Walking on the Wild Side

I thought that it would be a good idea for me to start separating Woody from Charlotte and Teddy so that he wouldn't be really worried when we go to leave for our clinic. I decided to take him for a walk down our driveway and he did really nicely. He didn't even call out to the horses once, but left with me confidently and followed behind me nicely. We walked (and trotted some) all the way up my driveway (about .6 miles) and when we got there we stopped and chatted to some neighbors. He tried to eat grass a couple times, but after I asked for his attention back and asked him to do something (such as back up or move over some) and then let him rest. He finally stood quietly in the grass while we talked. We turned around to head back, and my other neighbor, Mrs. Dooley and her little toddler pulled in the driveway and asked if they could come and see him. They pet on him and rubbed his nose some, and we talked for a bit. We then headed back down the driveway back toward the barn. We did mixture of him following me, him up by my shoulder, and me back by his girth leading and he did really nicely.
When we returned to the barn, Mom was riding Charlotte around, so I went to the barn and saddled Woody up super fast. I tied his halter into reins and rode around the pasture with Mom for about 20 minutes. He responded and listened really well, except for one time we were heading the direction of the barn, and he sped up some. I asked him to stop, and he did, but when I asked him to go again, he was still speedy. We did this stop-go thing until we reached the barn with not a lot improvement, but when we reached the actual barn door and he tried to stop there, I asked him to walk past and he did so without resistance. He still has that draw to the barn that we will have to keep working on, but it is definitely better than how he was acting the last time when he would push through my rein and canter back to the barn. All in all, it was a good day.
My future plans are to start walking Woody down the driveway hopefully everyday. The combination of the distance of the walk, the gravel that will toughen his feet, the hills we have to climb up, and the interesting scenery to keep him interested and engaged is a winning combination! Once he has gotten used to the route and I feel confident in him in the environment, I will probably start riding him up the driveway as well. I hope to start working on this with Teddy also. He NEEDS exercise, so I am going to start separating him as well and gauge the rate at which we leave to how the horses respond.
~Eden