Can horses of non-gaited breeds learn extra paces?

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Fat_Pony

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Hope that title makes sense! Basically, I have a friend who has just bought an ex racer. It has a weatherbys passport and has raced in the past. The horse she has matches the horse in the passport and a microchip scan confirms they also match. What I'm trying to say is this horse is full TB, no doubt about it.

when visiting my friend to see her nice new horse, we watched it playing in the field and as well as showing off the speedy TB gallop, it slowed down to show it can pace very well too. Horse was definitely not trotting, we both noticed it.

now friend is worried. Has she infact bought a standardbred or similar somehow disguised as a TB? Why would someone do that anyway? Could a standardbred somehow get onto the racing circuit? Pedigree of this horse is full of well known TB racers. And microchip number in passport definitely matches that of horse.

could this horse be lame and somehow pacing to compensate? Other than the pacing, there is nothing to suggest anything wrong with horse. 5 stage vetting was passed (where microchip was confirmed) by independent vet.

or could horse just have learned this new pace?
 
I don't think they can learn lateral gaits, although paces can of course be modified through various means (see Tennessee Walking Horses). In the states Standarbreds and Thoroughbreds do seem to be crossbred a lot.

Some thoroughbreds do pace, might be worth seeing if there is some Standardbred blood a generation or two back? Or researching to see whether any of the TB parentage paces.
 
I knew an exracer (100%TB) who paced as well as trotted, i used to ride the owners other horse on hacks, i thought he was lame at first as there was something not right, then i realised what he was doing! made me feel a right pillock for not noticing straight away lol
 
It shouldn't be impossible for a TB to be able to pace, after all the Standardbred was evolved from the English TB so it had to come from somewhere..

I had a Welsh section C who used to do a tolt that was as good as any Icelandic, when she got excited.
 
I groomed for a big beefy warmblood in Canada who had a exceptional trot and canter but had a pacing lateral walk. I had thought it was caused by tension or because of his size but he did it most of the time so who knows.
 
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