Surprises All Around

First of all, let me start by showing you a recent picture of Woody. Although he doesn't look huge in this picture, don't let the angle fool you because he really is fat.Anyways, on Sunday I went out to see Woody and after doing some Liberty playing with the log, went to halter him. We then played outside a bit, and even practiced cantering on the 22' line in the circle. He did pretty well once he got over his resistance and bucking attitude. We went around, played with different obstacles, and just got warmed up. Then, we came inside and I practiced the zone 3 driving with reins (simulation for riding) and did that until he was soft and responding to my body language and reins, I mounted up and sat for a long while, just relaxing. We then went up to the round pen where mom was practicing bareback with Charlotte and we just sat and watched. I got my carrot stick and slapped the ground from his back hard several times with no reaction from him (yay!). I played other Friendly Games (#1) like sitting different ways on him and rubbing my hands everywhere on him and turning around and sitting backwards. He pretty much went to sleep during this. When I was turning back around, I scooted too far off the side and, him being very slippery, I fell off his side (clumsy me). It was pretty funny though. I hopped onto the fence and he idled right over next to me for me to get back on. After hanging out a bit more, we decided to go out the fence, so I got the bareback pad on him and out we went.
They both did very well on the trail ride, I was actually quite surprised at the huge decrease of his nose-poking and resistance. The only thing that went wrong was when we trotted up the big hill next to the driveway and when we got to the topand I gently asked for a slower gait, he ignored me and actually broke into a little canter. I finally got a one-rein stop and we sat there and let him think for a minute. After that he was great, though, and wasn't even obnoxious about eating. We headed back home near the end of the driveway and he saw the driveway alarm and got a little nervous. We had already done so much I figured that was a battle for another day (figuratively speaking, of course). He did so well and I am sooo incredibly proud of him!
~Eden