On the phone when she’s out of the country 
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
<So if he’d never been driven then how did you come to drive him? A horse has either been driven or it hasn’t and again IME its VERY easy to know and within minutes of attaching long reins and driving them.>
I trailered him to a trainer and she helped me. I had done ground driving with him in the ring mostly just walking and he is a very exceptionally clever horse (pony-like really :lol: ). And then I brought him to a trainer 1x a week and she taught me and him together. I had before 2 lessons on one of her horses.
I’m guessing he must have had some kind of training to drive because he took so well to it, like he’d always done it. He didn’t have any problems with anything. Well except when the mini came. Jeff is TERRIFIED of minis, ponies, foals any small horse. He’s scared to death. He didn’t do anything though. He just stopped and stared like his world was ending, the poor old man. Those minis really are scary!
When I drove Jeff on my own it is funny because I’d bring him down to the cart and he would act a little “antsy” (which for Jeff is really not that much antsy but antsy for him) and I would think, maybe this isn’t a good idea. But the second he felt the shafts at his sides he’d settle and then just stand there very quiet.
It was a really awful cart I had though. I bought it before I found the trainer. It really did not fit him. I ended up selling it to someone who wanted it displayed on their lawn. Perfect. 
Then I splurged (see this was BEFORE I became a grad student LOL) and ordered a nice road cart from Running Brook Farm. And within a week of them calling me up and saying my cart was ready Jeff went lame big sigh. So I had to cancel and that was the end of the story. Jeff is still a bit lame but he just bums around in his pasture with his buddy. They are living the good life 
Still it would have been so nice to be able to keep driving him. He really seemed to fit with it.
Under saddle he was very behind my leg and it was hard for me to get him in front of my leg. But in the harness he was so much more willing to move forward. I got in the awful habit of nagging in the saddle with him but in the cart I didn’t have to. He just would go. One time I was asking him to go a little bit more at the trot in the ring during a lesson and he cantered without being asked to. He would have never done that under saddle.
Anyway, thanks again for the advice and help.
Many times a STb may race but never break its maiden and other times it may just be trained and then cut loose when it just isn’t fast enough.
So it is very possible and likely your Stb was trained to drive but had never done anything at the track. And if he got a bit antsy when you were hitching him it was most likely anticipation, kind of a getting psyched up. They are race horses and most hit the ground competitive.
