LittleBlackMule
Well-Known Member
Hill work.. that's an idea, thanks.
Rosie are you after a 2nd Doonbeg with the Sable Matters foal?
OP - as others have said they will happily trot and canter it's a case of slowing them down and being patient. Mags in my siggy below is still in training but will happily trot round the roads and spent yesterday playing on the gallops alongside one of our TB's happily keeping up while pacing then changing to a gallop once we started jumping ditches and puddles
We're currently arguing over what to do with her when she finishes racing - Dad definitely wants to breed from her, but I want to try and do some ridden work with her as she has gorgeous paces![]()
2nd Doonbeg?is that a standard bred-sorry for my ignorance??hopefully we'll just have the one in spring from our mare or else hubby will have a coronary!!!
Have a look at the 2nd piece on the front page - reading the piece properly I should probably have said Fool Around though...
http://www.bhrc.org.uk/
Hi Rosie, we're not going to Tregaron this year unfortunately - the horses haven't been quite right and it's a long trek for us. We'll be at Amman Valley on the Monday all being well. If you're at Tregaron Doonbeg's entered for the Electric Mile on the Thursday - should be a fantastic race.
Sadly I don't know Merlin's breeding, but I also have a full-bred yearling who's a granddaughter of Rorschach, so I can honestly say she's pretty well bred![/ i assume your yearling is a skewbald, as was Rorschach, an australian horse?he wonHorse of the Year in the late 90s, by Preux Chevalier out of Mix N Match- but you possibly know all this!!do you know Merlins full name?
rorschach has now pasted away but he was a great stallion
Livinsky - this is just the problem I get with Merlin; if allowed to go his own speed he's not too bad, just a bit flat and heavy in front.
But when asked to slow down it's like he gets wooden legs, it's HORRIBLE to ride! He also gets extremely uneven, especially behind.
When I trot him up for the vet at endurance events, they all think he is unsound. He isn't, I've had him checked out and it's just his way of going, but he really needs to stop it because we're going to be turned away from rides at this rate![]()
Livingsky your Standardbred is very similar to mine:
![]()
I have managed to trace my mare's breeding via her freezemark, she was born in Denmark out of a Danish mare and her sire was American, her grand sire was the famous Speedy Crown who won the Hambletonian in 1971:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDXYWAtlmzo
I have found out my mare has not raced, but she has definatly been trained to race, not sure why she did not race though.
Another picture, just because i think she is gorgeous:
![]()
One thing I found out and this was from watching them at the track, is that they are hobbled to keep them from breaking into canter and keep the false pace.
Hi Livingsky
Your horse looks great and good to see you making progress with him.
I will just object to this quote though. The pace isn't false it is a natural gait for the standardbred, they can still canter with hopples on (not hobbles which tie the hind legs together) the hopples encourage the pace and aid them with balance. But if you've ever watched a standardbred foal in the field you'll see it pacing without ever being handled, and having raced a TB up the gallop on Sunday while riding Mags (below in my siggy) with her quite happily pacing with no hopples on and easily keeping up I don't think you can claim it to be false. Sorry.
Hope you have a great future with your horse.
hi Livingsky. they are hobbles, and not all trotters pace, some do trot diagonally.how are your plans going for your big move?
See you learn something new, in Canada they call then hobbles, well actually maybe it is hopples but with their accent it sounds like hobbles. Who knows (who cares!) anyway I don't get involved with the racing anymore. Have nothing against the actual racing, it's afterwards. I'm sure the UK is much different and once the horses racing careers come to an end they bring them down slowly and re-train them and/or find good homes.
Here they most likely get sent to Ontario to be Amish horses and a life of hell. Many end up at the slaughterhouse or left to rot the lucky few make it to nice homes and there are some super charities doing some good work.
Anyway I better go tell Will and all the others I've found homes for that they are doing it wrong that's not there natural pace at all! Mind you he can do a great natural diagonal pace that out runs the others.
Thank you for your insight, oh and I have seen a Standardbred foal he didn't pace when I saw him racing round the paddock, but he could of been having a off day.
See we call em hopples with hobbles being for hind legs only - I see Rosie calls them hobbles - each to their own etc.
Some over here don't have a happy ending I'm sure, we try to make sure that ours go to good homes once they finished racing - we know where most of our former horses are and those that we don't, it's because the owners have moved away or have sold on beyond our control.
I don't understand what you meant by this though:
"Anyway I better go tell Will and all the others I've found homes for that they are doing it wrong that's not there natural pace at all! Mind you he can do a great natural diagonal pace that out runs the others."
The pace is an additional gait not instead of - ours all walk, trot, canter, pace, gallop.... and the standardbred isn't the only 5 gaited breed - look at the mustang with it's lope and the icelandic horses which also pace and do something else called the tolt.
I wish we had some video of ours when they were foals but we're not breeding at the moment.
Take care and enjoy your horse.
See we call em hopples with hobbles being for hind legs only - I see Rosie calls them hobbles - each to their own etc.
Some over here don't have a happy ending I'm sure, we try to make sure that ours go to good homes once they finished racing - we know where most of our former horses are and those that we don't, it's because the owners have moved away or have sold on beyond our control.
I don't understand what you meant by this though:
"Anyway I better go tell Will and all the others I've found homes for that they are doing it wrong that's not there natural pace at all! Mind you he can do a great natural diagonal pace that out runs the others."
The pace is an additional gait not instead of - ours all walk, trot, canter, pace, gallop.... and the standardbred isn't the only 5 gaited breed - look at the mustang with it's lope and the icelandic horses which also pace and do something else called the tolt.
I wish we had some video of ours when they were foals but we're not breeding at the moment.
Take care and enjoy your horse.
sorry Mags, i am twp regarding trotters tack- i just thought hobbles were hobbles- im not into the finer tuning of trotting!!only going by what the locals call---