Sandra Poppema, BSc, is an internationally published author, speaker, and horse trainer. She founded HippoLogic after she graduated from Animal Management in 1999. HippoLogic's mission is to enhance equine welfare and horse-human relationships through positive reinforcement.

Sandra specializes in rehabilitating rescue horses. She worked with dozens of horses at BC SPCA and worked with hundreds of clients. She writes professional horse-human-interaction protocols for people who work with horses professionally. For example, staff at equine therapy centers, therapeutic riding centers, horse rescues, and boarding facilities. These simple protocols reduce stress, fear, and frustration. They enhance confidence and safety in daily interactions.

When Sandra moved from the Netherlands to Canada in 2021, she started teaching online. Clicker Training is very well-known and very popular in Europe, but it wasn’t in Canada back then.

In the HippoLogic Horse Training Academy, she offers online coaching and courses. She shows horse owners how to train their own horses, so they won’t have to send them to a trainer. The emphasis lies on Understanding Horses and the Principles of Learning, so that her students become autonomous trainers.

‘From Fat to Fit’ is her most popular program. It’s an exercise program developed for overweight, non-ridden horses, transforming them into eager, forward-going horses.

Sandra designed this unique exercise program, based on her HippoLogic Rectangle (HLR), after her obese horse got laminitis. Kyra hated lunging and round penning and couldn’t be ridden. Transforming a non-ridden, obese, and slow horse into shape was difficult.

The breakthrough came when Sandra started using positive reinforcement to motivate her horse.

The HLR is a healthy, fun alternative for the horse and replaces lunging and round penning. Using positive reinforcement will help the horse enjoy his daily exercises. This will make it easy to achieve a health goal.

In her presentation, Sandra shows you how you can use the HippoLogic Rectangle to get non-ridden horses fit without riding.

Because of the Horse...

I became confident in connecting with horse people.