Riding with Master Horseman Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson has earned his spot among the elite group of horse professionals that can claim the title of $1Million Dollar Champion rider. It means that as a competitor, he has won at least $1Million in prize money. Amongst other few of his career highlights are twice NRHA Reining Futurity Champion, NRHA Derby Champion, NRHA Super Stakes Champion, 15 time World Champion in Reining, Working Cow Horse and Ranch Pleasure, Ranch Riding Champion & Cowboy Dressage Champion.

On the last week-end of May 2016, Craig gave a clinic 10 miles from where i live in Cambridgeshire. It was my first Ranch Riding clinic and my first meeting with the exceptional horseman that he is.

Ranch Riding is a competitive discipline designed to demonstrate horsemanship as if we are working on a ranch. Ranch Riding is similar in concept to Working Equitation (the Portuguese equivalent), Parcours of Maniability (the French equivalent) & Doma Vaquera (The Spanish equivalent). It is a non-timed discipline involving slow & extended walks, slow & extended trots, lope, extended lope, spins, stops, serpentines, simple & flying lead changes, various obstacles including gate opening, cavalettis etc.

The idea of Ranch Riding is to be ready for the unpredictable.
To be ready for anything is Craig’s definition of impulsion.

Within the context of Ranch Riding, here is what i learnt: 


In Ranch Riding there are 5 gaits as such: The active walk, the slow trot, the extended trot, the lope (unframed canter) and the extended canter. The walk and the extended trot are the paces most important in Ranch Riding.

An active walk is achieved by extending the stride of the fore legs. As opposed to the trot and canter which is driven by the hind legs. When the front foot leaves the ground, extend the walk by pushing it further forward. The extended walk is active and the horse’s head does not swing side to side.
At the walk, the horse's bely swings right when the left hip goes up & swings left when the right hip goes up. For the walk to be more active push the swing back in the other direction when the belly reaches its peak. Don't kick just push back. Thinking of a swing attached on a branch of a tree, for the swing to go higher and faster someone will push the swing with pressure when the swing reaches an optimum point.

If the horse breaks gait when adding pressure, redirect by disengaging the horse. When the swinging takes place put focus on the horse's front feet. The acceleration comes from the front feet reaching further not from the horse walking small steps faster. The horse is in-hand with light contact. If is too collected the thrust will go up as opposed to lengthwise.

At a slow trot, the horse can be slightly off the vertical (never behind), on a loose rein with very little contact. Let your legs loose and you will notice that your legs circle. For those riding in a saddle with a saddle horn, one way to extend the trot is by pushing on the horn with one hand and with the other lifting the reins slightly. As we lean forward, the reins sag. The lifting of the hand as we lean forward retains the same light contact at the extended trot as we had at the slow trot. Horses tend to break gait at the change of direction. If so disengage and circle until he is back at the desired gait, don't pull on the reins.

At the extended lope, the horse’s head is slightly raised. The lope vs the canter: The lope is an unframed canter vs the canter is a framed lope. In the lope, the rider uses his legs to indicate which lead we want NOT to initiate the lope. Initiate the lope/canter with the seat and maybe the voice. I personally put a slight more weight in my seat in the sense of the lead. The leg is to prepare the horse to take the lead.  To me this makes complete sense as it prepares the horse to be in the proper position to do the transition resulting in the correct lead every time. Secondly, it prevents the horse taking a lead every time he feels my outside leg is talking to the outside hind and the inside leg at or just in front of the girth. Sometime my legs are placed there for a different conversation eg: arc on the circle at the trot. When I asked Craig how to readdress this with my own horse, Craig suggests body place myself as to ask for the lead but as my horse is about to take the lead switch to another movement e.g: a slow walk, a slow trot. The idea is to use the legs to indicate which lead I choose, the cue to the lead is done by the sit & rein position and possibly for others the voice. Great tip!

If the horse has difficulty to take a certain lead, use shoulder-out to help the horse to be in a better position.

Craig’s deep knowledge of the sport and respect for the horse

make him a very progressive-thinking horseman indeed.

There is no punishment for missing something, it is only searching.

'Right thing easy, wrong thing difficult' is an interesting concept says Craig, 'until the right thing is difficult.' 'Try something which is harder to do instead of dumbing it down' is Craig's answer.

His open-mindedness is equally refreshing. Craig shared with us some wisdom he acquired whilst sharing a demonstration with fellow Master horseman George Morris who is a trainer of horses and riders in the hunt and jump discipline. They argued on the position of the horse’s head. One demonstrated it should be up whilst the other demonstrated it should be down. As it happens they both concluded, the head should be where the money is. Craig added that often he has found wallets and dollar notes on the grounds hence his tendency to keep the head down. He closed this rather amusing anecdote by saying that within reason, the carriage of the horse’s head needs to serve the discipline. In Ranch Riding, he wants the horse to look where he puts his feet which makes complete sense to me.

'I hate being lucky, I'd rather be ready instead.' Craig Johnson

In my own work with my horses i incorporate a good session of warming up. It literally physically warms us up and mentally it prepares to more adequately see where we are at for the coming session. Craig’s talk about warm up was very interesting and here is what he said and what he got me to do:

Warm up gets the horse off your leg,

get off your hands & it establishes collection.

Craig defines collection as when the horse is ready to go whenever you want to go, physically as well as mentally.

Firstly we must use our hands correctly. Hands need to be still like a post. A post is the best tool to teach pressure and release and this is the horse’s job to find the release. Note that the equivalent with working from the ground would be to use the circus pole. The circus pole is still and solid.

Secondly, we want the horse to be ‘mental neutral’. This is the best position for the horse to be in without it the horse will anticipate and look for other things to do. Here we are a mere passenger and we tune in with the horse.

Thirdly, we check the horse is now following my lead. We guide him and steer him in a way that there is no resistance at all 3 gaits including variations within each one. Sometimes at the extended gait, the horse might drop their neck but is still be above level (meaning above the withers). It means the horse is in ‘mental neutral’ looking where he is placing his feet. This position is desirable.

Fourthly, check the manual versus the automatic gear. In manual, the horse responds to my hands whilst in automatic he responds to my seat. Here we want to be able to switch from one to another. On a ranch you will need to sometimes ride your horse with your seat whilst your hands are busy roping, opening a gate, etc.

During warm up, Craig checks what he calls ‘duck on the water’.

‘Duck on the water’ refers to the smoothness of the horse above level (here the level is the water line) whilst the legs are active at steering, transitioning etc. We are looking for smoothness in transition up and down.

Fifthly, we want to be able to move different parts of the horse right and left independently of the other parts. This will help with lead changes. On a small tight circle (i) the horse is nicely bent around my inside leg (beware not to over bend; i would use my outside rein, my inside leg and my outside leg to catch the drive from my inside leg & would use a very silent if no inside rein at all) (ii) Shoulder-in using my inside leg to push the hind-quarters out off the circle (iii) the horse’s head is counter bent, shoulder-in using my outside leg (the hind quarter is on the circle) (iv) counter bent, shoulder-in using my outside leg and hind-quarters out off the circle using my inside leg (WOW! I’ll have to ride that one again – Bear with me!!). This last move is Renvers on the circle. 

A few more words of wisdom from Craig. Whether your horse is in a snaffle or a bridle, just ride the same way. And always ride him ‘as if’ he were a ‘pretty broke horse’. He has never seen a cow in his life, ride him as if he has. The rider’s mental attitude is progressive and positive and the horse will feed on that.  

The spin is 80% mental and 20% refinement. For this manoeuvre, the rider needs to teach herself to count and to be aware where the spin starts and ends. The outside leg means ‘spin’ whilst the inside leg means ‘stop spinning’. The aim is to spin the horse on the inside hind leg. The inside hind foot is the pivot foot.

First of all start with riding a tight circle. As the circle goes smaller, the turn around happens and eventually the spin at high speed can be established. With the spin gets one side solid before going to the other side. They are two parts to the spin: the start and the spin. If the start is perfect, the spin will also be perfect. A bad start will give a bad spin. To reward a great spin, get off your horse.

For the 80% part of the manoeuvre we do not care so much where the weight of the horse is. On a tight circle we use the outside leg to move the forehand. The outside leg is used as a push around and so is the outside rein. This is not a pull around exercise. This is a push (stick) around exercise where the horse moves towards the release (carrot). A little speed is an ally in this manoeuvre.  Use your outside leg if you need to maintain the spin. If the horse spins don’t use your leg. Once the horse starts to understand that the outside leg means spin, you enter the 20% part which is the refinement part.

For the 20% part, the horse will carry on spinning with the outside leg off and will only stop when the inside leg is on. To enhance the spin and the speed, we want to stay on the spot. The horse needs to be soft and his head at the vertical. The inside front foot moves at 4 o’clock, 8 o’clock & 12 o’clock. The horse rocks back a little shifting his weight backwards. If you see the inside front foot it means it is at the wrong place. The outside front crosses lightly over the inside front foot. The neck and body are straight (remember we do not use the inside leg or the inside rein). The horse is moving with his feet not his nose. In Ranch Riding, the inside hind foot stays in the geographical area whereas in the pirouette, in classical dressage, all four feet are on the move. Be prepare to maintain your spin or it will fall apart in speed, shape or both.

The turn is called ‘offence’ if the horse spins on the inside leg. If he spins on the outside leg it is called a ‘defence’ turn. The defence turn is used to work cows.

The stop in Ranch Riding is never asked after an extended lope. The stop is holding the front end asking the back end to go to the front. This is not a pulling exercise. On an average day working on a range, there is a need to switch from manual to automatic stop. There are 5 types of stops the horse should know:
(i) Use both reins to stop and drive the hind quarters to the hands. This is not a pull! The hands are the wall and we drive the back end to the wall.
(ii) Drop the hands to stop. i drop my hands on to the withers to stop. If the horse does not, resort to (i).
(iii) Use the seat, feet and hand stop.
(iv) Back bone seat stop. i seat as if my spine is going straight down to the ground.
(v) 'Woa' stop. Obviously here we use the voice cue to stop.

Once the warm up is done, we can start driving the horse into collection. At this stage the horse is ready to go wherever we want mentally and physically.

At the trot, side-pass (horse looking in the same direction of the trajectory) and leg-yield (horse looking in the opposite direction of the trajectory).

Canter some circle and weave in and out of the circle using the seat only. Don’t change direction, don’t change speed, don’t change the flexion and don’t change lead. The weave is what creates the straight line. The horse will go towards release which is the straight line.

In a competition scenario, Ranch Riding's manoeuvers are assessed by riding a pattern. During this clinic, Craig coaches each rider to the following pattern. Anyone can do this pattern at home to check their accuracy and progress.
(i) Open a rope gate. Don't be fancy, be accurate and imagine there are cows on the other side so use the horse's body to block the gate when opening the gate. Once the gate is closed...
(ii) Actively walk on a straight line away from the gate for 15 meters. Here we are testing the active walk. Then...
(iii) Transition up to a slow trot on a straight line  then half circle to the right...
(iv) Transition up to the extended trot on a straight line for 30 meters...
(v) Transition down to a walk turning right. Before the next corner...
(vi) Transition up to the lope. then at a specific point..
(vii) Transition down to a walk between two pole. Walk to X. Then...
(viii) Transition up to the lope on the left lead, half a circle then...
(ix) Transition down to a trot, over the two poles on a straight line, turn left, then...
(x) Extended trot, passing a pole to my right...
(xi) Back bone stop
(xii) back up
(xiii) Side-pass over the pole
(xiv) Stop

Do it all again, one rein riding as smooth and as accurate as possible...great fun!

...And a few last words of wisdom from Craig ...‘ride your horse like you are selling it’!...

...No Sorry Craig! He is not for sale