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It does sound like a great opportunity for you and I'm so glad to hear that you're doing this the right way and looking for information and guidance. So many people would take this opportunity and just go ahead thinking they know best and end up doing more harm than good. Seems like it'll be a very good thing for you and the horse so good job doing it correctly!

You should do a lot of lunge work and pole with him. I dont know how frequently you plan on working him, but every other to every third time should be lunge work over poles. Right now, you don't need to be on him every time. Lunge work shouldnt just be about him going around in a circle at different gates (thats fairly useless other than to tire him out). On the lunge you can do a lot of bending exercises and pole work to get him using his body and going forward and engaging his hind end. If you want me to elaborate on what sort of exercises you can do Id be happy to explain.

Since youre just starting to ride and work him, keep your rides very short and mostly walk with some trot. They should be positive and about getting him thinking and forward. If he kicks off you have to sit back and ride him forward. If he decides he wants to be an ass and run then let him run but dont let him stop until you decide its time to slow down. If youre afraid of him bucking or rearing than spin him in tight circle (inside leg back, outside leg forward, open inside arm at elbow) and do that until he gives and softens and then his reward is to go forward. Tight circles are good bc its keeps them off balance enough that they cant be dangerous but still allows them to go forward so they release the energy and dont get claustrophobic or bouncy.

As for my background, I live in NH so I'm way too far to help you other than via the internet. I'm 25, a vet student, and have been riding for about 15 years, and intensively training dressage for the past 4. Ive spent a lot of time working with young or problem horses and getting them to learn to use their bodies and soften and move forward properly.

Regarding books, these are the three I recommend most and are my favorites. You should also subscribe to Dressage Today.
http://www.amazon.com/There-Problem-Horses-Only-Riders/dp/061812750X
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dressage-Kyra-Kyrklund/dp/1905693249/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337036500&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/USDF-Guide-Dressage-Jennifer-Bryant/dp/1580175295

Feel free to ask any questions you ahve and I'll do my best to answer. You're welcome to send me anything you want me to look at as well. I can pm you my email address if youd like as its easier to keep in touch long term that way.

/u/4horses hit the nail on the head! It sounds like you're approaching this the exact right way--you certainly wouldn't want to jump into horse ownership at this stage of the game. If you start now though, you'll be set up perfectly for your goal of owning a few by retirement age. The owner of my barn is an equine vet who learned to ride as an adult and I never would have guessed if he hadn't told me. He's an incredibly capable rider! I've known many other riders who started as adults and while some are surprised by the learning curve (it may be humbling in the beginning!), they were all able to achieve a level of ability that they were comfortable with.

As for books, I think the best book for newbies is hands down Centered Riding by Sally Swift. She doesn't use a lot of jargon and she explains things with great mental images. http://www.amazon.com/Centered-Riding-Trafalgar-Square-Farm/dp/0312127340

Good luck and have fun!

I've definitely posted this before, but I love the Car Day Martin Belvoir Leather Conditioner! It's beeswax and lanolin based, similar to Lederbalsam but personally I've had better results with the Car Day Martin product than the Effax Lederbalsm (haven't tested other brands). Since I foxhunt, my tack is unfortunately exposed to a lot of water/mud/moisture and this stuff really protects the leather. My one friend swears by Horseman's One Step but I think it smells godawful, plus I find the name annoyingly deceptive, proper tack care is always multiple steps grahhhhh!

Six years. That was how long it took to take my Arabian gelding from vicious with a side of 'you ought to put that horse down' to nobody could believe he had ever been anything but amazing. My mother did rehabilitation and told me it was unfair to expect him to be anything but a horse in a field. Someone else told me to euthanize because she couldn't ever expect to handle him and certainly never ride him (like I'd have let that moron touch my breyer model horses, nevermind him). I once told a vet determined to beat him for 'lack of discipline' that I'd make him eat the whip and sue him for every penny in his bank (and was the girl who couldn't say a definitive no on my own behalf). The moral of this story is that your daughter is amazing and from one owner of a 'hopeless' case to another, you have all my undying respect. Given a patient, loving handler and enough time, these amazing animals can turn anything around. Tell your daughter to keep going, one day she may not even remember the day the farrier refused to enter the stall. If she hasn't already, try this book. It was one of my main go to guides through a lot of episodes because it is all about communication on their terms.

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Language-Horses-Communicate-Handicappers/dp/0688036201

First of all, welcome to the dark side!! ;)

I strongly suggest you invest in a copy of Hunter Seat Equitation by George Morris. You can get it used a little cheaper. It's like the Bible of hunter/jumper riding. I've read it through a few times, and both I and my trainer still open it from time to time when we have a question or stumble upon a problem. It covers everything!

Best of luck! :)

Favorite book for a while in middle school: The Perfect Distance

Other good books:

Most anything by Marguerite Henry (Misty, Sea Star, San Domingo). I read those alot.

Also Walter Farley (Black Stallion, Man O War).

Seabiscuit


Thats all I'm thinking of off the top of my head. I'm sure some of there ere posted earlier.

EDIT: Also Equus was a good read, had horses in it but I wouldn't say it was "horsey" per say. Definitely more mature than my other suggestions.

First off, I'm still looking for more sources to read on this myself so my recommendations are merely places to start rather than a comprehensive list.

One of the better history books I have enjoyed are the books by Ann Hyland. She combines a love of history with her love of horses and approaches things from a perspective that, even 4000 years ago, horsemen were mostly practical people (just like today). The place you may want to start is The Horse In the Ancient World as that will cover the Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Anatolia regions. She has a completely separate book on Rome (2 actually, Equus: The Horse in the Roman World and Training the Roman Cavalry: From Arrian's Ars Tacticta).

Compared to other history books on cavalry and warfare, I find Ann Hyland to understand the mindset of horses and horse people better than traditional college professors and historians. Although historians can gleam the how and what from their sources, I find they don't necessarily understand the why of horsemanship practices as they don't usually have personal experiences around horses.

Another, slightly more general, book on warhorses that I have read is by military historian Louis Dimarco. He wrote War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider. He goes through history covering noteworthy periods from the rise of chariots, the Mongolian horde, the American Indian wars, to even chapter on the use of horses by American forces in Afghanistan. His book will focus far more on military applications, whereas Hyland will focus a bit more on the equine development.

Both of these authors have good standalone books, but to really understand the topic, I highly recommend you read both.

There’s a lot of garbage online, to be honest.

The Pony Club manuals are probably one of the best places to start as Pony Club is very safety focused. Start with the D manual.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118123786/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_I8YYCb2FZT2N8

I got started through 4-H when I was a lot younger and that helped me a lot. But I say definitely go for it! If she's older than around 5, running her shouldn't injure her, just take it easy and don't run her a lot. If you have the money, take some lessons, or if you don't there's one holy grail barrel racing book that I recommend called Charmayne James on Barrel Racing. And if you get started and need any help at all, I'm a professional barrel racer who competes in pro rodeos across many different states so feel free to ask me anything!

Shadow Horse by Alison Hart is a FANTASTIC book!! I picked it up at a garage sale at like 8am, picked it up around 7pm that day- slept for like 2 hours and finished it around 11am the next day. I couldn't put it down!

There's a book called Blind Beauty. It's a young adult novel with some very adult themes to it. It features a horse that (if I remember correctly) is missing both of its eyes and a girl with a very dark past and present. It's really a good read if you're not looking for something easily digestible.
EDIT: http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Beauty-K-M-Peyton/dp/0142403512/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343956915&sr=1-1&keywords=blind+beauty

HOLY CRAP!!!! I read this book when I was 11 years old, forgot about it, and thought and thought about this book for the past year. I know the premise of the story, but couldn't get my head around the name. The book's cover completely reminded me of what I had missed!! :) Thank you for bringing this story up again, and if you hadn't known already, there's a sequel to Shadow Horse called Whirlwind!

As mentioned above, I’m using something comparable to the crimped brass version in this little set.

Detailing Wire Brushes

ETA: it is roughout that I use the wire brush on.. I haven’t touched the suede seat yet, but I have used very fine sandpaper in the past to gently add some grip back to the surface.

I think everyone should be required to have the horse owner's veterinary handbook It's really good stuff!

That's not a question that can be answered in a comment :-).

If you're really interested, I'd suggest reading The Complete Training of the Horse and Rider by Alois Podhajsky. It's more or less the bible of dressage.

I use Belvoir conditioner for my saddle's monthly conditioning.

I used Stubben Hamanol on my leather driving harness before I switched to a betathane harness. It works well and supposedly won't stretch the stitching, but takes a while to soak in and has a slight bacon scent.

Makes me think of this.
http://www.amazon.com/Album-Horses-Marguerite-Henry/dp/0689717091

Let me google this for you? 1, 2, 3