Training a retired driving horse to ride
We recently rescued an older percheron mare from auction and we are in the process of rehabilitating her and working with her. We were told she rides and drives but when I got on her she didn't seem to know what any of the leg cues meant and was very hard to steer with the reins. I had to hold my hands very wide and really pull to get her to move in the direction I wanted her to go(granted I was only riding bareback with a halter). She wouldn't move forward when I kicked or squeezed but she did move forward when I said walk on. I'm thinking she has done way more driving than riding if she has done any at all. She has no problem with me being on her back she just seems a little confused by my cues. She seems to know some verbal cues like walk on, back, and woa. I don't really know much about driving but I am looking for advice on what the best way to teach her to be a riding horse would be. Are there other verbal cues I should be trying to use to see if she does, in fact, know voice commands? Also, how should I go about introducing riding cues like leg, seat, and rein cues? Is there specific tack that I should use to make the transition easier/clearer for her? And she doesn't seem to be very good at picking up her feet for very long. Is there a way to help her to be better about that? She has some gnarly feet and we don't have stocks for trimming. We already had a draft cross but she is our first pure draft and she seems to be a bit different in some unexpected ways (not that that's a bad thing just means more learning for us to do). Thanks in advance, I love her already and I really want to make this work! I'm not looking to make her perfect just good enough to take on some occasional trails for fun.
P.S. I know her eyes are a little crusty in the pictures, we have since sorted them out and the vet said they were caused by allergies and we have her on daily eye ointment and a fly mask now. She looks much better now! We are also helping her to gain more weight because she came from the auction pretty thin and sad looking. We would also welcome tips for helping her build a better top line as she really needs more muscle up there!