Good Ol Energy

Hey all! Yesterday I played with Woody and it started out really great. Came trotting to the fence, followed me up, stood real nice to be groomed and saddled. I played with him and got him really with me by doing some leading halt, walk, trot, back stuff. He did really good. I mounted and he stood still, and I started directing him around the barn without him getting his old magnetism to the barn and Charlotte and Mom. He was going nicely. We went up to the "imaginary round pen" (where it used to be) and did some transitions and got a good working walk to get him focusing on me rather than his surroundings and going off without me. Foolishly, I moved on to trot to walk transitions before the walk to halt was good. So, he started getting bracy and unwilling, and I found myself muscling him. Mom suggested I return to the halt to walk stuff. I did, and she noticed that my reins loosened, his head went down, and he was more willing. He even had a big release in there. We mainly stayed at the walk and focused on getting that good around the pasture. Mom had me begin a point to point exercise between 3 trees on this hill, and when she said that I felt myself tense up. That hill makes me very nervous because whenever he goes down, he gets speedy (last time he did I fell) and when he goes up he gets caught uo in his thought and speeds. Although, when I told Mom that she pointed out that maybe I anticipate that behavior so I inadvertendly cause it.. a how interesting moment to ponder on for sure.
Anyways, we did a bit of walking point to point on the hill, then I decided to come off the hill and work with two trees off the hill and our transitions. We did lots of halt to walk to halt and getting him straight and tuning into my body language. Mom stopped me and we took a break and talked about energy. She told me to get an energy of "brisk walk" in my mind to liven him up without my legs, but she told me to make the energy not manisfest itself in the physical form. I was stumped, so she compared it to when you think about something scary and you get goose bumps because of it and you just feel scared all over. You aren't physically making yourself be scared, but you take on this energy of I'm scared. We worked on that, and on Woody being able to decipher and distinguish between when I have that energy and a sloooow dooowwn energy in my body. He picked up the halt transitions quickly following with using little to no rein, and did really well with trot to walk transitions too. I was really proud of him, he is so smart!!
On a side note, I have officially bought a Wintec Wide saddle and a girth to match. Harry told me my saddle, though it has the extra wide gullet in it, still bridges on Woody's back and makes it slip around and not work, and be uncomfortable for him. So, I got all of the gullets for the Wide, the saddle, and a girth brand new for around 520 dollars. Amazing since usually the saddle alone is 575!! I get it on Tuesday, until then!
~Eden