Hi corbengra,
The actual lessons by Florian could be of great help to you.
All horses of all ages wil benefit from liberty work, but I think young horses can really start their lifes in a wonderful way. Using bodylanguage will deepen the bond between horse and rider, this being the horse's natural way of comunication.
Further you could longline your mare for conditioning, without the rider's weight on her back. Anything that is fun doing for both horse and human will bring her forward in her training.
Miriam

Might be sa silly question, but what IS W/T/C?

Walk/Trot/Canter. Miriam, I watched the lessons by Florian and was COMPLETELY disappointed when I clicked on the last video and it said "coming soon"!!!!! I really want to see what the next lesson is!!!!!! Oh why do they leave us hanging like this!!! heehee......

Oh. Makes sense. Thank you for clearing that up. Should have realized. Well, tomorrow we can satisfy our curiosity about it, right? I cant wait til the next one, about the young horses first saddle, bridle, and rider, since I have a young horse, although she has passed that part, still will likely learn something new and helpful, and thats always a good thing.

Yes! I realized after that the next one is being added tomorrow. Made my day :) I think what I would like to know is for example, doing a warm up of walking circles, figure 8's, halting, standing, walking again, mixing it up would that be best to start with? Or should I mix a bit of trotting in there with some transitions etc. If so, how long would be appropriate for a 4 year old? I know with only her being 4, a lot of riding is not good for her. But how much is too much? I do right now do mainly ground work with her, but I don't want her to loose the W/T/C training she's already had? I'm just not sure what to do to keep things interesting for both of us :)

With a young horse this age I think you should keep your riding sessions fairly short particularly if you are doing a lot of circle exercises - no longer than 30 minutes. Make sure you warm up your horse for at least 10 of those minutes just walking with your reins as long as they can be given her behaviour. To start with try to encourage your horse to drop her neck down and stretch her back - I find scratching them just in front of the saddle while holding the reins as extended as possible helps them to drop their heads. Once you have her warmed up then walk with more contact but don't try to bring her all the way in at this stage - that can come later if you wish her to do dressage no need for it if you are just going to ride her for pleasure. Once she has done her walking - say 15 minutes later - do some trotting - figure eights are good as you are changing the diagnol constantly but change it around so that she stays focussed - serpentines, circles, back to walk and practice transitions from walk to trot and halt. Keep your circles as large as possible when working her. Remember she needs to learn to halt and stand quietly so that in itself is a good lesson - see Monty's video on this. Towards the end if she is ready you may do a couple of short canters and practice the trot-canter transitions. At the end allow her to free walk again and stretch her neck down and out. I would also give her a rest day in between her riding sessions. Over time - 6 months or so - gradually increase the time you are riding her until she has one hour sessions. As soon as you feel comfortable and safe try to get her out of the enclosed menage area to do some rides where she can walk in straight lines. Once you can take her out then your time on her can be extended as riding in straight lines at a walk and trot is so much better for them and less strenuous on their young muscles and joints. Too much circle work is not good for young horses and here the breed is important too. Warmbloods need to be older than other breeds before they are taught dressage etc. I rode my warm blood for twelve months on the roads with a loose rein prior to asking her to start dressage when she was five. I was lucky as she was very quiet being an ex police horse. Hope this helps.

Maggie, that's the type of "routine" that I was looking for! Thank you SO much! She is an Appendix Quarter Horse. Once I get my rails up, I will start working on that kind of lesson with her :) THANKS AGAIN!

Corbengra - there are so many good videos to watch re training horses on "horseandcountrytv". See my post to-day.

I haven't been on here for a while and just came across this post. Thanks Maggie as now i have an idea what i can do with Buster when he is ready....not for another year but i have an idea now :-)
Janelle

I should have added trop poles as part of the exercises above as these are really good for helping strengthen a young horses muscles. I use 6 round, 15 cm diameter jump rails about four and a half of my boot steps apart for Tricka. My boot size is 7.5 Aust., 6.5 Us and 5 UK. The distance between the poles will vary with the size and gait of your horse - this is about average. It is also good to incorporate pole work into your on ground work with your horse. Walking over them, stopping midway, backing between poles, backing over poles, walking over a number of poles spread out on the ground like the spokes of a wheels. Lots of different ways of using them to keep your horse interested and attentive during your on ground sessions with the dually.

Ooops! trot not trop above!!

heehee....I was wondering if that was a different term for trotting poles :) Thanks! I will definitely try all of these suggestions :)

I just went out and had a nice short ride with her. Did lots of big circles, halting, transitions, at walk and trot. Then, was feeling so good with how things were going, I picked up a canter for half way around the ring. It was so perfect, I ended the ride with that :) I LOVE HER!!! :)heehee

Well done! Sounds fantastic and you should be proud of yourself.