Yesterday's How Interesting Moments

Well, yesterday was a VERY interesting day (I didn't see it that way at the time, though, haha). I went out to play with Woody for the first time this week and it went really well at first. He was great inside the fence and we played around a little bit at Liberty, and then we played a little bit oline inside the fence before we went outside the fence. I wanted to take him outside the pasture and play and observe him while he was away with Charlotte. NOT a good/savvy idea. We went just out of sight of Charlotte, and he wouldn't pay attention to me, just the grass. So, I let him eat for a little bit, then I asked him to do a circle on the 22ft line. All I wanted was one calm circle, but he kept trying to put his head down, taking off (which at one point gave me a rope burn), and acting very un-Woodyish. I decided, since the circling wasn't working to just get a nice Yo-Yo, which we finally got. Then, we headed back toward the pasture, and went inside the gate. I wanted to have one more good ending, so I tried sidewaysing down the fenceline. He went one way, then when he was going the other way, he pushed his nose out, and started walking away. Me, misreading the situation/trying something new to see if it worked, said, "ok, you wanna move your feet? Let me help you!" (wrong thing to do because I could see he was very left brained and that tactic is used for a RBE). So I did falling leaf until he said enough and ripped the rope out of my hands (once again, giving me an insane rope burn), and trotted away from me. As you can imagine, that crushed me, so I walked away and cried for a minute. But, he came up to me while I was walking, and followed me to the barn, so that made me feel better. I took off his halter and he hung out, so I gave him a cookie and scratched his itchy spot. He is such a good pony, and so forgiving, I am so grateful for him. I know that what he did yesterday was just feedback, and him telling me that my new tactics weren't working. Like my mom said, every journey has bumps in the road, but that doesn't mean it's the end of that journey.
Pros to the session
* When he took off with the 22ft line dragging behind him, he didn't get scared
* I learned that getting big when he tries to walk off (lots of falling leaf) DOESN'T work
* I learned that he has anxiety issues with being away from Charlotte, so I need to approach and retreat with that
* He still loves and wants to be with me even when I mess up and get emotional
* I stopped the session right BEFORE I got emotional, and didn't bring it towards Woody
~Eden