to pierce human skin and its mild venom is for small invertebrates. Due to its secretive nature, it is rare to see one but they are known to be in southeastern Wyoming in the Platte and Carbon Counties. They are very small, secretive, burrowing snakes that spend almost all of their lives underground or hidden beneath rocks and logs, typically only surfacing at night. -
The bull snake or gopher snake is completely non-venomous but does not want you to know that. When threatened, they put on a dramatic show according to the National Park Service. The bullsnake will puff up their bodies, hiss loudly, flatten their head into a triangle and vibrate their tails in dry bush to mimic a rattlesnake. (Matt Rasmussen)
A New Snake & Frog Society
Rasmussen said the new society is trying to educate the community about these fascinating creatures in the Cowboy State that don’t get much attention, such as the skink, a short-legged lizard.
“We’re a group of herpetological enthusiasts who would like to spread the word, educate and do outreach about these animals,” he said.
This outreach includes presentations with live animals, field trips and a conference in November. Wyoming’s reptiles and amphibians remain a mystery, Rasmussen encourages reporting sightings on the app iNaturalist.
“Even if you don’t know what it is, post a picture because there are tens of thousands of experts who will identify that animal,” Rasmussen said. “That’s really important, especially for our herpetofauna in the state.”
He also pointed out that some Wyoming snakes are on the protected list, including the midget faded rattlesnake. They made the list, according to Rasmussen, because people were capturing them and they became popular in among owners who like to keep small venomous snakes as pets.
Rasmussen said awareness is the best protection for Wyoming’s elusive reptiles and he is excited to prove to residents that we don’t have rare snakes, only secretive ones.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund awards $529K in grants, including several Fremont County projects
-
South-Carolina4 minutes agoSouth Carolina pitcher Will Craddock announces transfer to SEC program
-
South Dakota7 minutes agoTeam South Dakota gets strong performances at National Junior High Finals Rodeo
-
Tennessee12 minutes ago2026 Tennessee Football Position Preview: Running Backs | Rocky Top Insider
-
Texas19 minutes agoSisters, friend charged in Texas mom’s stabbing death
-
Utah22 minutes agoUtah Mammoth Announce 2026 Development Camp Roster | Utah Mammoth
-
Vermont27 minutes agoCommentary | Eric Peterson: Time is running out for Vermont
-
Virginia34 minutes agoVirginia State Police seeks information on shooting on I-64 between Jefferson Avenue and J. Clyde Morris Boulevard in Newport News
-
Washington37 minutes agoWeek Ahead in Washington: June 28
