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.
Very good advise. I agree.
Becky
Good point. When I was working with Juma, my first baby, I did all of his groundwork, had him standing tied, picking up his feet, lunging etc and I was planning to be the first on his back but chickened out and sent him to a professional trainer. I really hate pain and I don't heal up as fast as I used to.
The one thing I didn't do that turned into a problem later was loading him in a trailer. I was wishing I would have done that training when he was little...