How difficult is it to re school a pacer ?

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shmoo

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I am thinking of buying one (haven't been to see her yet just calling on others experience at the moment) as she is totally bombproof and will easily carry a novice which appeals to me for family reasons, but I'm guessing won't canter?

I would appreciate advice from anyone with experience of this.

Many thanks :O)
 
No personal experience, but a friend of mine bought one a couple of years ago, and still struggles with canter now. She is more likely to get him cantering on a hack, but still struggles in the school.
 
its really difficult reschooling them to canter and you are giving yourself a ton of extra work and stress (both for you and the horse), so unless you knew what you were doing i'd buy a bombproof normal horse who can canter! even if you know what you are doing schooling wise, you will then be putting a novice up who will not be able to replicate the same aids and who will struggle. It will actually hinder your novices riding as it can be such a battle to get them to canter, and to do proper transitions. I've one i'm trying to teach canter to and a year later our dressage tests are always let down by anything involving canter, its a very tricky process to get them normal!
 
hard but not impossible-had one o n the yard for a while and although she would run,then pace, then finally break to canter, she did have an ok canter and when i rode her regularly the pacing got less and less.

true though that a novice may not be able to manage it though.
 
Meant to add, it also depends what you want the horse for...if it has the perfect temperament for a novice and want it for hacking/fun rides etc, maybe just accept it is a pacer and let them learn to ride it accordingly? There is a lady in our RC who does all the little sj comps on one - she just lets it go its natural pace and jumps very well.
 
Hmm. Sounding tricky. From my point of view I'm a happy hacker and my competing days are long gone, but my daughter (2 years riding experience - and has an ex polo pony) would like to do a bit more. We don't have a school on our yard, which would probably make it even harder? I've absolutely no experience of this, and no one near me who does. Guess its a no then, back to my search. She's 8 - would that make a difference? (Horse that is, not daughter.)
 
Sidney said:
Meant to add, it also depends what you want the horse for...if it has the perfect temperament for a novice and want it for hacking/fun rides etc, maybe just accept it is a pacer and let them learn to ride it accordingly? There is a lady in our RC who does all the little sj comps on one - she just lets it go its natural pace and jumps very well.
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This is interesting. This may be an idiotic question, but if left to her own devices, and used for just my happy hacking, pleasure rides etc would she eventually set her own pace - so to speak?
 
This is interesting to read as my old share horse was a standardbred and it wasn't canter that was the problem it was trot! He would pace instead of trot and go into canter quite nicely from it, it was only in the school though, outside he tended to trot and canter like any other horse. I don't know what work went into getting him that way though, he was a lovely boy but didnt compete as you didnt know what you were going to get!
 
Aah it's difficult but not impossible. I did a couple a few years ago and although you need a lot of time and patience the reward is enormous. I found the pacers I had the pleasure of reschooling to be affectionate, smart and scarily brave. They were tigers during cross country will tackle anything without a second thought. If I had the time I'd have another in a heart beat.
 
I used to ride an old French Trotter who paced, she would only pace in trot and would go at some speed! Canter was not her issue, it was asking her to do a "normal" trot. I did loads of trotting poles with her and she got the idea pretty soon. Perseverance is the key, but maybe it's not the right path for a novice?
 
Pacers are more difficult to retrain than trotters. I've had a number of STBs here on my farm and some, with loads of training, did make the transition, but they were all trotters. The pacers we've had here would canter with us but when going back into 'trot' we could get them to trot but their owners found they continually paced. It takes a lot of work, time and patience to retrain them, and I've found if the permanent rider (ie owner) is not up to scratch on their riding skills then the horse reverts to pacing with them.
 
When I took the wee man on he paced rather than trotted. Took a lot of work to get a normal trot from him but he's managed. Like others have said, he struggles with canter in flatwork and disunites quite a lot particularly on left rein. I suppose it doesn't bother me because dressage doesn't really light my fire (good flatwork does, just not competition) so even if we ever get to do a little one-day event I will expect his dressage score to be terrible! He will disunite jumping in an arena too, but put him on a cross country or jump cross and you would never know except on the odd occasion he will downward transition through pace. He's a real tryer - and a more friendly and charactered pony you could not find.
 
Depends on the horse.

I reschooled a pacer at 13 without any knowledge of Standardbreds and any real experience other than riding my first pony. We jumped, we did Pony Club, we hunted, and *shock horror*, we cantered, on both reins, without problems. She not only raced for several years, she was also by a very hotheaded stallion who passed on his temperament and she could be a real monster when she didn't want to do something.

My current mare, who raced for three seasons, developed a wonderful trot almost immediately under saddle despite being a pacer, and quickly picked up canter in the open. I haven't tried cantering her in an enclosed space because at the moment she's a hunting horse, however she's grasped walk to canter transitions beautifully and my friend who got her jumping for me had no problem getting a canter from her on her track. She jumps out of trot and lands in canter and will also take off in canter.

If you're on Facebook then take a look at the Standardbreds in the UK page - there's hundreds of standie owners asking/giving advice. Don't write off a horse just because it has an additional (favoured) gait. They CAN canter, they've just been taught not to.
 
lelabell said:
I used to ride an old French Trotter who paced, she would only pace in trot and would go at some speed! Canter was not her issue, it was asking her to do a "normal" trot. I did loads of trotting poles with her and she got the idea pretty soon. Perseverance is the key, but maybe it's not the right path for a novice?
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I'm a bit confused about this - french (and all other European) trotters trot, they don't pace. American and British Standardbreds pace or trot (I actually bred a pacer who raced as a trotter last season). Pacing is a completely separate gait with a lateral movement as opposed to a diagonal movement, so a horse cannot 'pace in trot' - it's pace OR trot. My mare can switch between gaits underneath me at speed, I just wish someone could catch it on camera so I can establish how she gets her legs in the right place!
 
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