# Retraining that standardbred



## horseboundmom28 (Dec 10, 2007)

Last fall we bought a pacing standardbred mare, Bunny, just off the track. This is my then, 14 year old daughter's project. This mare is so sweet, but was offish with her head. She would never look straight on at you. Her head was high and she paced. 

My daughter mounted her after we worked with her to be sure she had the ground manners and then to be sure she would respond to bit. She is just the most gorgeous, proud moving animal and from the minute my daughter mounted her, they became one. Bunny is like a model on the runway!

We constantly work on getting her head down and she is beginning to supple, but it is a long process, because she was run with hobbles and the bars they use to keep the head up. Now we are asking the total opposite of her. Muscle changes have to happen and she just has to be allowed to walk, trot or canter as a horse should. To teach her to trot, we laid a ground pole where she would be asked to trot and also small circles would bring her out of the pace. She will now canter after the jump, but still goes into the pace. It all take time and patience. Right now she is just being a horse and I see her cantering and trotting on her own. In the spring we will work with her again and I think she will really be ready. She will make such a beautiful dressage horse the way she moves.

Let me hear your stories of retraining.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I may have posted this story before but anyway. I had an OTTB mare that had been trained in the hunter jumper/eventing area by her previous owner. I bought her (rather my husband did) as a trail horse. I spent 2 years teaching her not to jump over things but to step over them on the trail. She was a beautiful horse with great ground manners and did everything asked of her in the arena but was a squirrel on the trail. I ended up putting her up for sale and who should come to look at her but a trainer from an eventing school. She brought some jumps with her and I though "Oh no she won't jump them because I have taught her not to" Well after a few times around she came to the jump, hesitated for a split second with this look in her eye like "what am I suppose to do" then over she went. The lady was thrilled with her and bought her instantly.


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## horseboundmom28 (Dec 10, 2007)

My daughter jumps her standardbred and she will jump anything. The hardest part is ocassionally she paces into the jump. It doesn't work.. Wipeout! The pole goes flying, but I will guarantee you the next time she will trot. I think there is such a restructuring of the physical and the mental from racing. Our mare was 9 when we got her. Standardbreds are extreemly intelligent in my opinion. 

We have a morgan cross from a trotter. This little thing as a baby would jump the high grass just to jump.. I also saw her jump our electric fence. They are born jumpers and so underrated for saddle horses. We are so in love with their temperment, attitude and willingness to please. I highly reccommend the breed, but better yet, the crosses are awesome!


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## jazzyrider (Sep 16, 2007)

horseboundmom28 said:


> My daughter jumps her standardbred and she will jump anything. The hardest part is ocassionally she paces into the jump. It doesn't work.. Wipeout! The pole goes flying, but I will guarantee you the next time she will trot. I think there is such a restructuring of the physical and the mental from racing. Our mare was 9 when we got her. Standardbreds are extreemly intelligent in my opinion.
> 
> We have a morgan cross from a trotter. This little thing as a baby *would jump the high grass just to jump*.. I also saw her jump our electric fence. They are born jumpers and so underrated for saddle horses. We are so in love with their temperment, attitude and willingness to please. I highly reccommend the breed, but better yet, the crosses are awesome!


thats funny! my stb loves to jump too and if there is a longer patch of grass or a darker patch of grass, he will jump it lol so funny cause half the time you arent expecting it hehehehe


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## horseboundmom28 (Dec 10, 2007)

Standardbreds have sure been under rated for their abilities. How old is you horse, princess, and what is it's background? I love to hear stories of retraining, etc.


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## jazzyrider (Sep 16, 2007)

horseboundmom28 said:


> Standardbreds have sure been under rated for their abilities. How old is you horse, princess, and what is it's background? I love to hear stories of retraining, etc.


my stb is the one in my new avatar, the other one was my tb 

cougar is 24 and did about 10 years of cross country before the people who got him before me. he was a confidence/school horse before me. he did race for four years and did reasonably well but was retired at age 8. im not sure what he did between retiring and cross country but i can only assume it was retraining


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## equineangel91 (Oct 8, 2008)

I adopted Yankee Dusty, He was quite the racer and he won over 800 thousand dollars from trotting. He was unsaddled for years and actually had only ever been ridden in a western saddle a few times, though he wasnt trained, he just was calm enough to sit on.
I got him now when he was 12. I've adopted him in april and have had him since. When i got him, he could only trot, unbalanecd, and couldnt canter to save his life. He was so emacciated and weak he could barely walk around himself

Since then he's gained weight, he's 16.3 and is bay. He's been doing so well. I've managed to get him to canter, even full circles. He's still very quick at the canter though. If i focus i can even get him to collect his trot, it takes a looot of work and we stilll have so far to go. Im training him to be a jumper, he can jump 3 ft at the trot so far. I havent jumped him in his canter yet since its too fast, but he's come so far in sooo little time, that im so excited about how much potential he has.

retraining him was an incredible project, and considering he;s the first horse ive ever owned, i feel so proud knowing that working together we were able to come so far. He'll be showing in spring

I know what you mean about that jumping!!! my standardbred will overjump anything and everything. He turns 3ft into 3ft 6 and 2ft 9 into the SAME. he loves jumping, he jumps his water trough when ppl arent looking! hahahahaha


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## Ray MacDonald (Dec 27, 2009)

My STB mare liked to jump trotting poles!


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## JavaLover (Nov 7, 2009)

I'm still trying to teach my standardbred to trot under saddle.


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## shesinthebarn (Aug 1, 2009)

Yay! I love to hear stories of standardbreds getting second careers in loving homes. I have such love and admiration for these intelligent and loving horses - they have paid my mortgage and put food on the table for my family for many years. I'm not sure what states/provinces you all are from, but may I suggest that you investigate if you have a stbd adoption association. They can be a great resource, and can put you in touch with other stbd owners. 
With regards to trying to get the horses head down, do lots of bending and lateral work. They also like it because it engages the mind and takes it off the "go fast!" button
OP - is your horse related to Precious Bunny? I just wondered because of the name Bunny...

Oh, and if anyone in Ontario is looking for a STBD trotter, I have one at the farm who is looking for a forever home - I;m pretty sure the owner will give him away for free!


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## nahoa (Jul 6, 2011)

mt standy is an ex-pacer and before we bought him, he was out of ANY work for 3 years!!! so he had some clue of what he was doing but still wasnt sure!!! with my stb, when he was pacing after the canter.... we set up some trot poles and we would canter him up to the and once we got there, we pulled him back and trotted him over them... we took one pole each time we rode him so now he just comes into a trot from the canter without pacing but we had to remember to take our time because he had all the wrong muscles and that when they are confused, they go back to the things the learned when they were younger as it is the easiest, comfort-ablest thing they know how to do.


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## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

horseboundmom28 said:


> We constantly work on getting her head down and she is beginning to supple, but it is a long process, because she was *run with hobbles* and the *bars* they use to keep the head up.


_Sorry, but I need to clarify these two things._

_There is no "bar" holding the horses head up. The headcheck is just another piece of leather (or synthetic). She might have had a head pole on her, but that is to help keep her straight, but it does not hold the head up at all. A head pole is normally placed on the side that a horse bulges towards. _

_I would hope she wasn't run in hobbles, or her legs would have been "hobble burnt" to heck. She would have raced in hobbles though. Standardbreds don't "run" races--thats TB terminology. They trot or pace their race._


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## Camillion (Jan 25, 2010)

Hello, I'm a 50 plus year old beginner rider since four years ago and purchased my first horse almost three years ago. At the time he was 5-6 years old and the hunter/jumper barn owner put him under saddle and worked with him for 6 months or so. She could tell me very little about his bloodlines and her best guess was he is a quarter pony paint cross (14.3). She acquired him because a good friend found him at an auction in PA and thought he looked like a good prospect. He has such a decent temperament they were beginning to use him a "school" pony and he'd done great in some little cross-poles jumping shows.
I do low-level eventing with him and we're in our second season and doing beginner novice level. Needless to say, he treats the jumping part of work together with delightful exuberance! The dressage part is a challenge since I'm still learning alot too. This brings me to my question/problem: he must have some gaited blood because he will fall into a lateral pace in transitions. This mostly happens going upward from the walk to the trot and down from the canter to the trot. He hardly paced when I first bought him. Any ideas? Do gaited horses pace more naturally as they grow older and stronger? Any suggestions on training? He will do walk/trot/canter just fine although the canter is unbalanced unless we are cantering to fences. Thanks!


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## theshowjumpinstandardbred (Jan 21, 2015)

I got my standardbred straight off the track. She is the most quiet and placid horse I have ever owned. It took me about 6-7months to get her to accept contact and start working in a correct outline, but now we are currently competing level 4 dressage, show jumping up to 3'9, eventing at intermediate level. Super proud of her, I wouldn't trade the world for her.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

Lots of long easy miles on the trail and up and down hills. A little work regularly with trotting poles.

If I had a pacer again I certainly wouldn't be making it trot. I'd be going for that gaited glide ride I once had with my old STB mare. Love those horses.


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## rookie (May 14, 2012)

Fantastic horses and they will give you the moon if you ask. I grew up with standardbreds and will be hard pressed to ever ride anything else. I realized this when my mare got crowded at a river crossing. I was on the ground, trying lead her through the water (first time going through) and she got pushed into the water by the horse behind us. She hit the end of the reins, wheeled and had the choice of jumping into me, jumping into the horse next to us or jumping into a small tree. She picked the tree. Once we got tangled up in some wire that was down in the woods. i did not even know we were tangled until she stopped, back upped and kicked twice. I looked down and behind me to see the wire sliding off her leg. She treats me like a small intoxicated child and its her job to protect me. 

My current horse, her half brother, is not nearly as patient. He is working on it. He is fun to ride but I have to be the brain and he can be the brawn.


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