About Jo Jo Horsemanship Adventures

 

JoJo Horsemanship Adventures is named after the founder and owner Johanna Tjostheim. She included the word adventures to describe the fun we can have with horses and that everyday is a new adventure. 

About Johanna

My name is Johanna Tjostheim I am a member of Pro EFW. I am working on dual certification as a Learning and Equine Professional. Johanna has experience combining horsemanship skills with personality and relationship goals in helping people learn more about themselves. This is evident, in her course on Equine Human Personal Development. She is a Certified Human Behavior Consultant with Personality Insights and can teach people about themselves, how to relate to others and how to have leadership skills based on their personalities. She is certified with Imagine Institute to facilitate free courses on Mental Health for the community.  Johanna has been designing curriculum on Google Classroom that will compliment her in-person instruction for her courses.  Johanna is a certified Level One Western CHA instructor and can teach beginners horsemanship skills. She also, has a certificate in Equine Assisted Learning. Also, she has experience teaching the High School Equine CTS program in Alberta as the Riding Instructor for the courses. She works mainly one on one or in small groups of people. Johanna plans to use her own horses in the EFW work, but she is also willing to travel to people who have horses to give lessons. She has a background in teaching adults English and more than 300 hours of teaching experience in a classroom. Johanna is in the process of getting clients and setting up her own business.  She is not a councilor and is not an advanced riding instructor. Her main clients are age 15 and up. Johanna does some work with people outside this age group on a case-by-case basis.

 

Importance of Groundwork

Most of the work done with clients is on the ground with the option of riding based on the clients’ skills and at the discretion of Johanna. The groundwork is important, as it helps build a relationship with the horses and teaches the basic horsemanship skills that will be transferable to riding.  We will learn skills such as: respect, connection, leadership, safety, confidence, balance, and how the horses move and interact with people. Johanna recognizes that learning to ride is a process and likes to take things one step at a time with clients and the horses. Therefore, riding is not the goal, the relationship with the horse and connection is the goal of the lessons, therefore there is a lot of time spent on the ground building the connection with the horse. To ride a horse is a privilege and should be treated with respect.

Why Horsemanship Skills are Important 

Horsemanship skills are important to learn so that you can stay safe around horses. Also horsemanship teaches natural leadership skills, confidence and the importance of following steps to develop better feel and timing with your horse. 

Type of Horsemanship Taught at JoJo Horsemanship Adventures 

Our focus is on the relationship with the horse and learning to do the steps right. We do natural horsemanship and will ride in bitless bridles. We ride in western or Australian saddles. Our focus of our riding program is for beginners who want experience with horses. We do trail and arena riding. For those interested in getting a certificate in riding there is CHA Level One Riding Lessons available. We accept ages 15 and up in our riding program. If under the age of 18 riding helmets will be required and preferred for those over 18.  We also do lots of groundwork before riding. If people just want to focus on groundwork we offer lessons in natural horsemanship that focus on the relationship with the horse and doing the steps right we cover several patterns to learn on the ground and preparing for showmanship class in horse shows. We also offer more Equine Facilitated Wellness lessons that focus more on the relationship with horses and just hanging out with horses. We primary focus on beginners and those with little to no experience, everyone is welcome.

DISC and Personal Development

Johanna is a Certified Human Behavior consultant. She is familiar with the DISC model of human behavior and is certified to administer DISC Personality Assessments. Johanna can help you to see who you are, your strengths and areas of growth based on your personality assessment. She can also teach you how to communicate effectively to each personality type, how to deal with conflict in relationships based on personality differences and how to be a good leader using the DISC model. Johanna has access to many more topics relating to personality such as parent and child relationships etcetera. She will help you find the best tools to understand your personality, work on the areas of personal growth you have identified and tailor her material and teaching to meet your needs for personal development. Some of the Personal Development lessons can happen with horses if desired. She does use the DISC model of personalities to help describe her Horses Personalities( See horse Bio pages for more detailed description of the herd).

 What is DISC Personality Concept?