I'm trying to create a pimped-out version of the slider that has a user control in the "thumb"-part (meaning: the moving thingy on the slider) that reacts to the slider's movements. Basically my current demo / development version is just a UserControl with 5 visual states that just make it change a smiley face to an angry face in 5 phases. I'd like to put that user control into the thumb.

My only problem is as follows: I can get the UserControl into the thumb no problem, by editing the Slider-control's template in Expression Blend. However, once the UserControl is in the ControlTemplate, it's no longer visible to the new user control class and thus is not changeable with VisualStateManager.

So basically, my question is two-fold:

1. Is there any better way to replace the thumb of the Slider-control than editing it's template?
2. If not, how can I access stuff I've added to the template?

Thanks for any answers!