Trigger's first freestyle ride

Today was pretty cool as I got to ride Trigger for the first time. We fist spent a good hour at the playground on line making sure we were both left brain and understood each other. I then took him in a fenced arena. I was a bit unsure on how he would react to the flapping windbreakers that line the fence but he didn't even bat an eyelid so off we went to saddle. Again, Trigger was 100% good. He stayed by the tack shed untied and waited for me to saddle him.
It was his first ride in over 2 years and as an ex race horse Trigger goes from left to right brain really fast so I was not going to go hooning. After checking that he would flex on a soft feel and disengaged his hindquarters, we played follow the rail and figures of 8 at the walk, stop back up, a few circles and change of direction.
Then I tried the trot. His head went up instantly and I could feel the tension building up. This boy gets on adrenaline really quickly!!!! Anyway, I persisted as I didn't feel he was unsafe. A few steps of trot, back at the walk...till he could trot calmly. I stayed at sitting trot for today, not wanting to encourage too much speed!
The hardest thing for him is to stop moving his feet but again with "passive and polite persistence in the proper position", we did manage to stand still for 10 seconds. I was pleased with that, and decided we would stop for today in order to ride for tomorrow!!!!
Now I know a little more what I am in for and clearly, we are going to have to work on impulsion as at the moment we have a lot of go and not so much woa!
What I like best about starting a new horse is how quickly they respond. It was only my 4th session with Trigger and he has already achieve so much. The first time he could go over a ground pole without taking a huge leap, today he stood on the tarp, cool and collected!
Even that I know all the theory behind why Parelli works it still feels to me like a miracle each day. I love the look on a horse face the first time they realise that they have found a human who speak their language.