Snoopy the trick horse walks on his back legs for John Harrison’s act. The Paint horse took a lot of training to get where he is, and now he’s a pro at his act. (Photos courtesy Don Christner)
North Platte, Neb. –June 9, 2025 – Rodeo fans at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte will be delighted with the antics of Snoopy, the Paint horse owned by rodeo clown John Harrison, Soper, Oklahoma.
But Snoopy had to find his niche in life and learn his role as a trick horse before he could rodeo with John.
In the act, Snoopy does various tricks like laying down, walking on his back legs and liberty work, all while playing along with John that John is getting the horse out of the arena so the rodeo can go on.
Snoopy, who was born in 2017, was originally purchased for John to trick ride. An award-winning rodeo clown, John had a trick riding act and needed a younger horse to continue the act.
So he sent the horse to two different trainers to break him. Snoopy wasn’t interested in being ridden, raring up and even flipping over a time or two, with separation anxiety when he was away from other horses.
It was to the point that John was nearly ready to sell him.
But he didn’t. “The other side of me said he’s so friendly, and he’s such a nice horse when you’re around him, and he’s pretty, too. I wasn’t going to give up on him.”
It was finally a miles-long chase gathering a cow who had gotten away from the herd that made Snoopy realize being ridden wasn’t so bad.
“He was finally like, I’m not going to win this battle,” John said, “and he gave in. That’s what cracked the egg for him.”
Then Snoopy went to Texas for trick riding training. He took it OK, but he was an average student, always busy pulling on people’s sweatshirts or other horses’ reins, just being “playful,” John said.
He’ll make a trick riding horse, said the trainer, but he’s not too fast and he’s short.
When Snoopy came home, John’s wife Carla had a suggestion: make him a trick horse.
So John changed the plans for his act to include Snoopy the trick horse and found one of the best horse trainers in the nation: Mary Rivers, in Ocala, Florida.
It was 2021, and he spent three weeks with Mary in Florida. Six or seven times a day, fifteen minutes each time with an hour break between each session, Snoopy got training with Mary, with John as a student as well.
The first couple days were a struggle. Snoopy tried to get away from them. But Mary had a solution: she, John and Snoopy got into a box stall with the doors shut, and “Snoopy had to look at us. He couldn’t get away,” John said.
After three weeks, he had the basics to continue, and he came home to Oklahoma. But he was far from finished; Mary said it would take 3 years before he was ready for a show.
“I took him home, worked with him multiple times a day, hauled him on the road for the summer, and we became best friends. If I had trouble with him, I’d Facetime her and she’d help.”
Snoopy’s liberty work instruction included training from Elliott Holtzman.
By 2023, Snoopy was ready for rodeos, and since then, he and John have performed at events across the nation.
His tricks in the arena include pulling back when a person is facing him to lead him, and pushing on your back when he is led. Neither of those things are desirable when he’s not doing his rodeo act. “You’ll go to get a gate, and you step off him, and he walks up and shoves you right into the gate hard,” John laughed. “You want to scold him, but that’s what he does for his rodeo act.”
He’s smart, John said, and has a big personality. “He’s a big dog,” he said. “We named him Snoopy because he’s into everything. And when Carla pulls up to the pasture and walks up to the gate, he comes at a run. The other horses don’t come because they don’t want to get caught. His head is over the fence, looking for you.”
He can be ridden, but he’s not a pleasure horse, John said. “I wouldn’t want to ride sixteen miles on him. He’d much rather walk side by side with you.”
Snoopy is a part of the family, and part of what makes John’s act so entertaining. He was offered $100,000 for the horse, but he declined, laughing that “I have $100,000 in him in training. We have an emotional attachment,” he said.
And Snoopy has a job in life that he loves: make rodeo fans across the nation laugh.
This year’s Buffalo Bill Rodeo is June 18-21 with nightly shows at 7:30 pm. The rodeo is held at the Wild West Arena in North Platte.
Tickets range in price from $11-$24 and can be purchased online at NebraskalandDays.com, at the NebraskalandDays office, and at the gate.
For more information and a complete schedule of NebraskalandDays events, visit the website or call the office at 308.532.7939.
