Comments on: Teaching your off-track Standardbred to canter

By: Sue

Sue — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 08:35:13 +0000

Brilliant Article, thank you. Ive just acquired an 11 year old Saddler, he started off as a 5 gaiter,and not a comfortable life after several owners. I took him as a challenge to re school to an eventer. Its an amazing journey understanding his do’s and donts. Hes coming on amazingly. Ive steadied the walk and trot…now the canter begins. I manage a few strides with so much praise…stopping’s a problem, but he listens to my voice. We do lots of ground work, bending, poles,Cavalletti. He pops over anything l face him at. Thank you for understand this amazing horse.

By: Bella Frances

Bella Frances — Tue, 12 May 2015 17:39:12 +0000

The Standardbred Horse Fan Club has an excellent Pacer retraining video for anyone with a Standie that paces. Very easy steps to follow for novice to experienced. You can join the club for free too & there is lots of info on the web site.

By: Brook

Brook — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 05:07:28 +0000

Rather than using side reins, I use long reins clipped at the cinch heart, run them up to egg butt snaffle bit, run each in-to-out, then extend back and tie to the saddle or surcingle at rib height. Take up some of the slack but not so much that there’s no relief. Start long and gradually over several days shorten and raise the point at which the rein is tied. I like this better than side reins because the horse can slide his head up and down the rein to find his own relief whereas using side reins with no ‘give’ builds resistance.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 15:19:39 +0000

This is how I found out who my harness raced standarbred is 🙂
http://horseracing.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=horseracing&cdn=sports&tm=67&f=10&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//pathway.ustrotting.com/search/index.cfm

By: emily

emily — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 08:46:34 +0000

hi, my sister has a standardbred and I am trying to find info on her by her number it’s not going hat well. does anyone know someone I can email to find stuff about her or a website to find stuff on her. her number is PR497.

By: jkufeugo

jkufeugo — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:47:45 +0000

Great (:

By: Georgia

Georgia — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:00:29 +0000

Thank you so much! i have just recently taken on a standardbred as a project. He is an OTT and he trotted and then got taught to pace so he is a little all over the place, he has been broken to saddle but never taught to canter, he also hasnt been worked or riden in a few years. when i lunge him he is really good he trots normally its very rare that he starts to pace. i have done pretty much what this article has said, but his canter looks very flat and a little off. we call it a tranter (trot and canter at the same time) but hopefully with alot more practice he will get it. he is very unbalanced and needs to build up alot more muscle. but thank you very much for this, i will give it all a try.

By: Karina

Karina — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 03:18:20 +0000

Wow! This I learn’t so much with this information, now i know why standardbreds dont really canter as much as other horses. It’s because they’re unsure whether they can and whether they’re allowed to 🙂 thanks for all the information.

By: Shanikwa

Shanikwa — Sat, 07 May 2011 04:12:46 +0000

use trot poles to stop the pacing in the trot

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:59:47 +0000

Great article – I trained a couple of off the track Standardbreds years ago but I didn’t have longing equipment or the knowledge to use it if I had had it. I depended on the bending work first and used it eventually to free up the correct lead leg and then used my seat to push. Even one stride was worth a huge verbal reward.