Beware of the OTTB!

Beware of those wild off track thoroughbreds.  They can't be trusted!  10 year old Elaina on 17hh career race horse Steady Smiler.  He looks like a maniac right?

This is the first time I have had E ride him solo.  She did great!  It was interesting to see that she had him on the bit and round for the most part.  I was quite proud of the horse I trained and the kid I trained.  I have to say there was a split second where Steady stepped up into the canter and my heart sank to my knees and I thought OMG he is going to run off with her.  Not that he has ever done anything like that but my irrational mind went there for a split second and as soon as she asked him to come back down he transistioned back to a trot.  I have a feeling she may have slipped her outside leg back because it was a perfect and quite canter transition.  He was totally intuned to her and was sweetly cautious.  It took us about 10 minutes to convince him that he could indeed go faster than a snail walk with a tiny tot on his back.  Having never had a kid on him before I didn't know if he would be more cautious with one.  I guess that answered my question.  We only walk and trotted for about 20 minutes and called it a great day.  E said she felt like she was riding a giraffe.  She had never been on a horse that big but had no issue with it.  Maybe my hopes that he will pack her around BN and N in a couple years will come to fruition.