An endurance horse?

Our 25yo standy is amazing to hack. Lovely long forward walk, very comfortable trot and super smooth canter. Non spooky and just the most fun.
My Connie in comparison has very uncomfortable choppy pony gaits. Another vote for standy!
 
Ours is quite small, 15.1hh. But very long strides and moves out quite extravagantly. The pony (14hh) can never even vaguely keep up with her. She's fine in the front or the rear although doesn't love being passed (puts her ears back). When she was younger she would pop a log too, I jumped her upto about 80cm although she's had no formal jump training.
They are used extensively in NZ and Aust as trail riding horses and seem to be pretty tolerant of different levels of riders. And have gorgeous big ears (or ours does anyway).
 
Kirstd33 said:
Keep the thoughts coming folks, Ive never ridden a standy but I keep hearing good things and they certainly seem better value for money? what do they ride like?
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They vary a bit like any breed and if you havent ridden pace before it will feel a bit weird if they slip into that. They are a bit like a hardier less injury prone TB and less prone to drama and with an extra gait. They tend to be quirky funny people. There are generally two types, the ones bred for the track which would usually be a solid colour and 15-16.2 on average ( the chap in my avatar is a very well bred standie) and those bred for road racing (often by a certain section of the community) which are more often coloured. Pricewise they tend to be between £1 and 4k ish depending on the horse and its experience. There are a few facebook groups to have a nose at if you are interested.

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You will see a lot advertised by a couple of rescues from Malta, I wont write my thoughts in public on those
 
teddy_ said:
As others have said, don’t overlook an Arab OP. The Polish Arabs tickle my fancy - they are solid and hardy.
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I have a Polish/Russian Arab and he is quite a sturdy type. He's also a stressy and anxious, but when he tries he really tries and he is showing some promising flashes of kindness (times when he could have ditched me but didn't). I also have a Crabbet who is the easiest kindest horse imaginable. He can be a bit dramatic but always safe.

There's more than one reason why Arabs are so popular for endurance - one of them being that they are so comfortable to ride. Their relatively small size makes them easy to fit under low hanging branches and they are clever enough to recognise the arrows spray painted on the ground to mark the route 😂
 
Hackback said:
I have a Polish/Russian Arab and he is quite a sturdy type. He's also a stressy and anxious, but when he tries he really tries and he is showing some promising flashes of kindness (times when he could have ditched me but didn't). I also have a Crabbet who is the easiest kindest horse imaginable. He can be a bit dramatic but always safe.

There's more than one reason why Arabs are so popular for endurance - one of them being that they are so comfortable to ride. Their relatively small size makes them easy to fit under low hanging branches and they are clever enough to recognise the arrows spray painted on the ground to mark the route 😂
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My friend's retired Arab Kaz learnt to read all the road markings on our hacking routes - it was so funny to see him looking at the road, him noticing it says slow down, and him adjusting his speed in accordance with the road markings.

The best one though was when the markings on the road read give way to oncoming traffic, there was a car behind us who was going to overtake us all, and Kaz parked himself right in the middle of the road so that the car behind us couldn't overtake, and when a car that was in front of us wanted to go past, he moved over just enough to let the car pass safely! We were all giggling with laughter and even the police officer across from us laughed 🤣

Although I do love my Appaloosas and will recommend them till the cows come home - Arab's I have found are something else when it comes to hacking etc - oh and they are mega comfy to ride too - I once dozed off riding a friend's Arab after a heavy night out on the town, she didn't flinch when he rider had dozed off and plodded on home keeping us both safe.....my friend took plenty of videos and photos though and will never let me live it down as long as I live!
 
Hackback said:
Their relatively small size makes them easy to fit under low hanging branches and they are clever enough to recognise the arrows spray painted on the ground to mark the route 😂
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Nobody told me there would be spray paint!
an unanticipated hazard... my tb has a tendancy to believe road markings are portals to unappealing worlds 😂
It may make things more exciting if he jumps all the markers though 🙈

And I like the sound of horse with built in navigation systems!
 
Burnttoast said:
You can do endurance at a low level on any sound horse tbh, so buy a horse you like and that suits you. I crewed endurance for several years and we did the golden horseshoe twice with a horse of unknown breeding but almost certainly 95% TB. The last time I went to spectate at the GH the only gold award was won by a connie.
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Agree. I hack for two hours every day. ANY ‘fit’ horse can cover 20 miles. My horses are a mix. One is a trotter. He will go forever. One a Welsh/TB. The other a warmblood/TB.
 
maya2008 said:
I have a cob x trotter who will arrive home from a 3-4 hour fast hack as fresh as she left and keeps herself fit.
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Amazing breed combination. My Cob/Trotter will go forever too. He’s the one I’d take from the field during a zombie apocalypse to canter off into the sunset. They are a great mix breed. Good feet. Solid legs. This is him after an 18 mile long distance. Went through all the water points too. My back is bad at the moment so, I’m struggling after an hour and a half unfortunately.
 

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fredflop said:
I’d go for a horse that is good out hacking, and go from there.
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Definitely this. You want a kind horse, that loves to hack. I have seen all sorts at endurance rides and I did low level with my cob, fully clipped but he much preferred the cooler rides. Endurance people are lovely and your local EGB group will be happy to help you.
 
The ideal endurance horse is around 14.2-15-2, light to medium build, sound with good legs/feet, with easy comfortable paces and with a curious mind to want to know what's round the next corner.

Don't assume that all Arabs make good endurance horses - they don't. (And don't get me wrong, I love my Arabs, but Arabs come in many different shapes and sizes too. Our Spud, bless him, he's retired now but he was never going to be a mega distance in a day horse - he'd have been on t'phone to t'union. But he loved shorter distance multi days)

There is a good dose of 'horses for courses' too. If you like hills and trickier rides, then something a bit tougher and stockier may be a good compromise. If you want to do fast flat rides, then you're going to want something lighter and faster.

And that's not to say that horses outside of the 'ideal' don't do very well. TBs tend to be taller, but your pay off is a longer stride and generally a very low pulse. Cobs tend to be all terrain trotting machines - but they'll need a bit longer to cool down. You really do see all sorts out there, from Shetlands to heavy horses.

Last time I looked, around a third of the UKs highest lifetime mileage horses were native or native cross.
 
Kirstd33 said:
Keep the thoughts coming folks, Ive never ridden a standy but I keep hearing good things and they certainly seem better value for money? what do they ride like?
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If you get a square trotter, just like tough thoroughbreds. If you get a pacer the canter can be .... interesting!

Not all standardbreds pace.
.
 
ycbm said:
If you get a square trotter, just like tough thoroughbreds. If you get a pacer the canter can be .... interesting!

Not all standardbreds pace.
.
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I worked on a yard in Aus which took the ex harness / scully racers to turn them into trekking horses. Given they'd have complete beginners - all allowed to have a canter down the beach - I can confirm gold star temperaments

I'd never sat on a pacer until then. It was "odd" and most would keep up with the cantering group in trot. I had customers asking why I didn't rise to the trot, but it's more of a sideways sway motion!
 
Another thought I had whilst mucking out this morning - would you consider something like a TB crossed with a native breed?

My friend has a TB x Fell, who has the slimness of the TB, with the hardiness of the Fell and she is an absolute hacking machine! Where I hack, the land terrain can vary loads and change pretty darn quick and my friend's mare has never tripped. She's also got the appetite of a Fell so keeping weight on her isn't a problem 😂 My friend said she adores the cross as it truly is the best of both worlds - so I'd say deffo keep a TB cross in mind :)
 
I did novice level endurance on my 14.2 cob, up to about 32km. He could have gone further (my plan was to get to 50km last year), but got a field injury and is still not back in work, not sure if he will return to it tbh. He won our region's foundation trophy in 2023. He had to be clipped all year round, and was never going to cool as quickly as something finer, or be especially quick, but he did me very proud. We never achieved G1 or G2, I don't know whether we would have ever managed it with more experience. I was over the moon with a G3!

Low level endurance is awesome fun!!

If I were looking to get another with a view to endurance for fun (so up to 50km ish, if we got any further it would be a nice bonus), as well as being a general allrounder/nice person to be around, my first priority would be something that is good out hacking. I assuming you would be getting something already in work, not an unbacked youngster. Something that is happy out and about, not overly spooky and not nappy. Something that is happy in both groups and alone, and ideally doesn't freak out with horses passing (although I appreciate that might need work as a non endurance home might not have much experience of it) and fairly open to new things (like concrete cows!). Something sound of course, with decent legs and feet and no pre existing issues ideally.

Personally (and not everyone would feel this way, especially if you are aiming higher), I would be looking for something that was pretty chilled to deal with both on the ground and ridden. I took my boy to events on my own on multiple occasions and it was a big plus that he was easy and not stressy.

We had huge amounts of fun doing endurance and he was pretty good at the lower levels (having not started till he was 16 and having been an allrounder doing PC teams/hacking and DR beforehand). He was a trotting machine over all types of terrain. However, he didn't have a big stride. Endurance people tend to be lovely and so friendly and quite often we found ourselves chatting to other riders and riding alongside for a bit. However, I found that with a lot of the Arabs they covered a lot more ground very easily, and to keep up I had to push him out of his natural rhythm which risked him falling onto the forehand so actually most of the time we rode alone. No problem, but it did mean he had to get his head round other horses overtaking him and leaving him alone, which some horses might struggle with.

We put a lot of work into his fittening work. It wasn't difficult at all, altho I think other liveries thought I was a bit nuts. We did endless hours and hours of walking to start with. We're lucky that we live in a super hilly area so that helped too. By the time we were competing he was the fittest horse on our yard and looked the best he ever has.

So personally, I would be looking for something that would make things easy and enjoyable - not just at events but for all 365 days of the year, and that might come at the expense of talent, but I would be happy with that as at the lower levels, especially if you're just starting out, I'd prioritise getting round safely and having fun at the expense of competitiveness.

Good luck!
 
A friend and I used to do the endurance PRs,me on my Arab and her on her welshies. The welshies had awesome staying power, but friend's knees would hurt by the end of the ride!
 
Those that know me... know I could do 'chapter and verse' on this topic. You DON'T need an Arab. I'm not saying you can't get one but for Endurance, you don't need one. Any fit, sound horse can do it. Note, a bit ike Pony Club ponies, the good endurance horses change hands on the circuit and are very rarely advertised.

Personally I ride and compete on a Suffolk Punch X. Had a lot of happy miles in the last few years - including Man V Horse in Wales. Don't discount the natives. If you want to know more about Endurance in general, drop me a PM
 
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