# Ex racer for pleasure driving



## Clayton Taffy (May 24, 2011)

I have read your post and I need to think about this one!


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## Mazza007 (Mar 13, 2012)

Thank You!


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## JulieG (Jun 25, 2013)

The horses I lease are both Standardbreds and are used for pleasure riding and also for driving.

They seem to love doing both!


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## Lilley (Dec 13, 2011)

my little haflingers do both and are not confused at all. I don't know if you would need to worry about him wanting to race. I guess it depends on the horse.

BTW, we call them pacers in the US also.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

No, you won't confuse him.....but I would treat him as if he had never pulled before, start at the beginning with cart training, because he will need to learn word commands while pulling. Whoa being #1 !!!

Good Luck with the project!

Nancy


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## Clayton Taffy (May 24, 2011)

Taffy Clayton said:


> I have read your post and I need to think about this one!


 

I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote this.
I must have read the question wrong or something. 

Like everyone else said... Sure you can do both! Most of our driving horses do both. If you can get double duty out of your equine it makes it a lot more fun!

Good luck! 
With an x-racer you need to take it really slow, lots and lots of walking and standing. X-racers often make great pleasure driving horses.


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## JulieG (Jun 25, 2013)

I will mention that the main horse I ride was a driving racing horse first.
She's retired now and green broke, and the only problem I really have is that sometimes she gets a bit nervous of me being on her back instead of in a cart behind her.

One she realizes that I'm still in charge when I'm on top of her everything is fine, just took her a few rides to get used to it.


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## GreySorrel (Mar 5, 2012)

greentree said:


> No, you won't confuse him.....but I would treat him as if he had never pulled before, start at the beginning with cart training, because he will need to learn word commands while pulling. Whoa being #1 !!!
> 
> Good Luck with the project!
> 
> Nancy


OP, Nancy has it spot on. I would treat him as if he had never driven before and started from the ground up, as it never hurts to refresh a horse of the basics. We do that with our big team each spring when we take them out of pasture to start conditioning them for the year, they love it and I love it and we both get exercise in the process of a few days of ground driving!


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## Mazza007 (Mar 13, 2012)

Thanks everyone for your replies, thats great news. I'll have to start looking around for a cart, will let you know how it goes!


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## equestrianfriend (Jun 27, 2013)

I think if he was an ex pacer nooo. I know someone with an ex pacer standy is very moody and easily spooked because of it.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I would say yes. 

Other than on the infrequent race day, pacers are worked slowly and calmly in their jog carts, not even the racing bikes. During off season many go back to their farms and when being brought back after a lay off, they are often walked and jogged on farm roads around corn or what ever is grown.

I knew some people in Michigan who used to take retired STBs and get them going for pleasure driving. They initially worked them at a fairgrounds on the small dirt track there. They kept it slow and relaxed and didn't have a problem. They introduced four wheeled carts as they went.

There are few naturally gaited pacers, so many of the pacers they took, simply jogged/trotted along without having hopples on.

Good luck. I love STBs as a breed.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

I would be cautious, depending on the horse he may think he is sposed to be off at the races.
The Pacers are run here in Cali, along with trotters, (not in the same race) . I rode one years ago, and it would still on occasion pace, and that was hard to stay on ! lol


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## Mazza007 (Mar 13, 2012)

Yes, Id be taking it nice and slow. He can be a spooky horse already, he saw a pig yesterday and had a major meltdown (obviously a horse-eating pig!)

I'm guessing that he's a natural pacer ?? He will trot under saddle but pacing is his preferred gait in the paddock.


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