A chestnut!!! Only ever had one chestnut STB and he looked like a pure bred Arab. He retired to be a roaster for a couple in Canada.
I had to do the trick on my phone to tell it to open in the background and then click the browse to the page even though it isn’t secure warning
Handsome!
I own what many guess is an STB or part STB. I bought him off a photo on FB, the current owners said their daughter couldn’t ride the canter and they got him from a sale barn.
He has never offered a pace but trot is his favorite speed. When I got him he could haphazardly canter a straight line as full speed. He had no idea where his legs were during the canter. It was a hot mess express. I am on year 4 of ownership and I can say I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with the canter. Fitness, years of lessons, saddle fit and soundness all play a factor. Their personality plays a factor.
We compete at recogized USEA Novice and show First Level dressage. I am sure he could potentially go higher with a pro but honestly, his comfort level would be the lower levels.
Our biggest issue is contact in the canter work. He evades during canter transitions. I work on the lunge in euro balancing reins and saw a good result. He can focus on his balance without me getting in the way and still having to maintain a ‘contact’. We do a lot of transitions both on the lunge and riding.
Remember that on the STB track, the more you pull on the reins, the faster they go. Dropped reins mean stop. My mare only cantered outside until one day I rode her when the gaming ponies were warming up for a show in the arena. The lightbulb went on! The pace is lovely to ride-just sit down and wiggle…
My SO calls BS on this. His 50 odd years of experience in the business might give his some credibility. They’re raced on a steady contact and urged to go forward, you don’t want to throw away a horse going flat out. 
Yes at the end of a race they give them some slack, but it only takes a couple of races for the average Standardbred to figure out where the finish line is if they’re raced on the same track. We’ve never needed much rein to stop any of our race horses when ridden, and my daughter has ridden a few of them.
I am awed by the work this breed does and how sound they remain. We should only hope to get the stamina, brain and SOUNDNESS in other lines.
After seeing the agony so many have gone through with lameness issues, I seriously am considering a STB for my next horse.
I have a STB that was trained to race but never actually raced. Mine’s a trotter so I never had any issues retraining him as far as the canter goes. IMO it’s a bit easier for the trotters to transition into a discipline like dressage, but the breed in general is so versatile I don’t think you should feel discouraged.
I did both the hunters and dressage with mine - he’s athletic and (despite what some might assume about the breed) he was always a careful, tidy jumper. He’s 25 now and still in great condition. Always sound, incredible feet - barefoot most of his life. The brain is really the best part. They are just “nice guys,” real people-pleasers too. Totally different to work with than my warmblood. They are a breed that some in the horse world “look down on” but I personally wouldn’t hesitate to get another one.
Lots of good advice so far - I think the fundamentals of dressage will help him get more and more balanced as your training goes on. Dressage is what helped my guy get loose and supple through his back and ribcage. We did lots of circles and serpentines and transitions in our early days. For a while it seemed like we weren’t progressing much at all - but the balance and strength did develop. It just took some patience on my part. It also took us a while to find our favorite bit which made a BIG difference. He was reluctant to take up contact beyond Intro level until I found a bit that suited his mouth better. My guy has a low palate/not a lot of room in his mouth for a bit. That might not be your guy’s case but figured it was worth mentioning.
Sounds like your guy has a lot to offer! I’m sure if you’re patient and stick with him, he won’t let you down. They really are lovely horses. Good luck on your journey!
“My” STB retired after 212 starts. He is technically a family relation’s but they better be careful or they’ll have one less horse on the payroll soon. I love this horse - he is smart as a whip and just a breath of fresh air. He was completely uncomplicated to restart as a low level dressage horse / trail horse - and anyone can ride him including my clueless SO. He’s exactly what most people want, just in a different non-WB package.
i am really enjoying reading this thread. I love my ‘little-red-puppy’ Standie. Sometimes, when i am away from the barn, like now, i miss him. When i say his name my heart vibrates and sometimes i get goosebumps. I am smitten, i admit it.
Someone on Shite Eventers has an off the track Standardbred that she took to his first event. He’s trained to canter but tends to revert back to his pace when under stress. She therefore decided to heck with it, just let him trot the X country. They trotted the whole thing & still made time because his trot is so smokin’ fast. 
The Standardbred mare I participated in two endurance rides, each 200 km in two days, was such a strong trotter that we trotted practically all the way and were faster trotting than most horses in their galloping stretches.
Every day we ended so strong, she could have kept on going thru the night, without any rest, while other horses were tired. 
I love this!! Do you have a link? I’m part of that group and love to see the STBs out in the wild.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but early on when I was strengthening “my” STB’s canter, I’d have someone ride my TB in front and we’d canter up this big long grass hill. It’s a great way to introduce keeping the canter, plus, hill work. In the beginning if the STB felt he was too far behind, he’d break to a pace to catch up – wowza, is that gait fast! The TB has a big stride at the canter but even he couldn’t keep up with the STB in that gait without galloping.
I have a pacer. He’s 13 now, at the height of his schooling he was doing 2nd level pretty comfortably and schooling a lot of 3rd. He also schooled over lower jumps and was quite good at that naturally. The canter took literally years of strength- and what everyone is saying here- hills, poles- getting the back up and loose. We did a lot of trot poles- not set wide to lengthen the trot but set to lift the legs- trot in/through and canter out. Some things he did shockingly well and were non issues, and others he struggled with to the day he retired.
Mine has never been that particularly motivated to move- definitely more of a push ride. He’s a very sweet, calming force in the barn, and when he was being ridden, out and about. He could go anywhere and would be the same sweet old self- shows, trails, beach, parade- you name it he was game for it.
People who know him love him for his personality (he’s a barn favorite both with people and horses) - but those who know him know how much hard work it was over the years to get things that are much easier for other horses. And even then, in the dressage arena most of his work was passable but never competitive. It didn’t really matter to me, the reward for me was just getting him to the level.
EPM halted his career and he’s now basically retired. He can do light walk trot and some canter. To be honest if I wanted to get very serious about reconditioning him he could probably get back up to a decent 1st, maaaybe second level. But for him it is SO much work (and for me), and we’re both happy as-is. If he were my only horse, maybe I’d give it another go. He owes me nothing, and just seeing his face at the barn every day is good enough for me.
Lucretia Galbraith family are STB trotting "royalty ", and Lucretia takes or took a few and competed in Dressage and Eventing, successfully iirc, including competing at Stuart Horse Trials in Mendon NY.
Thank you so much for starting this post. I have been debating going down the STB road but was worried about the canter. I worked with them for years and I know they have good brains, which is what I need.
I absolutely love Standardbreds. We had several in my pony club as a child in KY and would take them out on trail and our little mock fox hunts. Glorious animals, so safe and almost dog-like in their desire to partner with pretty much any human.
One thing I was going to suggest is to buy a surcingle and some long reins to help your guy develop his canter with the support of a steady rein without the weight of the rider.
I’ve had three standies and ridden/driven a few more, trail riding is much more my thing but I did do some dressage on one of them. I prefer pacers to trotters (I’ve always found they’re a little better with transitions, trotters sometimes have almost a lurch/jump into the trot and it’s often easier to get canter from a pacing horse than one that will just keep trotting faster and faster and faster). One of the ones I rode was a bolter who used to bolt in the the pace, looking back he probably had some sort of neuro issue and when his brain short circuited that was all he knew how to do. He went back to his old owner after he bolted over a couple of main roads with me on him.
My other two are also pacers, one (Little) floats across the paddock and under saddle and the other (Jimmy) moves like a drunken octopus on roller blades… legs. legs everywhere. His pace was super comfortable. He was jumping 1m with his old owner prior to me getting him.
I will say they’re a very stoic breed and if they’ve come from a racing home can be more stand offish. Little loves attention but he was mid teens when I got him and still with the old couple that bred him.
Jimmy took probably three years to see me as “his person” and he had a great work ethic, to his detriment really, by the time he showed something that was “off” the arthritis in his legs from his racing career (43 starts in just under 3 years) it was serious. Prior to that he’d been at ag college with a bunch of very experienced people around and they were pretty surprised to see what was on the xrays, he’d never given any indication something was off, never refused to do something asked of him. Silly old gent is 25 this Sept and while he’s a little stiffer and slower, is spending his retirement chasing the kangaroos out of his paddock and stealing bites from Little’s dinner when he thinks he can get away with it.
Little, I had broken in, rode a bit and then life got in the way several years ago, not sure it’s worth riding him at this stage cause he’s 19 this year.
All in all, I love the breed, have found them to be hardy, sensible horses with good work ethics if they know what you want them to do. They sometimes have baggage and may or may not have had much retraining off the track because they’re generally pretty quiet. I’ve known more than one STB that had a saddle thrown on it, then a kid and after a trail ride was sold as “broken to saddle” so watch for that. I’ve had a few TB’s and in general you can get away with a lot more with an OTT-STB than an OTT-TB and they’re usually much better keepers.
Mine was like that, off the track was being driven around carting tourists, then our riding center bought her for a cart and by chance decided to see if she would ride.
She was a beautiful liver chestnut and had a stellar disposition.
Our riding instructor put a saddle on her and up kid, myself, and there we went.
She could trot all day, effortlessly, but took a bit to find a canter and a bit longer to balance on it in the indoor, first time trying was scary but we survived the corners without climbing the walls.
I wish more horses had her kind of very sensible, amenable, sweet temperament.
I agree with this. They are literally given away where I live and because they are quiet and free/cheap can end up as beginner horses fresh off the track.
which I think is very unfair to them. Yes they’re generally quiet and sensible and hardworking but they’re also horses that need a lot of training if you want to do more than a casual trail ride.
With the bolter I had, he was not an easy ride, in fact, many of the rides I had on him were super frustrating and honestly, he was the sort of horse that made getting three strides of canter feel like an accomplishment. And there was a lot of work that went into getting those three strides.
One upside to them though, is that many groups of standy people have formed and there’s plenty of info and support out there now about retraining them. Here in Victoria, Aus we’ve got groups like HERO and Raising the Standard that are great resources for the new standy owner.
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