I Sent My Horse to Training! Feat. Craig Johnson

So, you guys aren't going to believe this, but I actually sent my horse in for training. Let's get into it. >> If I do my ground work first, then as soon as I step on, the horse is ready to ride. But boy, was I getting ridiculed from the performance, you know. >> Okay, so a little backstory on this. Uh, this is a horse named Queso. He's a three-year-old that I bought as a started 2-year-old, and he has about two months of training. Okay, he has a lot of potential for raining. And in my own horsemanship journey, I'm wanting to get better at raining. I have no desire to compete in raining, okay? But I really enjoy the raining maneuvers. And so I like to play around with teaching horse spins and slide stops and roll backs and that sort of thing. And I find that very fun. It's also very challenging to get it to the level of of somebody like Craig Johnson, who I sent this horse to. Craig Johnson is an 18time world champion, multi-million dollar reigning horse trainer. He's he's doing a lot of ranch trail, ranch riding stuff right now. uh but he is a legend in the industry and he's one of my mentors and friends and so I'm uh super excited uh for him to share with us today some of the things he's working on with my horse queso. So one of the things that I've been working on with his groundwork is um turning it into some things that I can use a little bit more when I'm up there. And one of the things that I really focus on is how they shape their body up while they're going around me. I always look at it when I'm doing the ground work. If I were up there, would I like that? If not, I'm going to change it from down here. Put some shape in it. Play with their face a little bit so they learn how to give. Watch their feet and do the right thing with that. And then it's mostly about the stop and the turn. you know, I don't disengage uh in my ground work, you know, because for me that that disengage thing as I advance them causes their front feet to stop and their back feet to move. Well, as we progress, they got to stop the back feet and move the front feet. So, we change things up just a little bit. And I also am going to bump him right where, you know, right where I'm going to use my leg instead of find a zone back there to drive him at. You know, I'm just going to use what I use when I'm up there. So, and your groundwork program is awesome, obviously, but there's just a couple little tweaks that I do that kind of get them the idea of what I want them to do when we start working at some next level stuff about how they're going to use their front feet, their back feet, the shape, the softness. And when he's doing it right, I kind of I like to keep my hand right here at my belt buckle. I might even stick my hand in my thumb in my pocket. That puts my hand behind his nose rather than trying to lead him out here like that. When I do that, he's supposed to stop. All right. So, I don't send him around like that. I get him going around behind me and keep my hand back here. Then, when it comes time to quit, it'll be my idea, not his. Cool. All right. So, and that wasn't perfect. He was He still kind of stepped out behind, but what what I'd like to have him do is just stop with those back feet and wait with front feet and decide what to do. Generally, when I'm first starting it, I'll make the full turn and we'll be facing the same direction to stop him, you know. But now he's kind of reading the program a little bit. I don't have to make that full turn. Off we go the other way. >> Do you like to use woe pretty much every time you stop? >> You know, I'm just now starting to use woe on him. Uh I first teach him how to stop, right? And then start using woe. I I learned that years ago from Ray Hunt. We were doing a colt start thing and uh came time to ride the colt and he said go ahead and catch your colt and uh step on and so my colt went by and I said whoa and he didn't stop and he went by and I said whoa and he didn't stop and I said and about the third time Ray said well how's that working for you well not very good anyway he said stop him first then say whoa and I've done that ever since you know teach them how to stop first >> and then I can hook that word to something they know how to do >> that that makes sense >> otherwise Guys, if I start saying woe before they know how to stop, in some ways you could turn woe into a negative thing. >> Yeah. >> You know, they hear the word and then think, "Oh my god, I know what comes next." You know, so that word is supposed to be a positive cue. It's a reward. I never use woe as a punishment. >> Uh that's a great way to look at it. [Music] Okay. So, I'm going to kind of change that here a little bit just cuz he's still stepping out. So, now I'm taking the left rain in my right hand, right rain in my left hand. And the first thing I'm going to do is pull here, then send the front feet. Notice as much as possible, I try to be a swiveling post instead of walking around with him [Music] there. Step the front end through. Go again. So whenever one steps out behind, I just hustle the front end. Whoa. hustle the front. So, he's just learning stop the back, move the front. Okay? And that will relate as we get into the stopping program of trying to do the, you know, teach him how to do the wormy, but wormy dog, you know, stop the back, move the front. There's a lot of times when uh you know I can be a little more effective just clean it up on the ground first instead of get up there and fight with them. You know, I'd rather not have a fight up there. >> Yeah. >> If I'm going to get through and maybe fight's a bad word, but if we're going to have a tussle, I want to do it from down here where I have a little more control of things and he can read me, he can see me, and then I can get up there and translate or transfer it. >> Yeah. So you feel like if they have resistance to pressure to what you're asking or just in general, you'd rather work through that on the ground more so than just trying to teach a horse the maneuver. You're trying to get through the resistance. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Exactly. You know, and whether it's in the spin or the backup. A lot of people, they'll sit up there and struggle with the backup. And I can get, you know, down here. Uh, and I have no problem if while I'm riding one I think, you know, I could step off and clean this up in three minutes or I could be up here for the next hour or two. You know, as long as I can relate it to something that I am trying to do from up there. That's why I use the stick in the rib cage, in the shoulder, in, you know, wherever, whatever part I'm trying to move. >> And that way when I get up there and I lay my foot in that spot, I should get that response. >> So, I was really interested to see that he was doing ground work with him. I did. I don't think I expected that. Now, I know Craig is a fan of horsemanship and doing ground work and that sort of thing, but I didn't think with a horse that's already riding that he would be doing ground work. Um, at the same time, it made a lot of sense to me that he wants to get a feel for where the horse is at and work through some of the resistance that this particular horse has. This horse is a pretty strong willed horse. And um, when I first started riding him, he he would really kick out anytime the rider's leg came on. He just had a lot of opposition reflex to pressure. And I don't know if that's more his personality or if it's how he got started. I don't know. Um, but he does have a lot of resistance in there. Um, I've worked through a lot of it, but I know that Craig is going to challenge him to to level up. And, um, it's, uh, for me, I'm finding it very interesting what he's doing here. >> You know, I get a lot of other benefit by teaching the ground, you know, this kind of ground stuff, you know, especially the turn. I find it helpful uh, just to even go in and clean his stall and move him out of the way, you know. I think it just makes a horse safer to be around. Yeah, for sure. >> They learn these drills. >> Do you think that's unique to you or do you think there's a lot of guys that are that are doing the ground? >> You know, I say that I remember uh and it's worth talking about. I remember when I first uh got involved in the natural horsemanship and Pat, you know, and and uh we became friends and I started to try to figure out what they were doing and he was showing me and incorporating it and then tweaking it to whatever work, you know, but I found some obviously great stuff. But boy was I getting ridiculed from the performance, you know, cuz I'd go out there at the rain and fraternity and I'd do my ground work before I'd get on, you know, and they go, "What are you doing? Just step on that thing. Are you you chicken?" You know? >> Yeah. >> Get on. You know, but I found some great benefit um in that if I do my ground work first, then as soon as I step on, the horse is ready to ride. >> Yeah. >> And I don't like to step on one till they're ready to ride anymore, you know. And once they learn this drill, I can step on usually within four or five minutes. You know, doesn't take long, you know. I don't lunge. I don't I don't even have a lunge line. It's right here, you know, is my ground work. One of the ways I'm now that I'm up here and trying to lighten up his rib cage a little bit cuz he can be a little numbsided as you know that before I bump, I'm going to take my legs away. All right. I'm going to do that first. and then I'm going to bump. Okay. So, instead of putting my legs on and squeezing and trying to get him to go, that actually creates a desensitizing. And yet, if I take my legs away and then bump, then he'll start to realize that I don't need to have my legs on all the time. So, for me, I've got two rains here and I'm using two hands. But my inside rain is not the steering rain. My inside rain creates softness, position, and mental focus, but my outside rain is always my steering rain. And it's kind of a rainer thing. It's, you know, we always say live or die by the outside rain, you know, and uh so we've got to because we are going to all go one-handed at some point. That outside rain is the most important rain you've got, you know. So like here now I don't even need the inside rain. He's kind of got the idea. But if I need it, I'll just bump it and turn it loose and hold him accountable for holding that position. [Music] So this part of his circle, he's being pretty good, but when he kind of leans towards barn, he wants to drift that way. So, of course, then I would let use the outside rain, outside leg to keep him from doing that. But when he pushes against it, then I'm just going to double him around and disengage. You know, I always say we got to quit babysitting at some point. You know, yeah, I could hold him on the circle I want, but he's still leaving. You know, if I've got to be there, he's still leaving, right? But can I drop my hand and totally leave him alone and he still goes where I want him to? I, you know, as you know, the truth always shows up when you turn loose. So, if you want to know the truth, turn loose, you know, and then good luck. But until he can go where I want him to without me being there, what I'm going to do is overcompensate the places that he leans. Like, if he wants to go left, I'm going to go right. If he wants to go right, I'm going to go left. If he wants to lean over there, I'm going to cut the circle off. I'm going to create an opposite anticipation. All right? Because when he leans toward the barn or he wants to leave that circle, that's not a physical problem. That's a mental problem. His brain left and he's taking his feet with it. All right? So, I've got to get his brain to think something else. And so, I just take his brain and put it over here instead of over there. And then all of a sudden, he goes through here. And and with repetition, he's learned when I get to there, come this way. All right. Now, all of a sudden, he makes that decision to not lean there. he wants to come here instead. And then you just clean it up. >> So, one of my biggest takeaways, which it it never ceases to come back to me. It's like peeling like layers of an onion. So, I teach this as much or more than anybody about giving a horse responsibility, but then every time I ride with Craig, he just shows me another way uh more examples of how to give a horse responsibility. And one of the ones that I took away from this one was not only being able to ride the horse with your legs off and have that horse maintaining forward movement, but another one was um the way he was using his reins. He wasn't like picking up contact and just holding it the whole time. He would pick it up and right away release it and expect that horse to maintain some levels of carriage. So, he's starting to build that into the horse where for me a lot of times I would wait more towards the end of their development before I start uh working on self-carriage is what I would call it where horses just holding themselves in a frame. He's starting to pepper that in as he goes right now. And um that's definitely something I can a tool that I can add to my toolbox and help my other horses get better as well. Remember I said that in everything I do there's an approach. So, for example, I'm getting ready to go to the right. I'm going to set the position first, then go to the right. Now, I'm getting ready to go left. Set position first, then go left. What a lot of people will do incorrectly is when they go to change position or change directions or, you know, go from a circle to a straight line or to a different circle or just steer around, they'll make the steer and then try to correct the horse for the mistake they made. Well, I set it up first and then go make a good move. And then the horse gets kind of a positive attitude because I, as a driver, like driving a car down the road, I know there's a curve ahead. there's there was a sign that said so, you know, so I start to slow the car down. I get ready for the curve, you know. I get them in a position, then make the move. And that way they learn a positive way because what I want in the end is this thing called duck on the water. And duck on the water means that everything I want a horse to do is under the water, just like a duck going across the pond. You know, the if you look at the duck, you see nothing moving, but if you look under the water, the feet are going like crazy. So, the steering, speeding up, slowing down, stop and turn, should all be under the water with their feet. Everything else above water, which is about where my boots are, nothing should happen there. Neck stays there, chin stays there. And like there, he left with his neck soft, chin soft. I think that every correction that I would use, whether it's a steer with the outside rain, take over with my hands, change something, make a transition, or something changes that needs I've only got about one or two seconds for that to work. All right? And but what I try to do is teach them how to respond correctly in that one or two seconds and then leave them alone and let them fill in the blanks until it's time for me to do something else and then leave them alone and let them continually fill in the blanks till they can fill it in further and a little more and a little more. Right? But I've got to put the tools in so that when I ask for something in that one or two seconds it happens, you know? So, we go through the drills and the program showing them how to get off the leg, how to get off the foot, how to do those things correctly and respond. Now, and I think in my opinion, there's no such thing as a correction. What I view a correction as though is a maneuver or a move made on purpose that they already know. >> Right? So, if I'm going to use this leg, let's call it a correction. If I'm going to lay that leg right there, and that's a correction, I have to first teach him what to do when I lay that leg there. And then he understands, right? Because I think a horse only has one or two seconds to understand what it was I was after anyway. After that, it's gone. Because if you know, and I used to do it all the time, I can always raise my hand. I've made mistakes. But, you know, I'd go to correct a horse, but the tool wasn't in there. And so, they resisted the correction. And now I've got to end up correcting the correction, and the original point is gone, you know. >> Yeah. So they go through all these body control maneuvers and steering and speeding up and slowing down and we get that timing right where when I lay the leg they move over now and I pick up my hand they give their chin now and they you know so that then I can make that adjustment because all I'm trying to do get them to do is a different maneuver that they already know instead of the one they're doing. I'm just trying to change their mind into something else that they already know. Um, I I very much get the responsiveness and that's kind of a thing with him. Like that's his personality. He's, you know, it's he tends to be kind of dull and lazy and and and >> and then it's kind of like it's it's uh your job to find resistance because if you're not finding resistance, they're not getting you're not challenging them enough to get them better, right? But was there anything that you felt riding him that you're like you wished I hadn't done that or something maybe that you felt like I put in there or that should shouldn't have been doing or should have wished I would have put more emphasis on something else. I appreciate you asking that because and I don't know uh the history of him, how long you've had him and you know what all you did, what he was doing before that, you know, who knows. You know, I think horses are a product of, you know, I call him a yesterday animal. They only know what they learn from all the yesterdays that add up to right now. They He doesn't even know there is a tomorrow. You know, I figure what I show him today is probably going to the results will be tomorrow. Yeah. you know, for the most part. But I've got to add in more yesterdays, you know, and so that now he knows this. >> Yeah. >> Now that said, is there anything you did? The one thing I felt like on this horse to me he he is whether it's his tendency or whether it was created he is overly desensitized. >> You know went too far in causing him to be nice to be or friendly to be around which then in some in turn in my opinion made him a little pushy. >> Yeah. I think that a lot of times when you take away too much flight response, then you end up having a horse that won't go anywhere. >> Mhm. >> Now, if that's what you want, that's great. But a lot of the maneuvers that we make in whether it's the rating or the cow horse, it's borderline a flight response. You know, when they run down there and stop and then crack and get out of there in a roll back or something, that's pushing a flight response, you know. So, I think um you know there's that delicate balance of yes, you want them to be usable, but so there's the two extremes. This horse that you can't even lay a leg on, he's going to learn I can lay the leg and I can ride around with my legs on and just get used to it, desensitize him. But then there's the other extreme where the horse could care less whether your legs are on or not, you know, and then you sit there begging the horse to go. But that said, what I am trying to build within, you know, the competitive rainer, ranch horse, you know, whatever the case might be, is a horse that has more woe than go, but a delicate balance of that. >> Yeah. >> You know, 60% wo, 40% go, which means, yeah, I've got to start the motor. I've got to get it going. All right. He's not just leaving all the time. >> All right. But that horse is 60% wo is pretty easy to stop, too. You know, to get there is my idea. the stop should be his, you know, which means his brakes are wired the whole way down through there. >> Yeah. >> You know, just waiting for me to give him the cube. To answer your question, I don't know if I did or not, but you know, he just felt like maybe he was a little overly desensitized. >> And I can't say you did it, but somebody did. Or maybe it's just him. >> So, I was actually really happy with Craig's answer uh to this question. Um because I I know that innately this horse is very sticky and and has a pretty strong stubborn streak and is committed to his idea. So that didn't surprise me at all. I think that is more this horse's personality and maybe a little bit how he got started. I was more interested if there was something I was doing wrong with some of the exercises that I' had been doing with him or maneuvers if you know if he didn't like kind of how any of those felt and those were all all checked out. We're good to go. So I was really happy to to hear that. But thank you very much, Craig, for for showing them to me and and showing what you've been doing. >> Yeah, >> appreciate it. >> You're welcome. Enjoyed it. >> Can't wait to see how he keeps going. >> Yeah, good deal. Well, the thing I'd like to present at the symposium is um you know, how to read your horse and recognize whether he's putting forth some effort or not. And um you know, how to get the effort, but do it correctly, you know, without scaring your horse and without, you know, creating more problems. but also understanding that, you know, there's certain things that we are going to do as we ride uh that are just going to come as instinct. It's going to come naturally. And I think this horse needs to, you know, all horses need to get used to the things I'm going to naturally do. I believe in natural horsemanship, but there's certain things I'm going to naturally do, get used to it, you know, and so we're going to talk a lot about that and uh you know, how to make those things work. >> So, yeah, we have a greatunity to come see Craig Johnson at the Horseman Symposium. He's going to be presenting both days. He's going to work with some uh riders that are getting started and he's going to work with some advanced riders. Also, there's an opportunity for six of you to ride with him that weekend. So, if you guys are interested in doing that, um I'll leave a link below for the form that you need to fill out. You do have to have a ticket to the symposium to be there and uh we hope to see you guys all there. We got about 50 tickets left and uh it's a great opportunity. So, come check it out. So, I just want to say a big thank you to Craig Johnson. Um he's been I've just learned so much from him over the years. He's been a great mentor of mine and his willingness to take take my horse in for training um is a gift because he he doesn't have to and uh he takes in a very limited number of horses these days and so I was just super happy to be able to have the a door open to me and I just want to say a big thank you to Craig for for having me there. >> Yeah. >> So we can't wait to have Craig at the uh 2026 Oh jeez, my brain is not on this right now. Yeah. >> Yeah. One or the other. >> All right. Luckily, I got a video editor.