Move Your Horse with Positive Reinforcement!

The 2024 program starts in May 2024. Enrollment is open: Apply here

Enrollment is OPEN!

Here is what the program looks like and what the 4 trimesters in the HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy offer. We learn by repetition and every time we’ll go through the basics, you’ll learn more, see more and understand more. Each level in your education will have it’s own challenges: the more you know, the more you’ll understand that there is more…

The foundation of each season is always The Confident Clicker Trainer. 

It’s my 12-week foundation course that includes everything! From: Appetitive to Zen behaviour.

This program takes you from Confused to Clear about Clicker Training! You’ll discover new things every time you go through the course and your horse will develop and improve his skills and behaviours!

R+ MOVEMENT Training! Exercise your horse with positive reinforcement! Time to get your fat horse fit and your whoa-horse a go-horse 

 SPRING
Each season has it’s own challenges, for instance Spring is the time we have to compete with lush, yummy grass and greens every where!

Grass Training! Useful in Movement Training (especially at liberty) as well as in hand walks and on trails How to keep your horses’ attention while being in nature’s candy store 

Spring Movement Training
Horses gain weight in Spring (as is in their nature), days getting longer and maybe your horse gets more pasture time. You’ll have to adjust your Movement Training to those challenges!

SUMMER

Confident Clicker Trainer. When you’re new this is what you need, when you’re going through the course again, you’ll notice things you’ve never noticed before. It’s all about refining your training skills, improve your observation skills and develop a clear eye for the tiniest improvements in your horse. 

Summer Movement Training
What exercises are best for when the weather is HOT? You’ve built some momentum in Spring and now you don’t want to lose it.

Your horse might be 24/7 out and still gaining weight? Or is harder to motivate due to warm weather. How to deal with these challenges!

‘Trails and Trailering’
This is the season to get your horse out and expand your horizon! Taking your horse out on trails can be challenging when your horse doesn’t load into the trailer. Or you can’t take him out on the road because of the traffic 
Or your horse is herd bound, your other horse has severe separation anxiety and you simply can’t go out for a walk or trail ride.
This is where you can use more clicker training to help your horse overcome his fears and help him become a trustworthy, confident trail partner.

AUTUMN
We go through The Confident Clicker Trainer program and you’ll discover there is still more to learn! Also the weather effects your horses behaviour and he might need to refresh his skills. 

Autumn Movement Training

The grass has the last grow spurt before winter hibernation. Suddenly your horse gains weight again! How to overcome this challenge?
What about the weather?  Your horse freaks out about your umbrella or rain pants. What exercises can you do when it’s muddy. Maybe your horse has more indoor (Stable) hours and gets really “fresh” when taken out. Or the spooky corner when there is stormy weather. How do we deal with those challenges safely?

Husbandry Skills: From Haltering to Hoof Cleaning
Days are getting shorter but we can still teach our horses so much! Husbandry skills help us keep our horses and us (!) safe and making sure that our horses stay in good health.

Deworming is something that you might only do a few times a year, but even those times you don’t want it to become a struggle. You want to do it with consent and ease.

Hoof care, taking care of their feet (especially in mud) is really important. All husbandry training contributes to trust and the relationship you have with your horse. 

WINTER 

The Confident Clicker Trainer. Your horse behaves different in Winter. You behave different. Maybe you need to blanket your horse, he spents more time indoors and reacts differently to treats. The hay cubes that had almost no value in Summer are now the bees knees in Training! While in Spring you’ll *have* to offer something better than hay cubes because of the grass all around.

Winter Movement Training
Dealing with snow, cold (what gloves to use in -20 ºC and what treats that you can handle with gloves) and frozen ground will have it’s own challenges.

Maybe you’ve come a long way since Spring Movement Training and you need to find ways to keep your horse fit in Winter, so Spring will be a “breeze”. Even when Winter has it’s own challenges, we’ll find ways to keep you up with your training, so you won’t have to start from scratch when Spring comes around!

So many fun exercises you can do, even when it’s dark, cold and snowing! Snow fun! Enrichment to keep your horse occupied in long Winter nights.

Clicker Challenges
There are so many ways to put your training skills into practise. One way is to engage in entertaining Clicker Challenges! Teach your horse to paly “Jingle Bells” (with a twist) or build a chain of behaviours for one click! I’ve got many Clicker Challenges for you to keep you entertained!

All will be based on and tailored to YOUR personal goals with your horse 

Enrollment is OPEN Apply here

Only 40 spots available, don’t miss out!

Question? Drop me an email at hippologic@gmail.com

Happy Horse training! You are the trainer!

Sandra

Unexpected Magic through ‘Movement Challenge’ with Odin

To keep my miniature horse, Odin, in top form and prevent him from resembling a round ball of fur, daily exercise is a must.

Since choices are limited for a non-ridden horse, I have to move with him, for instance taking them on walks in the forest.

For me exercising my horses, to keep them in shape, is hard. The hardest part for me is to start! Once I’m out the house, it’s fine…. But getting started, is the hard part.

Finding the Threshold

Therefor I wanted to know what my biggest struggle actually is. It’s not that I’m not enjoying my horses… It’s not that I hate hand walking them or training them at liberty. On thee contrary! I always enjoy those activities very much!

Then, what is it?

What’s holding me back so often, from exercising Odin on a regular bases, I asked myself…

The biggest threshold is to start! Having read Atomic Habits (James Clear) really helped me to overcome the “starting” struggle of exercising Odin.

But… there was more!

My 2nd Biggest Struggle

The second biggest struggle is not knowing what to do: lack of a plan. Before making a proper training plan, I often did…. Nothing!

Yes, I went to Odin, but without a plan I often stayed in my head, having endless inner conversations about what I should do. Here are some examples:

• “When I want to long rein, I actually should have proper tack. Since I don’t have that, I can’t do long reins with Odin.”
• “Now I have the proper tack, I need to train him to understand rein aids, but today I want him to exercise. Reins aids will take more than one session, and movement is my priority. So long reins is out of the question.”
• “I would like to exercise Odin at liberty, but Fionn will interfere, so I can’t do that”
• “When I take Odin out, Fionn freaks out and will be upset and might hurt himself. I better take both of them. But since they will need some more training to each stay on their own side, they will probably fight over the clicks and treats”

I hope you recognize it and that I am not really crazy!

These inner conversations (with the goal of making no mistakes and trying to be prepared of everything) are exhausting. And repetitive! This is kind of how I put up more thresholds and took less action. This was until…

Turning Daily Exercise into a FUN Challenge for my Horse

I figured out the threshold to start, which was: not having a plan. The answer was to set up a Challenge. I love challenges! I made a commitment to accomplish a small daily challenge. Just to get me starting…

My 10 – 10 Challenge

I decided to make the threshold to start very, very low: only 10 minutes of hand walking for 10 days in a row. Just like what James Clear recommends in his book: Start small.

Ten minutes of hand walking Odin wouldn’t be too much stress for Fionn, who would need to stay behind in the paddock… I would walk Odin on the road for 5 minutes uphill and then turn around and come back so I would have my 10 minutes of walking. In my head I made it even smaller and called it my 5-minute walk. 😉

Simple, but Not Easy

Sounded easy, but it wasn’t. It was a simple plan, not easy! You should have heard the conversations going on in my head… The easiest way to shut up those voice was: “I am going to do it, no matter what! It’s only ten times! “This helped to shut down my eternal inner “why NOT to do it”-conversations. Which was really amazing!

The second rule I made (also learned from the experts in creating new habits) is never skip 2 days in a row! Life happens, and there can always be a really, really good reason not to go, but skipping a day can only happen once…

My 10-day, 10-Minutes Challenge

It gave me a clear plan:

• 10 minutes of hand walking Odin
• 10 consecutive days
• I was allowed to skip one day (but didn’t) and never 2 days in a row
• Knowing it would be only for 10 days, and having an end date made me actually do it!
• Having a plan for 10 days, helped me not to break the streak and kept going. Even on days it was hard to do it
• The sooner in the day I walked Odin, the sooner I could cross it off my list of Things To Do (which gave me a really amazing feeling of Accomplishments). Mornings rule!

Here is where the Magic started to happen

It was hard to start, but with a clear plan it became easier every day! I didn’t have to make any decisions: I already knew what to do (10 minutes of walk), how to do it (take him on the road on a lead) and when (as early as possible in the day).

Fionn got really quickly adjusted to the new situation of being left behind (I did prepare him before the Challenge, to help him manage his separation anxiety).

Predictability is Key

On day 3 or 4 Fionn was already expecting some hay and treats scattered around to keep him busy while I was walking Odin. Fionn became used to this ritual very quickly and really exceeded my expectations! He stayed calm being left behind and actually started to eat the hay. Once the daily walks with Odin was something he (and Odin) could predict, it really helped him coop. Every day Odin would leave for 10 minutes and then came back!

Odin got used to this ritual as well. There was no more fighting over me -the resource- and everyone knew the drill. Hay and treats for Fionn and Odin would get haltered for his daily outside trip.

Helping Fionn manage his separation anxiety was not something I would have expected to happen when I started! Bonus!

Day 7; More Magic

It was still a challenge to take Odin out every day, but having a low threshold of 10 minutes was really my Key to Success!

I also didn’t want to stop the streak, and that made it way easier to actually do it. Having an end day, was really helpful too: only 3 more days and then I can stop for a few days before starting again.

On day 7 my husband asked me if I wanted to go for a hike in the forest. Our property is adjacent to crown land and we have miles and miles of trails in our back yard. So I took Odin with me, since he had not yet had his daily walk.

My Bucket List Item happened!

On our walk Odin was so good! I decided to take him off the lead rope and see what happend….
He was really, really good! He responded so well to his name and my voice. Turned out he has a really strong recall! It was SO MUCH FUN to have him off leash! He could trot and canter whenever. snack on grass (with my HippoLogic Grass Training it was easy to ask him to stop eating and start walking again).

We hiked for about over an hour and Odin stayed with us -at liberty!- all the time. Yes, he trotted off for a bit, but when called he, stopped and came back.

This was on my bucket list for such a long time: walking my horse at liberty in nature! Now it happend!! It was FANTSTIC!

Without starting my 10-day 10-minute Movement Challenge it wouldn’t have happened!

I didn’t expect this: to cross off one of my long-term bucket list by simply starting to hand walk my horse 10 minutes a day! I know for sure, that without my 10-days, 10-minute challenge this wouldn’t have happened!

Fionn got really used to being left alone for longer periods of time (so another Win!) and hand walking Odin became the highlight of my day instead of a thing to dread!

Next blog I will write more about Grass Training and how it helps to have a Grass Trained Horse on trails!

Want to join me in my next Challenge?

I will do more Movement Challenges this Summer. Care to join me? I will take HippoLogic Academy members on this journey. There are only a limited amount of spaces, because my capacity to offer 1:1 coaching in our group is limited by my time and energy.

If you love to be a part of an active membership in which you learn to train horses with positive reinforcement, apply to become a member!

Ready to take your Clicker Training to the next level?

Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.

In 2024 the focus besides giving you a solid foundation is R+ Movement Training: Exercise your horse with positive reinforcement and transform your WHOA-horse into a GO-horse or get your Fat Horse Fit in a Few Months. Like all good things, learning a skill takes time. Therefore you’ll get one year personal support in the HippoLogic Academy.
Click the image to go access the application form ↓

Not sure? Start with a free clicker training assessment to get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.

In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.

FAQ’s about Grass Training for Horses

Are you a tiny bit curious what happens in HippoLogic’s Grass Training?  Here’s what people asked me: >> ‘If my doesn’t respond to the click I tap with the lead rope, is that OK?’, asked one of the participants in my Grass Training course with coaching. This is such a great question! I understand where it’s coming from and I was glad she asked. The answer is ‘No’. Don’t mix R- (negative reinforcement) or P (punishment) with R+ (positive reinforcement) in Grass Training. You want to keep Grass Training 100% positive reinforcement if you want predictable and solid results that last. >> ‘It’s Autumn here and almost Winter, can I start Grass Training’? wanted an Australian clicker trainer know. Yes, and Winter is actually the best time to start! Why? Because the grass you’re competing with (over your horse’s attention) is not as enticing as super lush, sweet Spring grass. You can start lying the fundamentals now of this important training and you’ll reap the fruits when you need them! In the course I will teach you how you can setup your Grass Training without grass.  >> ‘My horse is overweight (has EMS) and is on a strict diet and can’t have grass. Is this training for us’?,   Yes, and it’s actually the best course for your horse! In Grass Training you train your horse to ignore grass (and you’ll be more interesting!) and teach your horse a Stop Grazing cue with positive reinforcement, so that your horse will choose NOT to graze. Especially when your horse has EMS or is overweight you get into endless tugs of war with your horse over grass, right? What if that stops? What if your horse will ignore grass by choice? Wouldn’t that make everything more fun? It was for me! Why R+ actually works so well and all other details, I explain in the course. I also teach you how to setup your Grass Training without grass! Learn more

What can I expect from the HippoLogic Grass Training course? After this course if you follow the step-by-step instructions your horse knows Stop Grazing and Start Grazing-cues. You’ll understand why everything you’ve tried before didn’t work and what you need to do instead in order to get predictable, positive and long lasting results. The aim of this course is to teach you how you can train your own horse so that you can enjoy your horse more when you trail ride or have to lead him near or over grass without getting into a tug-of-war. What is included? Step-by-step instruction videos Written instructions Detailed Shaping Plan ‘Grass Training’ Practical printouts that will make training easy Happy Grass Training! You are the trainer! Sandra

Continue reading about Grass Training your Horse

Here are some blog for you:

• 10 Benefits of Grass Training Your Horse
• Grass Training Step 1
• Grass Training Step 2

Want to start today? Buy the course!

Teach Your Horse to Behave on Grass (Grass Training)

Teach your horse to behave on grass with HippoLogic Grass Training. Teach your horse a solid Stop-Grazing cue, Ignore-Grass cue and Graze-Now cue. Grass is growing everywhere and frustration is building up as soon as grass starts to grow.

Frustration when leading your horse on grass

• In horse owners for being pushed over and pulled when grass is in sight and in
• horses because they want grass but it’s never without being pulled or shouted at.

Some horses like this game of ”get-a-bite ” and never will give up: this is just how play and reinforcement works for them. The bite is their prize! They will get it on an intermittent schedule (sometimes it works, other times it won’t) so we create a really strong pulling behaviour in our horses!

5 Benefits of Grass Training

1. Your horse follows you when your leading him with slack in the lead rope and ignores grass (he won’t even try)
2. No more frustration because your horse is being naughty or behaving like an ass (which is just another equine!)
3. Your horse will trust you more because you give him clarity: To Graze or Not to Graze
4. No more feeling like a failure. Now it will be clear to anyone that you’ve trained your horse well.
5. You’ll be proud and enjoy your horse more!

What I’ve tried (and didn’t work)

I’ve been pulling on ropes, using rope halters, ’punishing’ my horse for unsolicited grazing (its not punishment if the behaviour doesn’t decrease????) and trying to avoid grass patches all together. Which is hard if grass is growing in your arena and liberty work will be out of the question during Summer months.

I tried it all: keeping the lead rope short, wiggling the rope, pulling and jerking (not proud of it) and later offering target sticks calling and using Kyra’s name and giving other cues.

Nothing gave me long-term results when grass was available, until I used 100% R+ (clicker) training.Sandra Poppema

What worked

This only gave me short-term result. Sometimes only 5-second results, to be honest! Nothing worked long-term until…. I switched over to 100% POSITIVE reinforcement to teach my horse what I wanted.

Grass training when your horse is on a restrictive diet

The year after my grass training Kyra got laminitis and she needed to be on a strict diet. From a full day on grass to restricted soaked hay. That was hard for both of us. I had to exercise her (hand walking) to help her lose weight and the only place was on the road. With juicy grass growing next to it! I was worried…. And you know what? She didn’t push me over to get a bite and she didn’t pull on the lead rope to gorge on the grass. She was an angel! My new method paid off!

’The Grass Trained Horse’:

• Listens to his name and comes to you in the pasture
• Can be lead on grass with slack in your lead rope
• Can be ridden on grass without causing blisters on your hands
• Is amazing at liberty training in Spring and Summer when greens are growing in or along your arena
• Won’t snack leaves on trails
• Doesn’t dive into grass when you get him out of the paddock or pasture

HippoLogic’s Grass Training course

Since then I helped hundreds of horse owners implement my way of grass training and they all managed to improve their horse on grass. The relationship with their horses improved (no more frustration and anger even before riding started). This is for you if you need step-by-step guidance and videos of how to do it. Get it here.

Read more

Here is another free resource Grass Training: blog with video and step-by-step plan. Or if you like to get into the details of Grass Training your Horse buy my online course with over 27 videos! October 10th, the last coaching group Grass Training in 2020 starts so enroll now before the price goes up!

Questions about Training your Horse with Positive Reinforcement?

Book a free discovery call with me and discover your next step in training.

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

Helping horse people to bond with their horse and get the results they want.

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Compassionate horse owner

Are you a compassionate horse owner who wants to build a strong friendship with your horse? Would you like to understand your horse better and help your horse to understand YOU better? Get access to high quality online training and a fabulous, supportive R+ community in our HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy. Check out the link!

Ready to take your Clicker Training to the next level?

Join the HippoLogic Academy! I coach and support you personally getting your dream results with positive reinforcement, so that you can bond with your horse in the process. Create a connection build on mutual trust and understanding, a clear two-way communication built on love.

In 2024 the focus besides giving you a solid foundation is R+ Movement Training: Exercise your horse with positive reinforcement and transform your WHOA-horse into a GO-horse or get your Fat Horse Fit in a Few Months. Like all good things, learning a skill takes time. Therefore you’ll get one year personal support in the HippoLogic Academy.
Click the image to go access the application form ↓

Not sure? Start with a free clicker training assessment to get taste of what it feels like to work with me. When you have a specific struggle that you want to overcome, don’t hesitate to contact me.

In this assessment you’ll discover what’s holding you back from accomplishing the things you want with your horse. After our conversation you’ll know exactly what to do, in order to move forward towards your goals.

Book here

Happy Horse training!
Sandra Poppema, B.Sc., founder of HippoLogic & HippoLogic Clicker Training Academy

Join us!

Grass Training: Teach Your Horse to Ignore Grass

Haven’t we all experienced that a horse pulled you towards some grass in order to grab a few bites? Isn’t that annoying? I think it is!

I didn’t want to be pushed around anymore by my horse every time there was some juicy patch of grass growing around. Grass is everywhere! 

I decided to look for a proper, force-free way to teach my horse to behave on and near grass.

I tried a so many different approaches, before I found one that works well, gave me a solid result and is totally force-free. I would like to share it with you.

Define ‘proper behaviour’ around grass

It took me a while to teach Kyra to behave ‘properly’ around grass. With ‘properly’ I mean: no more pulling me towards grass, wait until I give the ‘graze’ cue and ‘stop grazing and come along’ if I ask her to. I was tired of pulling Kyra off the grass.

Preparation

I must say before you can start training this you need a bit of preparation and… lots of practice time. After all, what is more enticing than grass? Well, a click can be…

What really helps is already have a solid history of click & reinforce. Secondly a horse that walks with you properly and the key lessons ‘head lowering’, ‘patience’ and ‘targeting’ are required to make this challenge most likely to succeed.

Shaping plan Grass Training

Here is a summary of my shaping plan:

• solid reinforcement history of the clicker
• teach Kyra to walk on a lead rope
• halt
• key lesson patience
• key lesson targeting
• key lesson head lowering

How I trained it

I started to reinforce lifting Kyra’s head while grazing. Why? Because this is the first step to move away from the grass. I began with leading her to grass and I would cue her to graze. Then I just waited (very, very patiently) until she lifted her head by herself. That is the moment I wanted to capture and reinforce.

I can’t stress how important it is to wait until the horse moves (his head) away himself. I tried other methods like pulling the head up/preventing the head from going down or asking Kyra to target while grazing in order to lift her head, but reinforcing her own head raise worked best.

High value treats

Every time she would lift her head , I clicked and reinforced Kyra with a very high value treat. One that could compete with grass. After she ate the treat I immediately gave her the cue to ‘graze’. Here is when the key lesson ‘head lowering’ comes is really handy.

I also clicked and reinforced the ‘graze’ cue. But instead of offering a treat off of my hand, the reward was to graze as long as she wanted.

Every time she would lift her head again, I clicked, reinforced and would then give her the ‘graze’ cue.

Next steps

After a certain amount of training sessions, which Kyra enjoyed very much (!), I noticed that she started to lift her head more often during grazing sessions. This is a perfect time to add a ‘lift head up’ cue. The key lesson targeting helped me a lot.

So my next clicker session looked like this:

• walk to the grass
• give the cue ‘graze’
• wait until Kyra lifts her head
• click and reinforce
• give her the cue ‘graze’
• let her graze until I thought she was likely to lift her head up again, ask ‘touch’ target stick
• click and reinforce
• cue ‘graze’
• et cetera.

In this way she is always reinforced for whatever I ask.

Raising the criterion

After several sessions I noticed that Kyra didn’t seem to mind lifting her head up anymore. She was eager to see what I had to offer her. The ‘diving into the grass’ behaviour was gone. She seemed so much more relaxed on grass.

I thought this would be the perfect time to raise a criterion. Now I wanted to lift her head and take one step forward before I gave the ‘graze’ cue again. I literally built this behaviour step-by-step.

The final step in this process was to teach her to wait for the ‘graze’ cue when we would walk on or approach grass.

Result Grass Training with Positive Reinforcement

Now I can ask Kyra to leave grass at any time. She is very willing to come with me. She never pulls me towards a patch of grass and I never have to pull her off of the grass. Win-win, for her and for me.

Kyra turned from a I-need-to-graze-now-and-store-fat-before-winter-comes-horse into a I-see-grass-so-what-horse. She knows she can trust me and is allowed to have her share… only when I say so.

Join my online Grass Training

Amazing Fun Fact

Today I wanted to make a video for the Facebook Grass Training group. Kyra didn’t want to graze, so I couldn’t show how to start. Never thought I could be in that position: a horse that doesn’t want to graze because training is way more valuable.

 

 

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

HippoLogic helps establish, enhance and excel horse-human relationships

 

 Buy the HippoLogic Grass Training for Horses that lead to a well behaved horse on grass.