Tell me about Standardbred Pacers.....

KP nut

I'd rather be riding.
Dec 22, 2008
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Just curious! Might have the option of working with a 4yo ex pacer. Never backed but raced when younger. How hard is it to retrain a pacer to be a ridden horse? And what is the breed like generally? A quick perusal of google suggests they are temperamentally very easy but personal experience is worth much more so I'd love to hear from anyone with experience of the breed.

I've never even ridden, let alone trained, a gaited horse so I will probably pass this offer up, but was just interested in hearing what people think. I'd love to ride pace one day!!! It looks amazing.
 
Oooh they are lovely ! Standardbreds are such a fantastic breed. Ours took to riding no problem at all, the pace was a bit uncomfortable to sit to (quite twisting actually on the 'ol back ! ) and that was his default gait when asked to go up a gear from a walk, time and patience though saw him through and was lovely at the trot. Had a fantastic jump on him as well, he was the most forgiving, lovable, unflappable, calm and beautiful boy I had ever known.

I love them.
 
Pacers tend to be very stiff, they need a lot of suppling work to get a trot out of them. DOn't know about the standard bred temperament, but I can tell you a 5 gaited Icelandic pacer can be difficult to get all the gaits in place, in a clean, pure order.
 
Standardbreds are known to have wonderful temperaments as @Ruskii said. I worked with one when I volunteered at a therapeutic riding stable. He was great with disabled children. If you ever rode a real pace I don't think you would like it though. It throws you side to side kind of roughly. That being said, since they can be trained to trot with suppling and effort from the human, I would take one on. They are sturdy, sweet horses with a lot of versatility potential.
 
When I rode herding on Dartmoor the lady's horse was an ex-racing pacer mare. She still had a tendency to pace when excited, but had developed a trot so HUGE she could easily out-trot my big Quarter Horse at a fast canter. She was a lovely horse, sensitive and eager to do well - if her mum told her off, even a single word, she was quite downcast.
 
Usually good to do
Usually good feet
Usually great temperaments
Usually herd happy
Usually easy to train and willing as well
Usually make decent RC types once retrained
Very comfy to ride one you are used to side to side in trot instead of forwards and back

I rode one for a full ride out and I have to say I came home a lot less jolted feeling than riding an ungaited horse.

I say usually as you get the odd one that just isn't that great and they just are what they are.
 
I love American horses but some things in this thread puzzle me. Even hacking bog standard UK horses the canter is not necessarilly faster than the trot. And the way I was taught to ride, all trot action is side to side under the rider's seat and not up and down.
 
I love American horses but some things in this thread puzzle me. Even hacking bog standard UK horses the canter is not necessarilly faster than the trot. And the way I was taught to ride, all trot action is side to side under the rider's seat and not up and down.

So you rise side to side when your trotting?? Not forwards and back?? Interesting.

When you are sitting the trot on a non gaited horse do you not feel an upwards motion as opposed to a smoother motion on a gaited horse even though it's going much faster??? I rode my friends standard bred and I have to say he was much smoother feeling sitting when pacing flat out than my friends flat racing TB did when I was up into the gallop off his back.

I suppose everyone's experiences are different.
 
I rode one at collage. Lee he was gorgeous, lovely roman nose and a temperament to die for. I actually really loved his pace it was smooth and comfy,his trot was massive! And like J&Z experience he could trot another horses canter.
His canter in a school was not great but he was been reschooled, but get him out in the field he really came into his own in canter and was an amazing cross country horse,jumped for fun. I would have taken him home in a heartbeat I absolutely adored him. He was as honest as they come,in a lesson one day we were doing no stirrup work,easy in his pace but his trot was so huge I really did struggle! But when it came to canter oh dear he had the most up and down bouncy canter and really plunged I to it and coming back down to trot or pace was hard. I slipped clean off the side he stopped dead turned round placed his head down nose in my face as much to say well why on earth are you down there,he was just so incredibly kind.
 
So you rise side to side when your trotting?? Not forwards and back?? Interesting.
Joke? We werent allowed to rise to trot. We were taught classical (or Western) to sit at walk, trot and canter. Plus trotting bare back.
I have never ridden a gaited horse and turned down the chance to ride an Icelandic as I feared it would hurt my back. But feeling the side to side movement is deeply ingrained in us - any horse I get on, I need that knowledge - sometimes shutting my eyes.
 
They are very popular here in Australia and have a reputation as being calm, easy going horses good for beginners. I dont necessarily agree with the last bit.

Certainly they are generally easy to handle on the ground, if they raced they have been exposed to many things, different locations, crowds, dogs, beach, on trucks, on floats. Many are ridden as well as worked in harness throughout their racing career at all three paces which can be lovely when introducing him to his new life as a ridden pleasure horse. Others have only ever worked in harness and always been discouraged to canter but these generally take to saddle training fairly happily.

Most people retrain them not to pace, preferring to work on establishing three solid gaits at walk, trot and canter. They are very capable of doing so. The only advantage i could see in training to maintain the fourth gait of pace would be endurance riding. Some people enjoy riding the pace, most dont. Also bear in mind there are two types of standardbred, trotters and pacers. Often pacers are easier to teach to canter whereas trotters default 'go faster' is just a super-trot.

They tend to be unbalanced and very stiff, have no concept of bending and flexing. They need lots and lots of work before they become balanced in themselves and balanced with a rider and of course this needs to be established slowly at all gaits. Often a pacing bred stb will revert to a pace when unbalanced or confused. It is for this reason that i dontfeel they are good forbeginners, despite beimg generally good natured, a beginner shouldnt be learning on an unbalanced horse.

As riding horses they are most capable as a low level all rounder, quite suitable for hacking, or a pony club type home having a go at everything. At higher levels of any specific discipline they arent as competitive with the exceptionperhaps of endurance.

They can be a bit of a 'dope on a rope' and they are very heavy in the hand, both in groundwork and ridden. For that reason i tend not to get along with them so well, i am more accustomed to arabs and tb who are very light and responsive on the end of a rope. Having said that they are all individuals and i did ride one towards the end of last year that i really liked, very unbalanced and green but very light and honest. Most are - my boy Billy was probably the exception being heavy but also arrogant and knew how to throw his weight around. From the others I've met, most arent like that.
 
Joke? We werent allowed to rise to trot. We were taught classical (or Western) to sit at walk, trot and canter. Plus trotting bare back.
I have never ridden a gaited horse and turned down the chance to ride an Icelandic as I feared it would hurt my back. But feeling the side to side movement is deeply ingrained in us - any horse I get on, I need that knowledge - sometimes shutting my eyes.

No it was genuine, even when sitting the trot I don't find myself going side to side during it, where as riding a horse during pace is definitely side to side and I honestly didn't find it as jolting on my back from sitting a bouncy Trot.

Kia has a funny trot, when long and low it's rather comfy and I don't mind it but when he goes into his proper Welsh cob type action I can find sitting it rather on the bouncy side, but the head comes up, the arse goes in and down and his front really lifts and the front legs are thrown out and I find hovering better than rising or sitting.

Everyone has different experiences and feels things different I suppose, I rode the standardbred in an English style saddle, I'd imagine a western style could have made it feel different again but I don't know if it would have changed the motions feel but who knows.
 
No it was genuine, even when sitting the trot I don't find myself going side to side during it, where as riding a horse during pace is definitely side to side and I honestly didn't find it as jolting on my back from sitting a bouncy Trot.
. . . . .
I'd imagine a western style could have made it feel different again but I don't know if it would have changed the motions feel but who knows.

Thanks Mr C. I dont always write well when I post. We dont sway from side to side as we sit trot. I just feel it in my seat bones and I guess the idea is that one's pelvis allows the horse's movement. Some of this idea is in the book Centred Riding - one's head must be towards the sky.
My experience is that the more built up the saddle, like Western saddles, the harder it is to feel what the hind legs of the horse are doing under one's seat. But Mark Rashid who taught me much of this stuff always rides Western, so I just accepted it.
Now in the film I have seen of Icelandic horses in speeding tolt with adult male riders, the riders do not appear to sway from side to side as the horse goes under them.
And I am not sure how women actually rode gaited horses (which were bred for women). Wally will know. But if they rode with both legs on the same side of the horse, sitting sideways across the horse, it might have been easier for them to rock forwards and back (i.e. matching side to side movement) than to sway from right to left in the direction of travel.

Note that Tolstoy's hero horse, Holstomer (Strider), was a trotter. In this country that is counter instinctive - racing trotters is not familiar to us and we think of TBs or Irish horses as the aristocrats of the horse world.
 
I don;t think the old planchette saddle was built for any serious speed, it was a means of transport.

Tolt is a lateral gait, but a 4 time one, there is no moment of suspension, so it won;t hurt your back. Pace being a strongly 2 time lateral gait with a moment of suspension you do get a very strong side to side sway from the horse, Tolt and pace side saddle are much easier that trot. but a modern side saddle with a leaping and fixed head where the rider faces forwards, not with both feet on a planchette
 
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My friend Svetlana tells me the original Russian иноходь is used only for animals pacing - so for Wally and anyone else who might like it, here is Tolstoy describing the side to side sway as Levin rides out on a Spring morning. Very fresh pony too.

"Setting out at a brisk pace on his trusty little horse, who snorted at the puddles and tugged at the reins after long inactivity, Levin rode across the muddy yard, through the gates, and into the open country.

"Swaying rhythmically along with the ambling pace of his trusty little horse, drinking in the warm, fresh scent of the snow and air as he rode through the wood, over soft, fast-disappearing snow that was covered with tracks, he rejoiced in every one of his trees, with their swelling buds and the moss reviving on their bark."

Tolstoy, Leo (2014-08-21). Anna Karenina (p. 159). Oxford University Press. translated by Rosamund Bartlett. (brilliant exact translator)

Videos show Russian horses pacing at high speed, this horse must have had a trot which was faster than pacing because we are told that after inspecting his workers sowing seed, Levin trotted home in order to have time to eat his lunch.

Also for Wally re the recent ploughing thread - good description here of how Levin walks his horse only along the furrows, and rebukes the men for letting their cart and horses cross the ploughed area.
 
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