Woody with his wormer.
Some conformation shots of the horses
Since my last update I have had a few good sessions, and a few not-so-good sessions. The worst session was on Saturday evening. I went out to mainly do his wormer and just play with him. I got my halter, headed out to him, and he walked up to me. However, when I went to halter him he walked away. I went with him (not the right thing to do in this case) and he trotted off with me behind him. Basically, I chased him around and stuff making him choose which was better: coming to me and getting haltered or getting chased around incessantly by me. Looking back, I was stupid and he told me so because he and Charlotte both went cantering off down the hill. Mom and I sat there watching them, and eventually we went out and they let us catch them. We did their wormer and we let them go because I was getting emotional. Basically, that day was terrible because I was not in the right frame of mind when I went out there.
Fast forward to Sunday. I went out there and vowed to not chase him around but rather draw him to me. I got my halter and fell into the same trap as the day before, but I stopped myself from going after him. Rather, I went up to him (he was eating hay under the barn) and I asked him to put his thought on me, not the hay. He did really nicely at first and sniffed me, but when he wanted to return to the hay I didn't let him. Once again, looking back this wasn't right because all I was doing was telling him "Hey, put your thought over here. Ok, now keep it here for no apparent reason or purpose." I should have said, "Hey, I would like your attention. Thank you, now could you put your nose in this halter?" I did eventually get that message and asked him for the latter and we went on to worm successfully. Afterwards I put the bareback pad on Woody and mounted up. I was going to try to kneel on his back at the walk and then stand on his back just standing still. We accomplished both of those things and he did really well with it. I then took the rope from Mom (she was leading me around and holdin him) and rode him back to the barn and he listened really well to me (it has been a while since I have ridden him in the halter). I have realized the key to Woody is having a reason behind what I'm asking him to do. I can't just say don't eat grass, just sit here looking at the grass and expect him to be happy with it.
So yesterday evening after dinner Mom and I ran out to the horses to give them their dose of wormer. I went out first, and my pony met me at the gate and whinnied at me. I came in the fence, rubbed him a bit, then went running to the barn to turn the electric fence off. I looked back and saw Woody cantering after me. I slowed down and stopped and he came right up to me, sniffed my hand and blew. I continued up to the barn with him behind me. The cool thing was that Mom was coming from the house to the barn through the other gate, and while Woody was cantering after me, Charlotte had run down the hill making he cow noise to meet Mom. I really thought that was neat. Anywho, I got the wormer and gave Woody his dose at Liberty (he ADORES wormer, he licks the tube and chews on it, its so funny) and Mom gave Charlotte hers successfully.
Also, news on my saddle. It turns out that the website I originally ordered my Wintec Wide saddle from is not sending me a replacement saddle. So, I got a refund, and my mom went online to Dover Saddlery to see what their pricing was. She did this "find your perfect size" exercise and guessed pretty accurately on my height, weight, etc. My size is a 16 and a half, so she went and found a returned saddle from Dover that is "like new" for $399!! What ann amazing price. She also ordered me a light blue saddle pad for Woody so he will be looking pretty spiffy!
~Eden
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