Standardbreds & cantering.

[SophieLouBee]

Right, so after taking on what was advertised as a tbx (not my horse, producing it for a client), which after it being there a day and me watching it hoon around the field, obvious to anyone that the horse is a SB not a TB. Tut.

It's 5, and has all the knobbles and bumps & conformation faults that it is destined to have (sigh), but is sweet & kind, proving very easy, but moves somewhat like a retard . Cute.

I haven't braved cantering as yet, as she hasn't been with me very long and is just getting to grips with being ridden classically rather htan gypsically/god knows what. Very quick to learn, works nicely, long and low for me, trot is less hurried but is rather huge (looks quite nice actually!). I don't know if the beast can even canter, I haven't seen her do so. She has been shown, so I assume she can canter? Although not certain. She also has upwards fixation of the patella on bad days, where she's been asleep in the same spot for hours, usually waiting for food and her back legs really are a wonky mess, but she is on an intensive muscle correction programme to sort that out.

Any tips? I have watched some, somewhat harrowing vids of a German woman retraining them, gets the job done, but not very sympathetically.

Basically any experience on how to get a goat to do stressage muchly appreciated....

 

[Lanky Loll]

Standies can canter - pretty well actually
What's the mare done up til now? You say she's been shown? They are eligible for some RoR classes if they're STAGBI registered and have raced. Any idea what her breeding is?
I'm currently reschooling one of ours - she raced for the last 4 years (broken to harness at 3, raced at 4, now retired at 8). In that time she was discouraged from cantering unless under saddle, and had never worked on a circle. We've been working on our walk/trot transitions - which are pretty good and are now working on canter - she canters fine in a straight line but circles are really hard for her so I've been lunging her and working on her canter work it's a slow process.
You need to work on slowing everything down. Standies can pace REALLY slowly but will usually trot when asked to slow down. Once trot's established (as the gear up from walk rather than pacing) you'll be able to get canter when you ask them to move up a gear again - this is because it's easier for them to go from trot to canter than it is to go from trot to pace, which will currently be her preferred "next gear" - I hope that makes sense?
Anyway - there are a few people on here that have reschooled standies so I'm sure some of them will also be able to help.

 

[Cortez]

Is she a trotter or a pacer? How long since in training? Suggest LOTS of lunging to start. They CAN canter, just need apropriate muscles and balance and time.

 

[SophieLouBee]

She's unknown breeding, over from ireland, but there's no mistaking that she is a standie or standie cross. No idea on any background.

She trots fine, she has been reschooled under saddle or else she couldn't have been shown in a riding horse class (I am just guessing all this from the small amount of info and some photos we have, she's from the sales), I haven't attempted canter yet as we are totally not balanced enough to even try.

She has been forced into an 'outline' and worked very hard, and needs to totally start again and work properly, luckily she is very quick to pick it up.

I will try and get a photo of her to post, maybe a vid too.

She really is just unknown territory, so I'm just doing everything at a nice steady pace, she will be a really nice horse when she is produced, well pony actually, she's weeny Looks like black beauty, envy of everyone haha.

 

[Shantara]

The standie I ride is a mixed up pup. He is very good at cantering, but sometimes when he loses concentration, he'll snap right back into his weird trotting.
He's so much better out on hacks, but I've not got any video of that.

I wasn't around much for Ned's training, however, we have another trotter (French X, I think) to get him to canter I had to gather him up, in a slow trot or even a walk, then give him a whole lot of energy and that usually sent him into a canter. It took a while to refine it so he'd go straight into it without much asking, but we got there

Apparently also taking them over a jump to ask for canter is good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRwnjsDBl7M

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Sorry no advice but just wanted to say, there's a SB stud near us and they canter quite naturally in the field, so yours may be idiosyncratic but there should be no reason why most SBs can't canter.

 

[brown tack]

A few ex trotters I've come across, all retrained by the same local bloke, I've fallen upon them later on.
I've been told that he teaches them canter from a walk so that they don't pace. Then when the canter is better he then asks from a trot and all though the training he doesn't let them pace (if he can help it)

It seems to have worked, none that I've rode have had issues with the transition, even when jumping etc.

 

[SophieLouBee]

P.S. She doesn't pace, she trots, legs are diagonal pairs, but the back legs are really wide, and the front very close. So rather than a totally new motion, we are just refining one that is already there, it's terrifying though. She almost ploughed me down in the field one day, it's faster than my 16.2's canter!

Why can't people bring me 'normal' horses Although I do love her, really nice mare, on a hack I've never gone so fast in walk though. Speed is phenominal.

 

[Miss L Toe]

My pony had a trotter sire, he had experience in a sulkie as a two year old, but never paced, he was recently put out in a field with an eleven year old driving horse which had never been allowed to canter, they were the best of friends and after a few days of cantering and trotting respectively the driving horse decided cantering was a good idea, otherwise he could never "win " his field races!
I do not ask for a fast trot as this is one reason why they learn to go so wide behind.
The driving horse has been backed and is doing canters, we did this by popping him over cross poles on the corner of the arena.
My own boy is much better at trotting, and I had to buy him a shorter saddle than I would have thought, because his back is pretty flat, and he was finding it tricky to do the canter transition. I like to do long slow canters when hacking to build up the correct muscles.
I did a lot of slow steady hill work to build up the inner thigh, and had him shod religiously every six weeks by a top farrier, this helped a lot, and one can hardly recognise him from the weedy little rat I bought as a four year old.
One question I have, is that he shows a tiny bit of an indent along his topline at top of the rump, I am concerned this indicates a weakness, basically his hind leg conformation is poor, that is to say his cannons are not vertical, they go under him, and his stance is "ballerina", he is a lot better than three years ago, and has never been lame, but I would not allow him to do competitive show jumping, though he is fine doing a few local shows and such.
I note that he has recently started resting one leg or the other when standing, though he has been been in very light work ie walking for eight weeks after six months off work.