J Family Equine, Camri Johnson

12/23/2024

31 year old Jasmine has gained a wonderful amount of weight since August! She is on a full mash diet now with Super Gain supplement added in, and she is doing so much better!

For those who didn't know the story, Jasmine had dropped a huge amount of weight despite having beet pulp, senior feed, daily grazing, and free choice hay at night. After increasing her mash diet and adding in this weight gain supplement, she is at a healthy weight. ❤️

Thank you all for your well-wishes sent her way. 🥰

12/23/2024

Kevin and Thea: Patience and connection with an 8 year old girl and a mini-mule.

Normally, Kevin comes right to Thea to be caught, but tonight, he hated the sound of her noisy snow pants. She sang songs while waiting for him to be ready to come to her. And the moments he left, she let him leave, and waited patiently for him to come back.

My heart was full to bursting when I saw her have correct timing when she would start to approach him to place the halter on, and he would get concerned over the snow pants. Thea immediately stopped and let him know she saw his concern, and would wait for him to be ready to try again. ❤️ He was able to be caught by choice and with ease within 5 minutes because he trusts Thea and felt her connect with him. She gave him what he needed to feel safe, even though she was wearing some scary pants. 😉

This mule has taught my kids so much! ❤️❤️❤️ Thank you, Kevin!

12/19/2024

Would you like me to coach you and a few friends at YOUR location? I'm currently booking my 2025 clinic schedule, and would love to set up a clinic at your facility!

What do my clinics entail?
- Two-person sessions that target the needs of each horse and rider.
- Group obstacle/game sessions to have fun and build confidence.
- A focus on building partnership, connection, and communication.
- Problem-solving behavioral issues with your horse.
- Helping riders regain their confidence through building their skillset and mindset.
- Giving the rider tools to take home so that progress can continue past the clinic.
- Follow-up support after the clinic with virtual calls, virtual sessions, and/or in-person lessons.

For more information, comment CLINIC below and tag your friends that you want to join you!

12/19/2024

***Setting healthy boundaries with your horse***

Boundaries are so important for a good relationship with your equine partner! They will keep both of you safe, and keep the lines of communication clear between the two of you.

As equestrians who want a solid connection with our horse, how do we balance obedience and boundaries with emotional connection?

Do we always expect a 6 foot distance from our horses when they are near us? And when is it okay for our horse to engage with us and be in our space?

I will answer these questions and more during my Chat with a Horse Trainer call today at 1:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

These calls are only $20/month and you can cancel anytime! If you can't make it to the call, the recordings are emailed to you so you can listen to them later!

Comment CHAT for more information!

12/17/2024

Teach your horse self control!

Let's bring up the example of a barrel horse slamming into a fence in the alleyway and dumping the rider. I have seen many excuses made as to why the horse behaved this way.

"Any horse will do that in an alleyway with all that adrenaline."

"Whoever designed that alleyway is to blame! It is a terrible design!"

"Whoever was walking her horse down the alleyway didn't do their job well!"

Okay.... Here is the reality: It is no one's fault but yours when your horse loses control. Your horse depends on you to teach it how to manage the ins and outs of being a performance horse and doing it safely.

Let's compare barrel horses to calf roping horses to truly see what is possible in a high-speed performance event.

1) Most barrel horses prance and can't control their feet in the alleyway, supposedly because of the adrenaline of the event. Most calf roping horses go in a roping box and stand still, ready for the adrenaline of going from 0 to 60 in .5 seconds. Most calf roping horses can control their feet despite the adrenaline rush.
2) Most barrel horses can't stop down the alleyway coming home from the barrels until they hit the end of the alleyway where a fence blocks their way. Most calf roping horses not only stop well, but then hold the lariat tight on their own without a rider on their back, and wait for their rider to return.

Folks, it isn't that barrel horses CAN'T control themselves, it's that most of them haven't been taught to. Teaching a horse that kind of self-control takes countless hours of practice, discipline, and partnership to accomplish. And these are hours that aren't geared towards the "performance" aspect, so they tend to get overlooked in many speed events.

I'm not trying to pick on a specific rider or discipline here, it is simply a great example to bring up the conversation of self-control with our horses. We have all had times when our events, performances, laziness, lack of time management and more have left us making excuses for why we haven't worked on the important things with our horses. I've done it too.

But we can do better.

And we should do better.

Our horses deserve it, and so do we. ❤️

12/10/2024

I love this! ❤️

In our house, my husband and I have what has become an unspoken rule: when one of us is having a rough day and are struggling enough that we have become uncharacteristically unkind to the other, the receiver of this unkindness utters three simple words: "I see you".

The words symbolize the recognition of unmet need: we may not know why the other is acting out, we just know that they are, and we know the root of this is almost always something lacking or in excess. Maybe we didn't get enough sleep, maybe we've strung together a few crummy interactions and it's not even noon, maybe we've maxed out on human interaction, maybe we're hungry and cold and somebody broke the fence and we're out of coffee and for heaven's sake why is this kitchen so dirty...whatever the reason, the struggling is real and we're not coping well.

"I see you" contains both empathy and a call to accountability, acknowledgement and a clear boundary setting. It functions as a way to say "hey, I am aware you're struggling and I'm sorry you're feeling this way" AND "what you're doing isn't going to work, and I need to remind you we're on the same team". There is no taking things personally, no hurt feelings, just a safe place for the one struggling to act out and come back to their senses.

I found myself explaining all of this to a client recently after being asked to come work with a restart who in her care had come to the realization that he was allowed to have a voice...and was really starting to use it. There were quite a few flying limbs that morning and after a little bit we had a small audience watching the show. I talk a lot about managing our personal energies, and I've learned about myself that one of the ways I manage mine is through the uttering of specific phrases, usually when things aren't going well. "Goodness, gracious", "you don't say", and "well, that isn't working, is it" are three of my favorite. On this day, "I see you" came into the mix, more than once, and apparently enough times that my client was moved to ask why I was saying it.

When a horse is acting out, it's usually coming from a place of need. There is something in their world that isn't being satisfied and they must say something, but they've only got the tools that they've got. Those tools may not be very refined, or maybe we didn't hear them when they spoke more softly. Maybe they aren't used to having a say - as I suspect was the case for this fellow - and once they discover their voice it's like releasing a caged tiger. Some horses must assure themselves that you are capable enough to place trust in, for not everyone is in their eyes. Whatever the reason, the horse that is acting out does not need punishment or a come-to-Jesus or an attitude adjustment: they need to be seen.

We can bear witness to a horse's discomfort and still hold boundaries. We can have empathy for how painful growth and learning can be and manage not to personally absorb outbursts. We can create a space wherein a horse is safe to communicate - even if we don't like the "tone" they choose - while letting them know that we're on their side. It is rarely about us, and yet it IS all about how we choose to respond.

I am personally of the belief that this ability to rate our emotional response and act in such a way where we only show the horse what HE NEEDS to see to make a change is the difference between the true practice of horsemanship and those who just do stuff with horses. Things become a lot simpler when we look beyond the emotions to identify the cries for help that so often drive them.

12/08/2024

"Shouldn't you be riding that horse?"

This type of comment has been made to me twice in the past two days, and is one I have answered dozens of times over the years.

My response (made with a smile 😊): "No, sir! This young horse isn't ready to pack me down an asphalt road yet. We are on a walk for confidence building and exposure so that one day I can ride him down the road confidently."

Over the last couple days I have taken my client's horse, Red Bull, for exposure walks down the street by my home. He is much less reactive than he was when I got him, but still has fidget moments when things surprise him. He also hasn't done many outrides yet, and hasn't learned to do solo rides away from all the other horses yet. To combine all of these elements and to also ask his nose to go first while packing me under saddle was more than I was willing to ask of Red Bull. Not to mention the asphalt road having an extremely narrow shoulder, and barbed wire fences on both sides doesn't lend itself to safety. And steel shoes on an asphalt road..... 😳 Not fun!

I know what each horse in training can handle, and Red Bull isn't ready to be ridden on the road alone yet. But he will be. And when I inevitably get the comments about why I'm not riding the gigantic 4 year old, I can confidently tell them why with a smile. 😉

I love making the old cowboys in this area wonder what the hell I'm up to. 😜

11/30/2024

Took these two handsome 4 year olds to the indoor in Richfield today. It's a small indoor arena that isn't much bigger than a large round pen, but I am sure grateful for it with weather like this!! 😊 And it's less than 15 minutes from my house. 👌🏼

A change of scenery is always a good thing for these youngsters. ❤️

11/28/2024

The beautiful view of a snowy mountain beyond a frozen lake...

Oh wait....

That's my round pen! 😉

Happy Thanksgiving y'all! 🥂🍽️🦃🍂❄️

11/27/2024

Lumbar Lordosis

Ever since I was a little kid, I have had a posture of a deeper arch in my back and my butt always stuck out more than most. I was teased for it and people would stick their butts out and say, "Look at me, I'm walking like Camri!" It never bothered me too much, because it was just the way I was. I couldn't change anything about it.

I have great mobility in my pelvis and can do pelvic tilts (both anterior and posterior) very well. My problem lies in my baseline/neutral, which leans towards an anterior tilt. This anterior tilt is called lumbar lordosis. My lumbar lordosis is genetic and as such, will never be "cured," but can be managed.

Over the last couple years I've been weight lifting to try and build up the strength in the proper areas to help the low back/hip pain I've been experiencing. The weight lifting actually made it worse, so I backed off on that a bit. I also got chiropractic adjustments every few months, which helped for a short time, but then I was right back to where I started.

I recently decided that I need to finally get my back/hip pain under control. I started going to a physical therapist a couple weeks ago, and they helped me realize that I needed to focus on endurance with muscle building, not lifting heavy (yet). I need to retrain the way my muscles function so I can manage my lumbar lordosis. I'm doing alot of holds with things like glute bridges and pelvic tilts. As I ride, I do holds with a posterior pelvic tilt, and it definitely shows me where my weaknesses are. When I ride with a deep low back arch, my spine doesn't absorb the shock of the horse's movement as well, and has lead to my low back/hip pain.

For anyone else who has lumbar lordosis and has to work extra hard to get that pelvis rotated underneath you, I see you! Keep working to manage your pelvic rotation and build the muscles that will help lengthen that low back.

If you want to see photos of what lumbar lordosis is, check the comments.

11/27/2024

Red Bull: 😴😴😴

Kevin: "Whatcha doin' Red Bull?! Wanna play?!"

Kevin is like the annoying little sibling that pesters all the big kids 😆

11/25/2024

I had a fun play day with a friend and our ponies while it was storming outside 🥰

A yucky old mattress and a kitty in need of some attention and affection was all we needed to have a little fun! 😉 Freya's b***y sure made a nice perch.

11/23/2024

I had Dillon Thatcher, equine dentists out today and it was quite interesting.

Today I saw a tooth fragment jammed into a horse's gums, a retained baby tooth preventing an adult tooth from moving into position, crooked bone structure and teeth, and wolf teeth removed.

For more details, see the captions on each photo.

I can't stress how important regular dental care is for your horses folks! Get your horses worked on, especially your young ones!