W. A. "Wink" Chappell

Bill rode the rodeo circuit when he was in his late teen's and early twenty's--saddle broncs, bareback horses and calf roping. He won his share. He quit riding the rodeo circuit when his best friend, Fay Adams, was killed. Fay roped a calf, his horse tripped and fell on him and broke his neck. Bill was an excellent roper. Whether on the range, in the stock pens working cattle, or roping in competition he seldom missed. He taught me as much about roping as he could without cattle to work and rope here on Sierra Dawn. He was an artist with a rope.

Bill started his career by breaking horses and working cattle on ranches in areas of the San Joaquin Valley, Cuyama Valley, Kern River Valley, east to the upper Mojave Desert and west to Santa Barbara. He worked for such ranches as the Quarter Circle H, the Tejon Ranch, the Onyx Ranch, the 88 Brand, John Cudderback, Miller and Lux, The Land Company, and the Smith Ranch to name a few.

His first introduction to the Arabian was at the Tejon Ranch in the late 1920's and early 1930's. This ranch had imported mares and stallions from Arabia and when Bill worked for the Tejon under their vaquero horsemen, he trained some of these original horses and some of their offspring. He trained Steeldust horses for John Cudderback and often told me of the similarities of the Steeldust and the Tejon Arabians to my Sierra Dawn Arabians. He was convinced that the Steeldust had "close" ties to Arabian blood. Bill also spoke of the parallels of Roland Hill's Morgan horses with the Arabian. Roland had imported much of his original breeding stock from a Morgan horse ranch in Sweetwater, Texas. Roland bred 200 plus mares to one of 17 stallions each year. Bill's favorite stallion was one called Querido, whose foals made outstanding stock horses. For many years, the best of the black, 3-year-old, Quarter-Circle-H Morgans were selected for New York City Police horses. Bill started many of these under saddle, including training them to accept shooting a gun from their backs. Cold winters often found him training in the warmer areas of the San Joaquin Valley, sometimes training polo horses.

When he came to the Onyx Ranch in the Kern River Valley east of Bakerskfield, California, in the 1930's, he started working as a horse breaker (as trainers of that era were called) and cowboy. It didn't take too long for the owners to recognize Bill's dedication, skill, and the fact that he was an excellent judge of cattle to make him their cattle and range boss. He did much of the buying and selling of cattle for the Onyx Ranch and was eventually in charge of the whole cattle operation. He traveled to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and into Old Mexico to buy cattle, mostly Mexican steers, for the Ranch. I heard many tales of the horses he was given to ride when buying these cattle, the cowboys he rode with, and the vast difference between what he termed as "Tejanna" style and Vaquero style of horsemanship.