You’re not too old and it’s not too late for your Equestrian Dream to come true

“You’re not too old and it’s not too late.

~ Lori Deschene (Tiny Buddha)

You’re never too old! (Source: Pixabay stock photo)

This week I rode my born-in-the-wild mare Kyra for the first time tack less: no bridle, no saddle and not even a neck rope! It was very exciting and so much fun.

Watch the video

Fulfilling my childhood dream

I felt completely confident and safe riding without a bridle and saddle because Kyra is a clicker trained horse. I know her very well and our relationship is build on trust which feels really safe.

While I was doing it, I realized that this was one of my childhood dreams! I made a list of all the things I ever wanted to do as equestrian. Lots of things I have fulfilled now and that feels really good! I encourage you to do the same!

Fear

In my childhood and teenage years I did many cool and dangerous, risky things with horses. ‘Nothing would happen to me’ and it turned out to be true!

Tack free riding was one of my childhood dreams!

The older I get, the more I know. Therefor I also know more of what can go wrong. That makes me plan more, prepare better and take less risks. This takes out a bit of the care-free spontaneous actions in riding.

This week I decided to have a bit of both: spontaneous and prepared action.

The spontaneous, carefree action was to do ride tack free despite my fear. The feeling of “not having something in my hands” makes me feel uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone. That is the only thing, not the tack free riding, it is really the “empty hands”.

Proper preparation

The preparation part lies in the fact I used clicker training for many years for everything: from starting Kyra under saddle to riding her. We have a really good relationship.

I know I have the best and most trustworthy ’emergency break’ you can imagine in a horse. I have a click. I never used it to stop her, but I know she will stop as soon as she hears it. So that feels very safe.

Two tack free rides in one week!

First time I did have something in my hands: a target stick to help communicate where I wanted to go and a clicker, so that felt comfortable.

The second ride this week I didn’t bring any of those two training aids. I decided to rely on my seat, tongue click and previous preparation to ride her around the arena.

It went so well, above all expectations! That is also when I realized it is the “empty hand-feeling” that feels uncomfortable to me.

Celebrate!

I made a video (Watch the video) because I always want to anchor my achievements deeply in my body and brain. I am a big fan of teaching my students to celebrate their successes.

Making a picture or video of a mile stone is a great way to celebrate and remember. It’s easy and normal to forget your achievements and focus on what we still can’t do or still want to learn. Now I have a two questions for you:

What is your childhood dream?

How do you celebrate your successes in order to remind yourself about your achievements?

Please share

If you think this is a blog that can inspire a friend to fulfill their equestrian dream, please share it on your social media. You can use the share buttons below.

I also love to hear your dream and if you achieved it or still want to achieve it! I read all comments and all dreams!
Don’t want to comment? Simply hit the like button so I know you read my blog. I would appreciate it. Thank you!

Happy Horse training!

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

I help horse owners get results in training they really, really want. Getting results with ease and lots of fun for both horse and human is important to me. Win-win!

Sign up for HippoLogic’s newsletter (it’s free and it comes with a gift) or visit HippoLogic’s website and join my online course Ultimate Horse Training Formula in which you learn the Key Lessons, Your Key to Success in Clicker Training.

Follow my blog  on Bloglovin

PS In November, December and January the online course Ultimate Equestrian Dream Formula, turn your dreams into reality

How to become a Top Horse Blogger

When I started blogging I never would have thought that one day I would get an award for my blog. Here is my story.

How I started blogging

I started this blog in 2009 when I got Kyra, my feral 11 month old filly. Fresh out of the wild- well a nature reserve to be precise- and grown up without human interference.

When my friend gave her to me (that is a story for another time) I had no idea if I could tame a wild horse or, if I could, how long it would take me. I was willing to give it a year and see what would happen. It was the perfect opportunity to start documenting this adventure for maybe a future book or something.

Online training logbook

So I started this blog as an online training journal and it was called ‘From feral filly to Success Story’. I wrote in Dutch and only a handful of my horse loving friends read it. I made a summary every month of our achievements. Read the summary of our first month of our training diary that I left on my blog.

After a few months my interest in blogging about taming and training a wild horse faded because there was no reinforcement. In other words: I had no readers.

I kept using my training journal (that was very reinforcing). I kept track of our progress and made a list of our achievements every month.

Blogging break

After a year of blogging I stopped and almost entirely forgot I had a blog. A few years later I emigrated to Canada. I became a stay-at-home mom. I felt often very lonely without my social network, so I became very active on the Internet answering questions about positive reinforcement (clicker) horse training.

After a while I noticed I was repeating myself all the time. Everyone seemed to ask how they could use clicker training more effectively and everyone seems to have the same basic problems. I wondered how could I help horse lovers more efficiently?

Reviving my blog

I could use my blog! Then I could refer to a certain blog post that contained an extended answer to their problem! I wouldn’t have to write the same answers over and over. That’s how I started blogging about clicker training horses in December 2014.

Overcoming my blogging struggles

When I picked up on blogging in 2014 I pushed myself to write in English. It’s not my first language and at first it was quite a struggle. In the beginning it felt that I had to use Google translate every other sentence to look up a word. When I saw the word I remembered it again. Writing was a very slow process.

I learned a lot about writing,  getting my blog out there and delivering content on a regular basis.

That’s what I did: I blogged and blogged and kept blogging, even though in the beginning I only had a handful of readers. I felt writers block, uninspired and fearful at times, but I kept going. Even though it’s rare that someone gives my blog a ‘like’ (the little star at the bottom) or comments on it. Did you know it is very reinforcing for a blogger to get a comment? Maybe next time you read a wonderful blog, leave a comment or click the little star.

Slowly my blog grew and I got my first subscriber, and another one. I blogged twice a week and that is a big commitment. Setting deadlines helped to keep me going.

Achievement

I also love the achievements WP gives: they let you know when your ‘stats are booming’, when you’ve published one hundreds blogs and so on. Last week WordPress gave me an achievement: I started this blog 8 years ago! Wow! I had no idea! Thanks WP, that is so nice of you to let me know.

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! You registered on WordPress.com 8 years ago. Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

How HippoLogic became a Top 75 Horse Training Blog

Then I got another surprise! In January 2018 my HippoLogic Facebook business page was tagged in a Facebook post of Feedspot. Curious what that was all about, I found out my blog had been awarded with a Top 75 Horse Training Blog. Wow! I didn’t know I was nominated, so this was a huge surprise!

HippoLogic is Awarded Top 75 Horse Training Blog

[Quote from Feedspot:] “CONGRATULATIONS to every blogger that has made this Top Horse Training Blogs list!

This is the most comprehensive list of best Horse Training blogs on the internet and I’m honoured to have you as part of this!

I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world.”

So this is how my blog became a Top 75 Horse Training Blog. Writing one blog at the time! And I kept going for 4 years, I will keep going to serve you.

I am curious about the stories behind the other bloggers in this Top 75.

Please check out the 74 other horse training blogs! There might be some blogs out there that you want to know about: Feedspot Top 75 Horse Training Blogs

Share YOUR story

Do you have an amazing story to tell about something you never dreamt of achieving? Please share your success story in the comments, I would love to read yours! If you don’t want to share and you like my story just click the little star so I know you’ve popped by and enjoyed my time with me.

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

I improve human-horse relationships. I reconnect you with your inner wisdom (you know what’s right) and teach you the principles of learning and motivation, so you become confident and knowledgeable to train your horse in a safe, effective and FUN way. Win-win.

All HippoLogic’s programs are focused on building your confidence and provide you with  a step-by-step formula to train horses with 100% positive reinforcement.

Sign up for HippoLogic’s newsletter (it’s free and you receive a gift) or visit HippoLogic’s website.

Follow my blog  on Bloglovin

WIN a coaching session or a ticket for the HippoLogic Clicker Challenge.

If you know me, you know I am a huge fan of celebrating successes. I know this year my blog will hit the 100.000 views! Something I didn’t foresee when I started. Time to celebrate! With you! This is how: I will give away a 30 minute coaching session ($35 value) or a ticket to participate in my HippoLogic Clicker Challenge ($47 value). 

Why I started blogging

I started this blog as an online (accountability) training journal to tell my friends and family (and maybe a few strangers) about Kyra’s training.

She was 11 months old en just caught out of the wild (a nature reserve in The Netherlands). She didn’t want to deal with people, she was super scared for everything and only ate hay. No carrots, apple, sugar cubes of horse treats. Quite a challenge to start with positive reinforcement.

After 3 weeks of daily training (twice a day in the first week) I could approach  (a BIG deal!), halter her, touch her all over, lead her over the premises (only if other horses stayed in eye sight, but it was a start), lift her feet and even disinfect the wound on her leg with a spray can. Every month I put a summary on my blog to list our achievements.

Kyra was my first horse that I made clear goals for (taming her was my #1 goal). It is because I wrote down my goals, discussed them with my best friend, my accountability partner. I also kept track of how I trained behaviours and kept a logbook so I could reproduce my results. This all lead to developing HippoLogic’s Key Lessons, Your Keys to Success in Positive Reinforcement training program. I wanted to develop an easy to follow step-by-step program for horse lovers who want to implement clicker training.

Becoming a blogger was an important step in this whole process. I want to celebrate this with you: my readers and loyal followers of my blog!

2012 the year of many changes

In 2012 we (my husband, our 1 year old son, our 2 cats and Kyra) emigrated to Canada. I changed from working mom to stay-at-home mom without a social network in my personal life or in my horse world. I left all my friends, family and horse riding clients behind and I really missed them.

I struggled, I had happy times, felt lonely, was home sick, was happy again. I felt it all! Then, in 2014, I decided to restart my blog, so I had something to do besides being a mom. I missed teaching riding lessons and helping equestrians so much!

In October 2014 I wrote my first blog in English. I posted 9 articles that year. Yes, that is how I started. Now I publish about 100 each year.

Time to Celebrate!

In order to celebrate my upcoming 100.000st view I decided to give away a 30 minute coaching session ($35 value) or a ticket to participate in my HippoLogic Clicker Challenge ($47 value). 

Since the receiver determines the reward: you choose your price.

Enter the draw in 2 simple steps

Entering the draw is simple: go to HippoLogic’s Facebook page  and you will find a post or click here to go directly to the post you need that asks you:

What is *your* favourite article of all times from my blog?

Visit my blog (https://hippologic.wordpress.com/) and scroll through the categories or use the search bar on the right to find the one that you like best.

• Put the link of your favourite blog in the comments of the FB post
• Share what you liked about it or how it helped you in the FB post

You can win one 30 minute coaching session ($35 value)
OR
participation in my #HippoLogicClickerChallenge ($47 value)

Let me know which prize you prefer best. Draw ends on December 31st, 2017

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

I improve the human-horse relationships by reconnecting you with your inner wisdom and teach you the principles of learning and motivation, so you become confident and knowledgeable to train your horse in an effective and FUN way. Win-win for horse and human.

All my programs are focused on building your confidence and provide you with  a detailed step-by-step formula to train horses with 100% positive reinforcement.

Sign up for HippoLogic’s newsletter (it’s free) or visit HippoLogic’s website.

Business Showcase for HayNet: Why I choose the name ‘HippoLogic’

Business Showcase for HayNet: Choosing the name HippoLogic

Hello, I am Sandra Poppema, B.Sc. and I am the proud founder of HippoLogic. I connect equestrians to their inner wisdom and teach them the principles of learning, so they become confident and knowledgeable to train their own horse safely and effectively.

HippoLogic offers online coaching via Skype, courses in Equestrian goal setting and training challenges. Since HippoLogic went online I have had clients from all over the world. I will tell the story how HippoLogic evolved from a rural business to an international business in the next blog.

Choosing a name

One of the hardest decisions I had to make as a business owner was choosing a name. I started out as a riding instructor giving private dressage lessons on location. I travelled to my clients and my business therefor was very local.

I wanted the word ‘horse’ somehow in the name of my business, since they are the focus of what I do. I looked into Latin but already a lot of businesses had the word equus, caballus or something with equi in their names. So I started to look into Greek: hippo meaning horse.

Something with horses…

In Dutch we also talk about ‘concours hippique’ (French) if we are talking about a jumping competition. A well know word, even non-horsey people understand in The Netherlands. I liked the French word ‘hippologique’ (horsemanship) too, but I wanted a non-existent word. For me the word ‘hippo’ sparks joy, it just sounds happy. I think because of the i sound, your mouth already smiles.

Now I had to think of the rest of the name. First I thought about adding something with ‘liberty’ in the name because I was very much into at liberty training and trick training at liberty at the time. Somehow it didn’t feel ‘right’.

Eureka moment

I pondered for weeks and one night when I was in bed I suddenly knew what it was that was ‘me’ and would never change. In order to understand horses, build a wonderful relationship with them and train or ride them you have to ‘know’ about them. So what do you need in order to understand them? You have to know about their natural behaviour, their physiology, their nature. The Greek word Logic means ‘knowledge of’ and ‘science’. Eureka! I found my name: Hippo-Logic. Horse science/knowledge. I decide to write it with 2 capitals HippoLogic so it would be clear it was descended from 2 words.

A name with the future in mind

At that time I was offering  only private riding lessons on location, but I was thinking about publishing books and videos about horse training. I was thinking about offering clinics and workshops to educate equestrians. I wanted to help people gain a better relationship with their horse and achieve the results in training they wanted.

My business name had to be something that I could use ‘forever’ and I didn’t need to change when I would change my business model and this was it: HippoLogic. Everything I do will be based on science and will be to benefit the horse. That is my core.

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

My mission is to improve horse-human relationships by educating equestrians about ethical and horse friendly training. I offer coaching to empower you to train your horse in a 100% animal friendly way that empowers both you and your horse.

Sign up for HippoLogic’s newsletter (it’s free) or visit HippoLogic’s website.

 

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hippologics

I would love to befriend you on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandra.hippologic

Click with your Horse

Since I was a little girl, I was fascinated by horses. Every year on my birthday and every Christmas I asked for a pony. I dreamt about riding and training horses at liberty. Of course in these fantasies the horse and I were one.

We could communicate in a way that the horse would do everything voluntarily and with ease. I never needed to use force, or use training aids like a bit, a whip or spurs. I dreamt about being friends with my horse and that he would trust me in every situation. That we really could rely on each other…

When I was older I chose to study animal management. A study in which animal-human relationships and animal welfare were key subjects.  After my bachelor degree I became a certified riding instructor. I trained horses, but I still had the feeling there should be something else out there, something better…

The traditional and classical ways of training and riding horses were too focused on getting results. There seemed no place to spent time and effort on the relationship between the horse and the rider. Something I was still longing for. I wanted to train and ride my horse, but wanted to have a solid foundation of trust and friendship first. No one seemed to teach this…

Move away from pain or move towards pleasure

When I started studying learning theory, I learned that there are basically two ways to train behaviour. We all have this in common. We either want to move away from/avoid discomfort or pain or we want to move towards pleasure.  This was when it hit me:  I was still using discomfort to train my horse. Even though I was told I was playing a ‘game’ with my horse, he was still learning by moving away from discomfort (which was called ‘yielding to pressure’ to make it sound more humane).

Apparently you can also do the opposite in order to teach behavior and use ‘pleasure’ to teach your horse new skills. Horses are like humans: we share the same emotions. Like us, horses also like to move towards pleasure.

Change the foundation of your relationship

What really amazed me when I started changing my ways is that the relationship with my pony also totally changed. I used to think that I had a good bond with my pony because I trained him from the day he was born. We spent 18 years together. After changing my training approach and using positive reinforcement, I noticed that my pony was also changing. He became eager to work with me, he started whinnying as soon as he saw me coming and he even started to canter to me in the pasture. Something he normally didn’t do. He didn’t walk away, but I always had to come over and get him. In a short period of time we became really good friends and developed a partnership based on trust, which is an excellent basis for all training.

Don’t get me wrong: it wasn’t easy to throw out all the equipment that I used to force a horse into doing things. It was a process. A long process with lots of ups and downs.

Are you ready to change your ways?

If you are ready to make the change to a more ethical approach of horse training and improve your bond with your horse and have more fun together, let me know by sending me an email.

I offer personal coaching in which I help you train your own horse. I believe that you know your horse best. I think there is more value in you training your own horse than sending your horse to a stranger to get trained. I want you to gain the knowledge and the experience so you become the best friend you can be for your horse.

I wish for every equestrian to have a click with his or her horse.  Visit my website http://clickertraining.ca if you want to learn more about me or my training method.

Sandra Poppema

Are you interested in online personal coaching, please visit my website or send me an email with your question to info@clickertraining.ca

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About the author

This blog is written by Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

Sandra studied Animal Management in The Netherlands, Europe. She graduated in 1999.

Animal Management
The key focus of this Bachelor program is the management of human-animal relationships and animal welfare. Ethics, animal welfare, behaviour and human-animal relationships were key topics of this curriculum, along with biology and management. She continues to study these topics with a focus on the communication between horses and humans.

Instruction
Giving riding and groundwork lessons and training animals were always Sandra’s biggest passions. After completing her degree she worked as an editor at a publishing house which was specialized in animal books. Sandra has co-written and authored three animal books. She has published several articles about pets & horses in magazines.

During this time she also continued her education as a teacher and became a certified riding instructor with the Royal Dutch Equestrian Sports Bond. At this point she stopped her full-time job as editor and became a full-time riding instructor and gave private riding lessons and horse training sessions in the Netherlands.

Centered Riding
Sandra discovered Centered Riding in 2010 and in 2011 she became a level 1 Centered Riding instructor. She followed riding lessons with her own instructor who taught her the benefits of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) techniques. Sandra uses NLP in her lessons to communicate effectively with her pupils and really knows how to find someone’s goals, divide them into achievable building blocks and motivate both people and horses to achieve them.

Building a lifelong bond with your horse
She loves to help horse enthusiasts improve their relationship with their horse in the saddle and on the ground. She prefers teaching private lessons because she feels riding is also ‘teaching the horse’ at the same time. In private lessons she has more time to explain not only the bio-mechanics of the rider, but also to explain the point of view of the horse and how he learns best (learning theory).

Canada
Sandra emigrated in 2012 with her husband, baby, two cats and her horse Kyra to Canada. Kyra was born in a nature reserve in The Netherlands and was feral when Sandra got her. She tamed Kyra with clicker training and started this blog. Initially this blog was to share her training methods and the process of taming her 11 month old filly and has grown into a repository of knowledge.

Now Sandra lives in Burnaby, BC, Vancouver and Kyra is boarded in a nearby stable in Delta. She is still passionate about sharing her knowledge about horse training and riding.

Websites:
HippoLogic
Clicker Training
Happy Herd