In a word:
Halla
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True. Also Bionic Woman http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/tbt-bionic-woman-no-canter-big-jump
Sight Unseen (ridden by George Rickabaugh at 4th level dressage) http://www.ecrda.com/pages/2004ChampPhotos016.html
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When I first arrived in this country I bought a Standardbred - by a stallion called Chief Mohawk and her name was Mischief Mohawk (get it?) The best horse - she’d jump anything she was pointed at, sound as a dollar, pretty, kind,
not a mean bone in her body. Hunted regularly in the winters, evented in the summers. Placed in the top 10 Training Level horses in BC two years in a row…then I sold her. She may have gone Prelim as we were schooling Prelim,
but other things got in the way. Her dressage was adequate but she was always a bit stiff laterally and our weakness.
Never had a competitive refusal in x-c or s-J.
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I have two STBS - neither is bay. My grey - a son of Laag - looks like a Standalusian. My chestnut won 700K and looks like a TB. The grey’s a pacer, the chestnut’s a trotter. Took a while to teach the grey to canter, but learning to trot was easy. Thought it would take time to teach the chestnut to canter, but he picked it up right away. They are really underappreciated horses.
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Most people assume my mare’s a TB, or they notice the tattoo and ask if she’s a warmblood. She’s my second standie, and I’m kinda biased but I think she’s gorgeous–so I thought I’d take her to a Canadian Sport Horse mare inspection, just to see how she’d do. She got the second highest score of the day, and measured more bone than the premium mare. During her critique, there was an audible gasp from the audience when the judge said “this mare is a full standardbred, and an exceptional example of any breed!”
Wonderful horse, level-headed but with a lot of energy. Most of these guys have been all over the place, so trailering them is a breeze and little fazes them. I rode this mare through a field alongside a passing train, and she ignored it. Her walk, trot and gallop are fantastic, and we’re working on a nicer canter. She won overall champion at her second show, a short course event – albeit we were only entry level. It’s a wonderful thing that people are getting over their prejudices against these versatile horses. [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:9834181}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:9834182}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:9834183}[/ATTACH]
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Wow, she is beautiful standing there.
No wonder she caught the judges eye.
They were right, a very nice horse, in any breed.
Mine looked a bit like that, somewhat lighter built.
She was a dark liver chestnut, with a purplish look to her.
Some though she was a TB.
They tend to be so calm and easy going, do they, but still will go on and on and on.
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I bet they’d be good at that! Where did you find a two day 200km endurance ride? That would be up at the toughest level of the sport!
In Europe, over half a century ago.
We didn’t have levels then, everyone trained for whatever was offered.
In our region, we had only that one once a year.
Not sure how that compares with today’s organized endurance riding levels.
My standardbred mare was the only one of that breed there.
She was a tall horse, compared with most others smaller horses of arabian influence.
She would finish ready to go on if there was more, never found the bottom on that mare.
She looked a bit leggier and leaner than yours, but she was in very fit condition, without being a hard keeper.
She was the best baby sitter type personality anyone could love, took very good care of me.
Most STB I have known had excellent, sensible temperaments.
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I worked with a bunch of them as driving horses and found them to be lovely horses. If they’ve been on the track, they usually have excellent ground manners and are broke, sane, sensible horses. A couple of them rode as well as drove and they were the same under saddle, and had decent canters once they were convinced they were supposed to.
If someone offered me a nice OTTSTB tomorrow, I’d be all over it.
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You won’t find a deep standardbred breed prejudice in the USA (where most COTHers reside) because not enough people have experience with them to form an opinion.
It’s almost a novelty to own one; statistics indicate registered standardbreds only make up ~3% of the US horse population. A large percentage of standardbreds end up with the Amish to be used as buggy horses once their careers are done, further limiting the numbers available to the average horse owner.
Those who do own them generally love them, as you can tell from this thread. :yes:
There are some standardbred rehoming programs which have cropped up over the past couple decades who are promoting their versatility in the show ring. While not necessarily a prejudice, they do get the (false) reputation in some circles of not being suitable show mounts for english or western disciplines.
Horse racing is a major sport in Australia. The only country with more Thoroughbreds than Australia is the USA. With so many Thoroughbreds coming off the track, the large Standardbred off the track population spent a lot of time being ignored (and slaughtered) until fairly recently. Nowadays there are industry initiatives for the the re-homing of race animals. Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds and Greyhounds.
Because people are wanting to have a lower maintenance horse, Standardbreds are becoming more popular. If you have a quiet Standardbred who can canter, people will actually pay you over $1,000. Unheard of before. Sadly there’s still more work to be done on getting rid of the prejudice. It was interesting at the dressage clinic that I audited. People assumed that if I had a Standardbred, then he must be suited to whatever task that I bought him for.
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Thanks Bluey, she’s as smart as she is pretty. Your liver chestnut sounds beautiful, always loved that colour.
I’d trailered over to a friend’s place for a week, and we decided to ride over to the event barn where she took lessons. There were three of us, my friend on a lovely Popeye K hunter, and another woman on her warmblood. The coach at the barn, an olympic medal eventer, came right over to check out Colour, saying, “wow, she’s lovely, who is she and where did you get her?” Wasn’t fazed at all by her breeding. Unfortunately, Colour’s got a lot of lumps, pinfire, and cryomarks from racing, so I’ve really got to be careful not to push her too hard.
Kitty, we’ve got some similar programs here in Canada, as well as a breed-specific show series called “Standarama”. We went a couple of years ago, and it was a blast – even won a ribbon 
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Just btw, besides New Vocations, you can find stbs to adopt here:
Love them…very tough horses. Around me they are jogged 5 miles every day for race fitness.
I am so old I remember when Ian Millar rode a standardbred Grand Prix horse in the 70’s. Can’t remember the horses name…
Those ribbons look very fetching.
Naysayers can’t complain when they show you what they have, can they.
Lots of them around here because of the long history of county fairs and harness racing, although that is starting to die out. Our local trainer is Robyn Cuffey at Photo Finish Farm (great name!). She has saved hundreds of horses over several decades by retraining them to be nice saddle horses. She wrote a terrific book on retraining techniques for harness horses. I remember the first time I met her almost 20 years ago at a local fun show we took the BO’s lesson kids to. I had no clue that she was such an accomplished trainer and that she has contributed so much to save so many horses in a declining industry.
I remember back when they were “trotters” and there might be a few races for pacers. Now I guess it’s the other way around.
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Lots or prejudice out there. I had a lovely Standardbred mare named, “The Mare”…yes I know, that took a lot of imagination. Neat girl who had a lovely trot and canter, and a gawdawful pace…like riding a paintshaker. She didn’t do it often luckily. She died of Potomac Fever.
I had a chestnut Saddlebred mare…I’d swear her picture was used for the classic chestnut mare behaviour. Toughest horse I ever owned. Fast, looooong extended trot and I fox hunter her…she was amazing in upper level dressage (which pissed off the warmblood people). I did a great test, stopped for the salute and she parked out. The judge broke up laughing. People hate Saddlebreds more than Standardbreds.
It’s very said to see the ignorance and bias against breeds…usually from stupid people who have little experience with the “less common breeds” of horses.
