5 Benefits of having a System in your Training

Sometimes people think positive reinforcement doesn’t fit into a system because this training method is horse-centered.

They figure since every horse and every situation is different, it’s impossible to create a system. You know what? It’s true that every horse, every training and every trainer is different.

If you focus on what every training, every horse and every trainer needs and what they all have in common, you have the fundamentals to create a system. That’s what I’ve been looking for the past decade and that’s how I discovered the Key Lessons in positive reinforcement horse training. They derive from those fundamental pillars I will explain here.

Benefit #1 Clarity

With a system comes clarity and with clarity you know where you are in your training and where you want to go.

Benefit #2 Goals

Now you have clarity it’s easy to set goals and get results in your training.

Benefit #3 Action

When you have clarity  and goals in your training you know what your action must look like! Instead of taking different approaches at the same time, now you know exactly what step comes first. This is setting yourself (and your horse!) up for success!

Benefit #4 Meaning

With clarity and a goal comes meaning, especially if you base your goals on you values. What values are important to you in training? Horse first? Results first? Fun first? Welfare? Clear communication? What values are in your top 5 for horse training?

#5 Momentum

When you have action and clarity you get momentum in you training. We all know how awesome that feeling is!

There are two more benefits! You don’t think these 5 are enough?

Join me in this free webinar to hear more about HippoLogic’s training system. Click here to get an email with the link to our online classroom.

Free discovery session with Sandra

Want to hear more about HippoLogic’s training system in person? Book your FREE Discovery Session to get a glimpse of a new future with your horse. In this 60 min conversation we’ll explore:

– Your hopes and dreams and goals so that we can see what’s possible for you and your horse
– Where you’re now, where you want to go and which path is right for you
– What’s holding you back so you can make a plan to get these hurdles out of your way.

At the end of the call I’ll give you some ideas and advice for your next steps and if it looks like a fit, we can explore what it looks like to work together.

To get started, simply book your free session here.

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

I help horse owners get the results in training they really, really want with joy and easy for both horse and human. I always aim for win-win!

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Join me in this free webinar to hear more about HippoLogic’s training system. Click here to get the link to our Zoom meeting.

How to Teach Your Horse to do Crunches with 100% R+

The body worker/chiropractor came by for Kyra a few weeks ago. She wasn’t walking well and her back is swaying (sags). In this blog I share my shaping plan and point out most common pitfalls in teaching your horse to do crunches.

The equine body worker/chiropractor did great work by helping Kyra’s body relax and getting rid of some blockages. Our home work was belly lifts (abs). He showed me how to do it: by placing your fingertips (using your nails) at the sternum and pushing up.

Of course that worked… He explained it was a reflex. I believe it’s a response to an aversive, not a reflex in the biological sense of the word.

I don’t work with aversives in training, therefor I had to figure out another way to communicate that I wanted belly lifts from Kyra and I did.

I thought of which behaviours we already have on cue (standing square, backing) and used those as foundation for the belly lifts. Kyra now lifts her back about 2 cm on verbal and body language cue and she is getting better at it every day.

This video is session 4 and Kyra totally rocks! She even offers duration: she flexes her abs a split second longer, and that’s all it takes to start building duration, see video below.

Shaping plan

Kyra already mastered standing square (which is part of Key Lesson Patience) and also backing up (Key Lesson Backing). The Key Lessons in the HippoLogic program are the basics you can built all other behaviours on.

Here is the basic step-by-step plan (shaping plan) I used to train Kyra to free shape belly lifts (back lifts):

• Standing square, weight on both hind legs equally divided (vertical balance)
• Minimal weight shift to hind quarters
• Add: flexing abs (belly lifts, back comes up)
• Reduce: moving backwards
• Add: head/neck position (Feeding for Position is a great help)
• Add: duration
• Add: repetitions

As with all shaping plans, each step can be divided into multiple steps and have to be trained over multiple sessions. Depending on the horse and trainer more steps can be added.

Pitfalls

Training without a system is setting yourself up for failure. Before you start, think about these common pitfalls and prepare yourself.

Shaping plan: Not making a plan before you start. What does the behaviour look like? What are my criteria? When do I stop? How long do I train? If you don’t think before you start, you have to think a lot more after you started. Reshaping a trained (reinforced) behaviour can be way more complicated and more difficult than training a brand new behaviour. A shaping plan prevents frustration in trainer and horse.

Timing: if you click too late, your horse thinks he has to back up. Click too early he thinks he just has to stand or do whatever he was doing (moving his head, tail, legs). Important to click the instant he starts shifting his weight backwards. It’s almost for clicking for ‘thinking to step backwards’.

Reinforcers: if you give your horse verbal praise or a treat he doesn’t value, you don’t get more of the marked (desired) behaviour. Find out what your horse loves to work for. If the wanted behaviour increases, the reinforcer was valuable.

Criteria: make sure you have small enough steps for your horse to understand what you wants. Make the criteria as clear as possible for yourself. Reinforce micro-movements in teaching crunches. Make criteria as clear as possible: eg don’t click for weight shifts while sniffing your pockets (go back and practise Key Lesson Table Manners first. This will safe time later. Don’t wait too long to click or you’ll have ‘too much behaviour’ (a step backwards, instead of weight shift). Goal is to lift the back, not (only) shifting weight!

Benefits of doing crunches

I think you don’t have to wait for your horse to get a swayed back before teaching your horse to do crunches (Pilates for horses, back lifts, belly lifts).

It’s a great way to strengthen your horse’s core muscles that will help him under saddle. Not only for riding but also to help him use his body in the best way he can. It keeps him healthy and strong and is a great way to create horizontal balance. It’s fun too! They learn to use their body’s in a way that benefits them and makes them more body aware.

In this video (session 6) you can see how much Kyra’s back lifts and how much it straightens.

If you need a bit of help with teaching your horse to do crunches, don’t hesitate to contact me.  That is what I do: helping equestrians get the results in training they really, really, really want.

Do you want to teach your horse crunches and don’t know where to start?

Book a free discovery call and I will help you figure it out!

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

I help horse owners get the results in training they really, really want with joy and easy for both horse and human. I always aim for win-win!

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5 Steps to your Personal List of Horse Training Goals

In April I asked the members of my Happy Herd Facebook group  “What struggle in Horse Training would you like to overcome?” One of the answers was “I wish I had a system or list with “to work on”-goals for the week”.

Here is how you can create your personal list of training goals that keeps you going.  It is not a simple 5 step list, it’s a process. Ready? Make sure you have a pen and paper.

Here is the video

 Step 1: Personal values

Make a list of the values you find important in the relationship with your horse and in training. If you take a moment to really think about your values it will become clear why it is so hard to work on certain goals. Chances are that they don’t fit your values anymore (see step 3).

Step 2: Future goals

Think about what you would like to have accomplished in 10 years, 5 years or 1 year from now with your horse.

If that’s too difficult, think of other equestrians. Ones who you admire. What can they do with their horses, that you would like to do, too?

Are there YouTube videos about horse training that inspire you?

Or just think back before you bought your horse: what did you have in mind when you were looking for your perfect horse? What was your goal?

Step 3: Does your goal fit into your values?

What part of your goal or goals fit your values? If it all fits: Great!

Are there parts of your goals that don’t fit in with your values? No worries, now you have your list with values you can think about the part or parts that don’t fit. Think about how you can adjust your goals so they do fit.

In the video above I give an example how I made my goals fit my values.

Step 4: Split your bigger goal into smaller goals

Now you have goals that fit your values think about the different aspects of that bigger goal. For trail riding you might need to practice trailer loading to go to trails, or if you need to cross a road you want your horse to be safe in traffic (despooking) or you need to work on separating your horse from the herd.

Think about how you can split these bigger goals into smaller goals.

Step 5: Make a list

If you made a list of your goals and all aspects of your bigger goal you can split them even further into smaller parts. Now you can make monthly goals, weekly goals and daily training sessions.

You can dedicate each month to a specific theme: January for despooking, February for separation training, March for traffic training and so on. Or you can work each training on a tiny bit of despooking, a tiny bit of separation anxiety and a tiny bit of something else that contributes to your goal.

[Step 6:] Just do it!

The last step is to plan your sessions in your agenda and stick with them for a month to see if this works for you!

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Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

My mission is to improve human-horse relationships. I reconnect horse women with their inner wisdom and teach them the principles of learning and motivation, so they become confident and skilled to train their horse in a safe and effective way that is a lot of FUN for both human and horse. Win-win.

Sign up for HippoLogic’s newsletter (it’s free and it comes with a gift) or visit HippoLogic’s website and discover my online courses that will change your life.

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