Attack of the horse killing plastic bag!

Hormonal Mare has been doing very well, minus one annoying habit. She spooks at anything that moves. Normally, spooking is not something I worry about. However, I had the fear of God struck into my blessed little heart the day she arrived here. A plastic bag, that had escaped it's awaiting death in the trash can, blew into her pasture. Hormonal Mare, being hormonal and over emotional, jumped straight up in the air (higher than those Lipizzans), did a 180 WHILE in the air, and hauled butt as soon as she landed. My only reaction was my heart sinking into my feet. I will say that I am a good rider, but I am also smarter than your average bear and realize when I cannot handle something. Let's just say, if Hormonal Mare does THAT while I am on her back, I will soon be off her back and face down in a pile of poo.

Sooo, the next day started our journey down the yellow brick road of despooking. Our goal; Oz ... err, not spooking, I mean to say. I decided to use a horse killing white plastic back, courtesy of the local Wal-Mart. Seeing as how Hormonal Mare likes to run as fast as she can away from the said plastic bag, I wanted to show her that running doesn't help. I basically let her run around, and around, and around, and around, and around until 65 minutes later, she finally realized running wouldn't help. At this point, I was able to approach her. Even though she jumped every time the bag crinkled, I was able to rub her nose and face with some persuasion.

I ended on this good note. I am happy to say that Hormonal Mare is one smart cookie and learns her lessons quickly. What took me an hour and 10 minutes the previous session, the next day it only took 15 minutes. She did try to run, but that lasted 5 minutes and she remembered that "Hey, that doesn't work so well." Blessed be, there is a God and he must love me. By the 3rd session, she didn;'t run at all and I could rub it on her face, neck, and body. Her eyes still bugged out of her head and she twitched a lot, but no more running and flying in the air.

Over all, I am pleased with her progress. My next step is to introduce a blue horse swolowing tarp. HAHAHAHAHA