Sacking Out

What a beautiful day it is. The sun is shining and the skies are clear. Still a bit muddy from our recent snow, but dry enough to work with Serenity.

Today was Serenity's first official sacking out. I had previously used my lunge whip to desensitize her to the lash touching her all over, so she understood that the correct answer was to stand still and be calm. In today's lesson I tied a plastic shopping baggie to the lash of my lunge whip to desensitize her to a noisy, scary object coming at her. I hope that makes sense. Her first reaction to the baggie was to kick, strike, and move away from the sack. But once she understood that standing still and relaxing is the correct answer, all of that went away. On the second side, she practically fell asleep, she was so relaxed. Tomorrow I will probably do a second session with the sack, see how she reacts, and determine if she needs a third session. I doubt she'll need a third session as she seems to think on her lesson overnight.

I found a great little article about natural horsemanship and how the effect of release of pressure is where a horse does his learning and not the pressure itself...
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