Best Session Ever!

Yesterday Mom and I ventured out into the cold to go halter the ponies. We went for a walk with my dad, brother, and my dog, Chewy. All 7 of us started down the driveway and it didn't take long for Drew to ask "can I get my helmet and ride Charlotte?" So, up he went onto Charlotte's back and I personally believe the motive behind this action was to get out of walking. Charlotte, Mom and Drew went down the driveway ahead of us, and Wood and I hung back. We went up the steep hills on the side of the driveway, played Touch It with the tree shelters (just our noses), and even got to cross some standing water (it took a while and a lot of approach and retreat but he finally ate some grass by it then stepped right through)! We were having a great time and he really started enjoying himself (positive expressions), so we went up to the woods and played a little bit on the edge of our woods. We did lots of Squeeze games in between and over a bunch of fallen limbs, but he had fun. We then continued up the driveway, alternating between me leading, Stick to Me, and zone 3 driving, and eventually we came to the path to go to the hayfield. Mom, Drew, Charlotte, Woody, and I all went to the hayfield and we did a couple circles there on a hill to get him focused on me and not on Charlotte continuing across the field. He put his head down at one point and really started stretching his trot and making it it really smooth and bouncy, so I called it quits there and moved on. We went over to Charlotte and I let him eat a bit. I noticed that we were really close to the Parkway, so I decided to take him a bit closer to the road (not really close, there was still a hill to go down between Wood and the road) and show off his trot to the cars. I got a wave from a motorcycle rider and a truck driver, and Woody was looking gorgeous so I was satisfied. We started heading back and I couldn't believe how well Woody was behaving. He was calm, much easier to stop when doing Stick to Me or driving, and had this great expression on his face. We went back to the barn and both Mom and I got their hackamores on and our helmets and thought we would try to go for a ride.
Mom got on Charlotte really nicely, and I got on Woody and he seemed fine, standing still for me to mount and not walking right when I got on him. So, after sitting, I turned him around and that's when his antics started.
He always pokes his nose and head out and starts trotting to where he wants to go when I'm outside riding, so I would turn his head in a one-rein stop until he stopped resisting and I got his mind back on me; then I would release. We did that a couple times, and I began to get nervous because Woody acting NOT like a partner + me riding him bareback + a cold day with the sun setting = a nervous Eden. Mom suggested that we all walk around the circle of the garden until he became mentally onboard with me. We went once all the way around and then we came back by the house the second time and he got nervous and had an apparent threshold. I turned him around and walked the other direction with Mom and Charlotte following us, and when we got to the end of the stretch turned him in a nice disengagement and went toward the house again. After 2 more times of doing this excercise, getting closer and closer to the house, he put his head down and had a couple of snorts and licks and chews. After that he was able to walk by the house without hitting another threshold. I then tested our stop by stopping the motion in my body and then just lifting my rein, and he stopped calmly. I was very proud of him and gave him a piece of a cookie which he seemed to like. After that he was calm, responsive, and had an ear cocked back listening and tuned into me, so we went down the driveway.
We eventually turned around and came back, and his turn around was really great (he usually has resistence when it comes to turning back for home). I am so proud of him and myself for being able to get him past his temper tantrum in a nice, polite, but assertive way. He really did well after his episode and I hope that that session really made a mark on him because it sure did leave one on me!
~Eden
Sorry about the length of this post, there was a lot to tell!