French Trotters - Anyone got one? Do they make good allrounders?

Storminateacup

Storminateacup

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Just want to know what the temperament is like generally, as friend is looking to buy one.
He is five and bought out of racing as too slow.
Any experience good or bad would be appreciated

Has anyone successfully retrained them and do they make suitable allrounders, or are they fizzy and silly.


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My friend has got one at the moment and is really struggling to get a correct three beat canter out of him, its either fast trot or 4 beat canter
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How long's your mate been working on getting canter?
We find some of the pacers "switch over" easier than others, for some they canter fine when loose but with weight over rather than behind them they seem to forget where their legs should go
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One I'm working at the moment will do a perfect collected canter in harness but being ridden gets all confused, so I'm just working her in the field when I want to do canter work so that she's got room to sort her legs out without having to worry about bends. Once she's happy with that I'll start working her in the school under saddle to strengthen her up.

Oh and OP - if they're anything like the standardbreds we use over here, they usually have a great nature, with a tendancy to slight grumpiness when racefit (usually manifests as "puny human bring me my feed" and being a bit standoffish rather than anything nasty).
We know of some that have gone on to hunt (one is a field master's horse
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) and the one's we've sold on are variously used for pleasure riding / ride-n-drive / endurance and so far all positive feedback from teh new owners.
 
A friend of mine had one........gorgeous boy, but many many months of sweat and tears later had to give up,due to the canter issue. Someone who "knew" said "What do you expect? It's a trotter!" which in hindsight was obvious! However, someone else I know also had one, loved it to bits, and took it eventing to a decent level. Maybe they, or someone else before, had more months to spend sweating and crying?
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If he's a nasty git then it makes persevering harder I'm sure.
Has he had the obvious checks?
They develop slightly different muscle groups to regular horses due to being encouraged to trot or pace (depending on which style of racing) and discouraged from cantering.
Ours do all pace in the field without harness but they canter too on their own. We usually find it takes about 6 months of not being driven for them to be fully comfortable trotting and cantering rather than pacing.
 
Ok... they usually have normal legs
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So I'd guess that was the problem - has she had them checked?
Considering that they race on either all weather or bumpy grass tracks ours have all finished up with "good legs" to the point that our vets are surprised as a TB with the same workload would be expected to have much more wear and tear, and it does seem to be a breed trait that they're tough little horses.
 
my friend has one and she a total sweetheart, I have ridden her for my friend when she goes on holiday and she is really kind to me (am a bit of a wimp!). She events her to Novice and has qualified for Badminton grassroots next year.

She too had issues with the canter (or lack of) but hard work and perserverence has paid off and she's doing really well.


At the end of the day they are all individuals aren't they!
 
I have re-schooled one, it was problem getting a correct 3 beat canter at first as he would trot behind and canter in front. We solved this by teaching walk to canter and riding forwards, now he is winning unaf dressage and has a really lovely easy canter, in fact nicer than his trot sometimes! He is also jumping although to be fair he's not the most natural but does enjoy it!!
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I have one who canters fine, raced years ago,hacked on and off since. Have met alot of french trotters all have exceptionally nice willing natures. Some have great jumps! The ones i have seen seem to pick up cantering quickly, some come over cantering ok, depends what they have done before. Can say they have all turned out lovely horses.
 
You asked about temperament. All the people I know who have owned French Trotters have only nice things to say about them.

If I were looking at an older horse who had had a long life on the race track I would certainly want a thorough vetting.

I don't know how well they perform when retrained - but my first horse was purchased for ride and drive - at first he would not canter but we reached the point where he would canter from a walk.

I have a CB bought as a three year old and backed by an experienced friend. She was easy as pie but could not get the hang of cantering with a rider. I found giving her a blast up a steep hill did the trick.

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Hi, i also have a pacer. She has always trotted and cantered normally in the field when loose. I agree the canter is hard work to achieve the 3 beat. As a previous poster has suggested, try cantering up hills and in a straight line, it really does help. As to your friends being an evil git, i'm surprised..all the ones i know are such sweeties, so polite and quick to learn. I have found that slowing every thing down helps, and asking her to work long and low has really helped her back muscles to develop. Now her trot is established and she really tracks up well. As for jumping, well this is where her heart lies, nothing fazes her, coloured or xc, she pings everything and is always in the ribbons. I would definately buy another!
 
I have owned a Standardbred Trotter for the last 2 years and she is a total sweetheart. Again, i am having issues with ridden canter, i have just managed to slow her trot down and getting her working from behind, but when asking for canter she either paces or canters in front and trots behind.

I am concentrating on getting her to canter in straight lines and slightly uphill at the moment out hacking before introducing it in the school, but as i don't compete and she is my hacking buddy if we can't achieve canter i won't worry.
 
My first horse, Jake, was a French Trotter. He was a beautiful 16hh chestnut. He was the softest, kindest horse you can imagine. He was totally trustworthy and so bombproof on the roads.
I didn't really have a problem with his canter except he was a bit tricky to get right canter (left was fine!). I didn't ever do any schooling with him though so I'm sure he would have improved with time.
I had Jake as a 7 year old and I had to have him pts 2 years ago at the age of 15 due to a bad colic attack. I still miss him
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I knew one. Like others have said, she never did manage a three beat canter, reverts to pacing when in the field/out hacking and she's proper grumpy to boot.
 
someone i know has one...she's had to work VERY hard to get it cantering but think she now does ok dressage with him...but she does lunge in pessoa/long rein about 3 days a week for about 1 hour sessions... personally i would just buy something thatt didn't come with the risk of blood sweat and tears but then thats just me
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temperament wise the one i know is a bit grumpy and its had soundness issues- but only one i know so might not be typical
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the orange beast in the middle of my sig is a standardbred pacer.

Seriously one of the best horses iv ever owned. so versatile, and so so clever, took me 10 weeks from buying him (all he could do was walk and pace) , and on our 10 week own-iversary we went to a hunter trial, entered the intermediate 3'3 he cantered all the way round (not to mention jumped haha) and we won it

Seriously cannot reccomend these trotter/ pacer types enough, they are just as capable as any other horse and so so rewarding
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and as for people that say they cant jump...hows this for scope?

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xx
 
I have a french trotter and previous my old mare I had PTS this April was a pacer, she looked like a standardbred but I was sold her as a tb.

I loved my mare so much and owned her for 19 years but she was a typical grumpy tempermental mare who paced when ever she stressed but we did local competitions for equitation etc.

My new boy who is a french trotter has a fantastic temperment and he would try his best to do all he can for me even though some schooling work he finds hard as his legs weren't made to go like that!! He doesn't pace and wasn't trained to race although he was bred to race.

I have done my first dressage on him this year and we entered the arena at canter then all the trot movements he wanted to canter, canter, canter.... not bad going for a trotter!!!

He has had an issue with his stifles but nothing too serious and has currrently got a swelling on fetlock but no lameness so not sure about the extra strong limbs just think its the luck of the draw.

I wouldn't swop him for anything and he is such a friendly horse, more like a big soppy puppy to be honest!!!!

My old mare 2nd picture from left. The rest of the photos are of my boy the FT. You could join frenchtrotters.freeforum.org as there a lot of people on there who have retrained ex trotter racers and understand the problems that come with them.
 
i have owned a french trotter for the past 6yrs his temperment is the best and totally layed back. Canter was big problem and with lots of work and help from friends he is being placed in dressage he has got 14 rossettes from 1st to 4th and is jumping 3ft at the moment with scope to go further i wouldn"t swap him for the world. :D
 
i dont think it matters on how much we slow their canter down to get them to work behind they will always go back to their trot mine loves going for it up hills and at the end of the day there trot is a part of them and it wont go away we do dressage and jumping and lucky enough tohave new forest to hack out but there is not 1 thing i would change in my boy
 
I have one and after 3 years I still cannot get a decent canter out of her in the school. On the other hand she is a fabulous xc horse and team chaser but couldn't cope with hunting at all. Temperament wise she is fab if a little dizzy, but she's turned away at the minute while I work out what to do with her next!!
 
Storminateacup said:
Just want to know what the temperament is like generally, as friend is looking to buy one.
He is five and bought out of racing as too slow.
Any experience good or bad would be appreciated

Has anyone successfully retrained them and do they make suitable allrounders, or are they fizzy and silly.


smile.gif
Click to expand...

I have a fantastic french trotter gelding that I have had for two years, I took him on loan unbroken and really messed up and badly abused as a youngster, he now competes at 1.05m showjumping and is regularly schooled and competed at 65cm by an 11 year old! She has jumped him 95cm and hacked him out. He hacks alone and in company and drives, I got him when I was 15 and backed him, he used to rear and buck due to the abuse but now is never silly. He can be quite strong as he is only 5 and likes to go fast but with novices they can walk trot canter and jump without any fear of him taking off or being silly. My nervous mum hacks him out alone and with her friends.
They are the most fantastic horses to own and are brilliant to school. He goes perfectly in an outline and has dressage paces :D!
He loves schooling work but can be impatient.
French trotters are sloppy slobbery horses that love fuss and attention, I know a breeder who bred my horse before he was sold to some unsavoury characters. They are all handled and ridden by children, even the 16hh + stallions, if you get the chance get them, they can do anything from dressage to hunting, cross country, mine does everything and is never nasty tempered :)
 
gemini87 said:
I have one and after 3 years I still cannot get a decent canter out of her in the school. On the other hand she is a fabulous xc horse and team chaser but couldn't cope with hunting at all. Temperament wise she is fab if a little dizzy, but she's turned away at the minute while I work out what to do with her next!!
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Try getting her to follow another horse in the school until she canters ans work on it, when I got mine the poor thing didn't even know how to canter, he now goes like a hanoverian :)
 
CarmaandFlin said:
I have a french trotter and previous my old mare I had PTS this April was a pacer, she looked like a standardbred but I was sold her as a tb.

I loved my mare so much and owned her for 19 years but she was a typical grumpy tempermental mare who paced when ever she stressed but we did local competitions for equitation etc.

My new boy who is a french trotter has a fantastic temperment and he would try his best to do all he can for me even though some schooling work he finds hard as his legs weren't made to go like that!! He doesn't pace and wasn't trained to race although he was bred to race.

I have done my first dressage on him this year and we entered the arena at canter then all the trot movements he wanted to canter, canter, canter.... not bad going for a trotter!!!

He has had an issue with his stifles but nothing too serious and has currrently got a swelling on fetlock but no lameness so not sure about the extra strong limbs just think its the luck of the draw.

I wouldn't swop him for anything and he is such a friendly horse, more like a big soppy puppy to be honest!!!!

My old mare 2nd picture from left. The rest of the photos are of my boy the FT. You could join frenchtrotters.freeforum.org as there a lot of people on there who have retrained ex trotter racers and understand the problems that come with them.
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Gosh yours has a problem with his stifles aswell? Was he ever driven, mine was driven from 12 months old!! WAY TO YOUNGG!!!! So he has loose stifles in both back legs and couldn't be stabled, I had him out for a year and half and now he is stabled full time at my college and his stifles are fine
 
lucille said:
the orange beast in the middle of my sig is a standardbred pacer.

Seriously one of the best horses iv ever owned. so versatile, and so so clever, took me 10 weeks from buying him (all he could do was walk and pace) , and on our 10 week own-iversary we went to a hunter trial, entered the intermediate 3'3 he cantered all the way round (not to mention jumped haha) and we won it

Seriously cannot reccomend these trotter/ pacer types enough, they are just as capable as any other horse and so so rewarding
smile.gif


and as for people that say they cant jump...hows this for scope?

5374_211923595021_644410021_7677970_2805390_n.jpg



xx
Click to expand...

They say my french trotter can't do 2ft6 apparently, when he is competing at 1.05! And has cleared a 5ft2 fence!!!
 
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