That is not true. I discovered many years ago that Standardbreds, both pacers and trotters make excellent saddle horses, what ever discipline you care to follow. I have used them for pleasure, working cattle, and even barrel raced with a Standardbred-QH cross. I have also been told that they make great dressage prospects and I know from personal experience that they are great jumpers, (even when you don't expect it). They also are superb trail horses (hey, all those outfitters and guides in Alberta can't be wrong). And their innate toughness lends the smaller horses to a possible new career of endurance riding.
As a whole, Standardbreds are built like a good saddle horse, maybe a little long bodied for those of you used to seeing Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, etc., but these horses are made to be used, and used for a long time. There are many racing to the age of fourteen, which is mandatory retirement age, and after all those years of racing, still remain sound. Of those 14 year old horses and those much younger that just will never race, that makes a lot to choose from, all useful horses, all well trained, or as we call it, broke to death and bomb-proof. These horses are started with as yearlings, broke to drive, and generally fooled with for months before they get to the track. Very little scares them, they are used to having equipment draped over all potions of their anatomy, things that would drive the typical back yard hack crazy ... straps around legs, under tails, boots around legs and feet, two bits in the mouth, a long, floppy driving lines. There are other things, too that help make these horses bomb-proof - loud noisy equipment, trucks, cars, playing children, and large noisy crowds. These guys that have been to the track have seen it all, and accept these things as routine.
Then there is the personality of the Standardbred. Generally speaking, they are "people" horses. They love attention from their people and sometimes find rather creative ways to get that attention. I will be the first to admit that sometimes their creativity is a bit overdone. Fixing anything with one of these guys around can be quite a challenge. They will try to help, by carrying things around for you ... and regularly away from you. Nothing like picking up a well-slobbered hammer when you are fixing fence, assuming that the hammer is just wet and not coated with mud! The main point I am trying to make is that these horses are generally well mannered, and eager to please. They seldom protest any kind of retraining, but do ten to object rather strongly to abuse. To own a Standardbred is have a companion, and to have a small part of the original made in North America breed of horses.
There are many other sites that go into the history of these horses, so I will no dwell on that part at all. That is best covered by the three governing bodies of the harness racing industry. In Canada, we have the Canadian Trotting Association (racing) and the Canadian Standardbred Horse Society (breeding), and in the U.S., both aspects are governed by the United States Trotting Association. The above mentioned entities have their own web sites and I hope to be linked to them soon.
I will
have horses available for adoption on what I hope will be a regular basis..
and they will be posted on these pages. All applicants for the adoptees
will be screened and approved by a committee comprised of selected horsemen,
a representative of the Saskatchewan
Standardbred Horsemen's Association, and myself. In
addition to horses located in Saskatchewan, from time to time, there may
be horses available in other locations, mostly in Western Canada, but possibly
in Eastern Canada, and the U.S. The adoption process will have the same
requirements in other regions as apply here.
Applications for adoption are be available on line and are to be printed and sent by snail mail to the address given at the bottom of the form..
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