I’m buying a six year old TB who is athletic, sweet as heck, and an INCREDIBLY fast learner. She was trained to race, but never did. She’s had some ground work done, such as actually learning to STOP when the reins are pulled and how to KIND of turn, haha. I’ve tried her a couple times, and it’s almost scary how fast she learns things.
When I first got on, she could bring her head in to the left (to my boot), but not to the right. As soon as I tried to bring her head in, even if I BARELY wiggled the right rein, she would just scoot to the right. After about ten minutes of working on it, cantering, working on it, trotting, and working on it, she was finally able to bring her nose in to my boot after MUCH reward an praise. We worked on faster and smoother canter transitions, stopping (if she didn’t stop after I sat back and said whoa then we would back up), and circling.
I’ve worked with a bunch of different kinds of horses with all kinds of different problems, but I’ve never worked with an "off the track" TB. I know how I’ll teach her the basics, how to gain muscles, and I know how important patience and positive experiences (praises, relax time, play time, steady paces, routines, good diet, days off, and trust) are, and I believe in quality downtime is very important to let a working horse "just be a horse".
I just need to know the order of what to teach this horse. I know balance first, and then aids, but then what? Should asking for a bend come before or after circle work? When should I introduce collection and half halts? Every time I ride her, should I only introduce one thing at a time and let her get away with everything else?
And I WILL be working with a trainer- a very GOOD and very EXPENSIVE dressage trainer who’s trained her own TB dressage since he was a baby, but since I’ll be basically dumping my wallet on vet checks, vaccinations, and farrier/trimmer jobs, I’ll only be able to get a lesson maybe once a month, especially since she’s a new mom.
Any advice?

First off, thanks for appreciating that horses need time off occasionally and time to "be a horse." I’ve shown at many shows and few people ever grasp this concept.

Second, as far as training, in MY opinion(others may tell you ddifferently and everyone believes their way is the best, lol) I believe that the collection and half-halts can be introduced together but need to be learned early on because that is the basics for the rest of your training in dressage. Also, the bending and circles will help each other so I would also pair those up, and they should also be introduced early and used as building blocks for more complex moves later on. As far as the order of these go, I believe any order would be fine, you won’t hurt the horse by teaching it these things and you will need them in the future to build on. The collection and half-haults MAY help a little with the bending and keeping the horse from getting strong in the circle work, so I would probably introduce those first but either way will work.

I know this might sound strange to some. But I am looking for a way to train my horse to come on command. When close he easily listens. But if we are in the back pasture area and I get far away. Being 3 he likes to run and play and most of the time not listen. Giving me that face of… ha ha you can’t catch me.

So after thinking, I thought a simple dog whistle might work. But asking around the stables no one could tell me if a horse could hear that tone or not.

So I ask this of you all. Can a horse hear that high in tone? Do you think it would work as a training aid or do you think it might freak him out? Or even worse, damage his ears.

I need that 1 tone or sound that I can get him to respond too. I thought about a clicker but figured others would consider me annoying in time due to the sound.
edp: I get get 40 horses to stand at attention in the stables due to 1 crinkle of that same wrapper LOL. I give them all a treat each time I am there and they all know that sound all too well.

Call him at the same click a dog clicker when you reward him for coming, a carrot or something small. After a while he will associate the clicker with rewards and should come when called.

I would prefer the sound of a clicker to that of a whistle, any day!

Whatever sound it is, it is the association that horses learn with.

I know this might sound strange to some. But I am looking for a way to train my horse to come on command. When close he easily listens. But if we are in the back pasture area and I get far away. Being 3 he likes to run and play and most of the time not listen. Giving me that face of… ha ha you can’t catch me.

So after thinking, I thought a simple dog whistle might work. But asking around the stables no one could tell me if a horse could hear that tone or not.

So I ask this of you all. Can a horse hear that high in tone? Do you think it would work as a training aid or do you think it might freak him out? Or even worse, damage his ears.

I need that 1 tone or sound that I can get him to respond too. I thought about a clicker but figured others would consider me annoying in time due to the sound.
edp: I get get 40 horses to stand at attention in the stables due to 1 crinkle of that same wrapper LOL. I give them all a treat each time I am there and they all know that sound all too well.

Call him at the same click a dog clicker when you reward him for coming, a carrot or something small. After a while he will associate the clicker with rewards and should come when called.

I would prefer the sound of a clicker to that of a whistle, any day!

Whatever sound it is, it is the association that horses learn with.