Ed Johnson’s life summation written by Kathi Johnson Theile, daughter of Ed Johnson.
The picture above is familiar to most endurance enthusiasts. The team of Ed Johnson and Bezatal were the first in the Americas to complete a 100 mile competition in less than 10 hours; in addition, their two Tevis Cup wins in record time representing standing stallion and original trail records. The passing of Ed and Bezatal in 1987 has truly been a loss to the sport of endurance and the creation of superb athletes, as well as to horsemen and their horses in general.
Ed began saving money for the ranch of his dreams early in life, working on the railroad and in mines of the rugged Feather River country in Northern California. An artist, musician and writer, his skills as a timber faller remain a legend among timber operations that reflect upon the man who had the talent of falling a tree in exact location with minimal forest damage in reverence to the nature he loved. He drove truck in the shipyards before entering the Navy in World War II, where he served as a gunner on merchant ships. The dream ranch became a reality when he moved his family into the Sierras, where he began cattle ranching. Supplemented with summer logging, there were soon multi-day cattle drives to government range with his shepherd dog and athletic horses. He held the horse, especially a GOOD one, in the highest hierarchy of creations. The esthetic, efficient mover that skimmed the earth so freely was a magical thing to communicate with, and Ed Johnson was widely acclaimed to be one of the best communicators.
Dr. Richard Barsaleau was the head Tevis veterinarian both years that Bezatal and Ed won the Tevis Cup. He remembers Bezatal as a quiet stallion and an excellent moving horse. “Ed rode him to perfection,” Barsaleau recalls. “I don’t think there has ever been a better team, or anyone who thought more of a horse that Ed Johnson. Bezatal was well managed and well paced. Ed Johnson is more than a rider, he is a horseman.” Barsaleau’s 1966 Western Horseman article reported Ed to be a shy, soft-spoken Native American who contemplated what he was going to say very carefully. “He was a no-nonsense sort of person; observing the care he gave his horse at the check stops gave great indication of his horsemanship.”
Ed’s interest in horses commenced from working with his grandfather Dixie’s horses as a young boy; when he acquired his own ranch, his grandfather gave him two working geldings, a quarter-type and a Morgan. He was constantly on the lookout for the good, working-type individual. “Intelligence, disposition, confirmation, ability and potential are all of major importance in a horse,” Ed said, “and as an individual, his usefulness or value may be unrelated to breed or type.” Over his lifetime, he trained many horses for other ranchers as well as for his own ranch needs, finding that often his own designed bits and horse gear were better suited to both the comfort and utility needs of the horse and its rider. One of his revolutionary designs from the tailgate of his pickup were perforated aluminum stirrups lined with sheep shearling and sporting leather covered foam footpads in 1966 – definitely a forerunner for the distance stirrup industry today! You can still check them out on his daughter’s saddle at a ride sometime….
Dr. Barselau commented, “Ed was indeed an all-around horseman and his versatility apparently lent itself to his horses as well. Where else can you read of a horse and rider winning a 100-miles-in-one-day competition and then a month later winning a “sprint and swim” race such as the Feather River Endurance Race of one and one-half miles or the Pony Express Race over historical trails of four and one-half and *two and one-half miles? When a horse and rider can make it tops in widely varied events, then they’ve got some going for them! A terrific pair of competitors.” (*Ed’s daughter, Kathi, who owned Bezatal, actually won the two and one-half mile Pony Express race, further demonstrating Bezatal’s versatility and spiritual communication with his rider.)Wendell Robie, President of the Western States Trail Ride Association, commented on Ed and Bezatal Sunday evening during the 1965 Tevis and Haggin Cup banquet, “It was an outstanding accomplishment riding over such a mountain range with such grace and beauty – and in record time!” Linda Tellington-Jones concurred in Western Horseman in her “Let’s Go” feature, in referring to the pair. “He looks like an Olympic athlete. That’s exactly what it takes to win a big competition. Ed’s erect in the saddle and well-balanced, smashing records riding this way.” In a previous publication she wrote, “Ed Johnson, the Tevis Cup winner, is reported to have dismounted and led his horse up out of three great canyons on route at a jog trot. That is a near impossible athletic feat itself; but it does go along with the feeling of well-being, the sense of capability – the plain, hard, fitness of an endurance rider. He broke the old Tevis record by an hour and a half. Not only did he do this, but he performed so well and checked in so well on the following day, that the consensus of opinion was that in any ordinary year, he would have probably won the Haggin Cup, too.”
In the ‘70’s Ed worked as a trainer for John Roger’s Arabians in Walnut Creek, incurring a devastating accident that left him in a state of pain for the remainder of his years. He continued his unforgettable horsemanship, however, when he was forced to leave the 1974 Tevis competition with less that 20 miles to go with an impending heart attack while in first place on the Bezatal son, Cougar Rock. He moved to the race track in Pleasanton and with his current wife, Eileen, campaigned his Bezatal son, Crystal Rock – first to national records on the race track and then on to AERC’s first Jim Jones award, AERC’s first 1,000 through 4,000 mile stallion, first in the WEST Region and EHRA’s national champion for consecutive years. In 1978 they relocated in Fallon, where Ed confided that since he was in pain all the time, he might as well be in pain doing some that he loved…..he rode 1,000 miles in AERC competition that year on his beloved Crystal Rock, with family and friends worrying how he could endured, but respecting that he needed to be on the “wings’ of his horse, drinking the wind and skimming the earth…..
Faced with incurable health problems, Ed found the strength and love for life every day in the quality he sought. He touched his horse, designed a new creation or absorbed the spectacular sunset each day. It remains a privilege for any person to make a difference in the lives of others; Ed made that difference in sharing his spiritual brilliance by modeling, sometimes with words, his skills, thoughts and talents. His words make us think, his creations give us amazement and joy, and his pioneering standards for the sport of endurance riding continue to be goals for all true horsemen.