She would probably be OK, working with that horse. Some how, kids always seem to carry something like that off:)
Few pointers.
1. Most important, that the horse learns to repsect your daughters space. That he doesn't crowd, or isn't pushy with his head. I wouldn't advise any food treats. A pat on the neck is reward enough.
2. And he should be able to stand tied. If he doesn't know to stand tied yet, she needs to do it. To do it, make sure you have a good strong halter and lead rope that won't break, tie him to something solid, leave some slack but not enough that he could get a leg up over it, talk to him calmly, patting his neck, relaxing him. Then move slowly away. and wait till you see what he does when he bumps the end and realizes he's tied. He could really throw a fit, fall down. Don't untie him. Stay out of the way, but continue to talk to him calmly. It helps if he knows the whoa voice command before you tie him.
3. Actually, IMO, if he doesn't tie yet, this should be step 2, then do the tie up. Work on teaching him to lead properly, using voice commands ALWAYS, kiss to go forward, whoa when stopping. He should always stay in place. IMO:), ANY time you have a halter on a horse, they are working, so they should behave like that. Paying attention to the leader. When a horse has a halter on, it is not their fun time. It's your's:). It's their work time. That does not mean it has to be unpleasent for them, but they do need to learn it's time to go to work.
4. If he leads properly, and responds well to voice commands the next step would be lunging and or ground driving. That can be tricky with a horse whose never done it, but needs to be taught before any riding happens. Start by teaching him to walk the circle. IMO:) especially till they have lunging down real good, and respond perfect to voice commands, should NEVER be allowed to go faster then a trot. If they break into a lope or slow down to a walk, or trys to buck especially, you whoa them firmly (and whoa means a full and complete stop), then immediatly start them back up again. After they are doing it good I only let them trot. This is for a reason. If you "let" them walk they can get lazy, if you let them lope they can get out of control. The whole point of lunging is to teach them who is in control. Trotting is the hardest gait for a horse. If you make them stay at a trot, especially if they are wanting to walk/lope they learn you are controlling, they learn obedience. All of this transfers to when you start riding them.
Once a horse starts to get the idea, especially when first learning lunging, as soon as they go in a full circle around, you stop them. That's thier reward. Rest a few seconds, then try again. If a horse lunges properly, obeys voice commands, I never make them lunge longer then 2-3 complete circles, switch directions, and repeat. Once they do it both directions good, Stop. Lunging in my opinion is not to tire the horse out, but to either teach him to obey, or for one who already lunges properly to see their mood, and refresh for a young horse whose in control. When they don't do it properly you never stop:) Do it till they do it right. If you give up, they have won the battle, and the next time you try it will be twice as hard. But the letting them stop after they have done it right is important, it's the reward. Teaches them it's easier to do it right then to muck around. You'll get farther, IMO, with that reward then with all the food treats in the world.
And at some point lunging can/should be done with the saddle on. You don't have to start that way, but you can. Once they're tieing up and standing tied good (and once they do tie good, it's very good disipline tool to let them stand tied for an hour or so), you can go ahead and introduce them to a saddle. Then once he stands tied good with the saddle he can start lunging with it on.
Just remember to have him leading well and responding to voice commands first before starting the lunging.
These are just things to do with a young horse till they're old enough to ride, besides the grooming.
I'm sorry this got so long:), it's just hard to know what to tell you since I don't know where the horse is at training wise. He's plenty old enough to be doing all this stuff.
Becky
Nice job Becky and Tuffy!
All the ground work that you both described is great experience for both young horse and rider. But I really wouldn't recommend a relatively inexperienced rider try to break (I hate that word) a young horse to ride.
I did that with one of my mares back when I was green and didn't know how much I didn't know, and although everything was fine, she never bucked a time, she is not nearly as bomb-proof on the trail as Blade, the one I had trained by a professional. I think Blade would walk off a cliff if you asked him to. Now granted, you've got to make sure that the trainer you pick is good at training horses for the riding discipline you choose. I was interested in a good trail horse, so this guy was excellent. He taught him how to go up and down really steep hills safely, climb over rocks and logs, ford creeks, go through really deep mud, and anything else you might encounter out on the trail. He's better than any trail horse I've ever ridden and he's not even 3 yet.
So all I'm saying is, do your groundwork first, then pick a good trainer to do the rest, at least until you are more experienced.
Becky,
I've just read over your training advice and really appreciated your comments, and thought I would stand in line for some advice.
I'm about to start working with Misty in the round pen again. (I hope, if things settle down here). I haven't done much with her yet, just got her in there and tried to mimic what our trainer was doing with Lightning.
With Lightning, we put him in the round pen, and use the lunge whip to control/motivate him. He responds to it quite well, and does pretty much what we expect of him. Misty, on the other hand, as soon as she hears the whip crack, immediately turns and walks straight to me and stands in front of me. I know I need to establish my space with her, but I haven't been able to get her to do anything else
Misty is a 15 year old mare that has been used as a trail
horse. The previous owner, I've found out, knew less than I do about training, and I think, allowed her to develop some bad habits. He has since told me that he would chase her around the round pen by slapping the ground behind her with a rope to exercise her before riding, and apparently that was the full extent of his training knowledge.
Lightening's trainer watched her do this, and his advice was to sell her and buy another horse. I think it would be less work to get her to come around than selling her and buying another horse would be.