I am adopting a cute as a button Standie that was a buggy horse. He has never raced so never taught not to canter just didn’t do it very much. Has anyone transitioned one to dressage? My goals are simple maybe first level. Thanks
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Congrats! I’m happy to hear you are getting him!
I don’t have much advice; I adopted my ex-racer/retired broodmare as an 18 year old. I had hopes of maybe doing some dressage or low level eventing with her, but she had some, uh, surprise “issues” that prevented me from riding her for the first year. I didn’t really get her going until this summer and now I’m just happy to be able to putz around on her. She’s a lot of fun to ride and has the best brain. Maybe we’ll reach a show ring ready point, probably not at her age.
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There’s lots of info here on CoTH. I did a simple search for “standardbred” in the Dressage forum and came up with this:
https://forum.chronofhorse.com/search?q=standardbred%20category%3A19
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We have a few folks with STBs here. @myguyom has the most beautiful boy who does the hunters - while it is a different discipline, the fundamentals are the same and I bet they have tons of advice for you.
“My” STB belongs to a family member, but when they first purchased him I took over the (re)training. He was very different than my TBs. Our biggest hurdle was him getting used to rider weight. Don’t forget that while many are backed for riding, they don’t have the musculature or confidence of bearing a rider that other horses a similar age will have; so take your time getting them used to rider weight by doing hacks, lots of pole work (at the walk) and hill work.
I put the equivalent of Training & 1st level schooling on this horse, but his owner doesn’t have interest in showing. His brain is wonderful and he’s a fantastic trail horse. Keeping sessions light and short were best as he is a people-pleaser who manifests tension by pacing when he feels he isn’t doing the right job - he takes his job SO seriously! When he is tense, he starts to pace. I did lots of straight lines to confirm the trot, as he was also a pacer in his former career and had over 200 starts – we had a lot of learning to undo. Since cantering is discouraged, it did take some time for him to realize I was actively asking. The easiest way to teach him was to have him canter up this huge hill we had nearby. This built up his strength for cantering and transferred well enough into the ring, but I started in the ring by popping over a cross-rail in one corner of the ring and maintaining the canter down the long side. Tons of pats and praises the second they canter, to make them know the canter is what you want.
Canter circles will be hard at first, don’t get discouraged. Even 2-3 strides of canter is an accomplishment. Each time you ride, make it a goal to have one more stride of canter. Some days you’ll reach the goal but some days you won’t. It takes time for them to be confident carrying a rider and time to unlearn that cantering is verboten.
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I learned this exercise many years back to encourage a horse to pick up the canter.
Get your horse comfortable with trotting over a row of low cavaletti. If necessary, start with one and as he gains confidence, add another one, then another one until you have a row of five cavaletti that are spaced appropriately for his trot. When he is going comfortably and confidently through them, remove the fourth one and set the fifth one as a low crossrail.
Most horses will trot through the three cavaletti and instinctively pick up a canter as they come over the crossrail. Praise and pat him and make a big fuss of him to let him know that is exactly what you want. Once he gets really comfortable with things, you can try removing the second cavaletti and encourage him to pick up canter sooner - over the third cavaletti or even before he gets to the first one. As his confidence grows, you should be able to start asking him for canter without depending on the cavaletti and jump as aids.
It also helps to place the cavaletti in the middle of the ring so you don’t have to worry about him landing on the wrong lead. Once he knows the exercise and is comfortable with it, you can try placing the cavaletti down the long side approaching a corner to encourage him to pick up a correct lead for the corner.
[Edited to add a blurb about getting a horse accustomed to cavaletti.]
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I would also observe him at liberty and see what his trot and canter look like. That will let you know if he just needs to learn to trot and canter under saddle, or if he needs to learn to trot and canter first, if he’s really a confirmed pacer
They can have funky canters that get weirdly lateralized. Different from a falling in the forehand 4 best bad canter
We have a bunch of OTSB here, 6 currently. I’ve never seen one that’s gone through a professional training because the pros will grab an OTTB in preference. So I’m watching 6 OTSB being retrained by adult ammies of varying levels of confidence and skill.
I would say two things. They are fast forward strong horses that can appear frantic in the arena, and when they canter it’s speedy Second, the speed and quality of their development is absolutely related to the skills of the owner, and their confidence on a fast forward horse.
If you could get past all the other stuff, they do have natural trots that rival or surpass all the WBs at this barn!
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My experience with standardbreds has all been largely second hand (the riding component) but I have watched others (both pro and am riders) work with them for several years.
One thing that stands out to me is how incredibly benevolent they are. They might not always understand the ask, but they want to try because they know you want something. They are largely, quite patient, game to give something a go, and very forgiving. From that perspective, they’re a great horse to work with.
Some of them at liberty do not canter, they just pace. Others will do a little bit of both, some genuinely prefer cantering. Figuring out which your fellow is will help. Some of this depends on you as a rider: the pacing can be very jarring and unsettling for some riders, your balance and ability to be independent in your leg, seat, and hand will be important. Work on schooling relaxation and bend (think of a long, elastic, supple topline) which can help start building the muscle and way of going for the canter, but depending on his background you might have to overcome some more high-headed tendencies/musculature. There are some great recommendations upthread for how to help encourage the canter (adding: if you are a confident rider, sometimes it can really, really help to do all of this outside of an arena) which hopefully will give you some ideas!
It absolutely can be done, and they really are lovely horses. I’ve never owned one but I’ve watched my trainer put miles on some for clients (who wanted safe, am-friendly low level horses they could enjoy a variety of things with, a low level dressage schooling show one day, a trail ride the next, etc) and from what I have seen they are absolutely capable of doing all of those things.
Congratulations on your new guy! May you and he enjoy each other’s company for many years.
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I have an off the track Standardbred. While I can’t take credit for his dressage training, I can tell you that he does dressage wonderfully. He rarely paces except when he is occasionally playing around in turnout. His trot is big and comfortable. He does lateral movements and turn on the haunches, so they are quite capable. Good luck and enjoy, they are wonderful horses with great dispositions.
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It’s funny, my girl was a successful pacer with 180 starts and nearly half a million in earnings… yet I’ve never seen her pace since I’ve owned her!
She trots and canters quite readily.
I also have her (surprise) yearling daughter, who is a well bred pacer. Even though she is full stb, it’s unlikely she will ever get to race because of the complications surrounding her registration paperwork. She paces and trots about equally, although her favorite gait is the gallop. It looks like she will be my dressage horse so it will be interesting to see how an unraced pacer’s gaits develop under saddle.
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Thanks for all the replies. Wish us luck!
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My Standardbred trains dressage and he is a pacer. Even his canter is a pace. My coach loves his big swinging walk. And i have learned to post his pace …the tempo that we call his ‘trot’. It’s the most rocky back-n-forth of all his speeds. He never raced. He is the safest most easy horse in the world. Works for praise. And has a long memory of everything he’s ever done that has gotten him accolades. I think Standardbreds must be the Golden Retrievers of the horse world. Hearts of gold…
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i caught a video of him at liberty running with the herd, and if you can on your device, slow to .25 and watch this lateral canter of his. It is as smooth a ride as a normal canter…almost lol.
OH, and my coach tells me that in Western Dressage there are classes for gaited horses? Doesn’t matter what kind of gait (TWH, MoFoxtrotter, Pacer…etc…all go in the same division…or something like that). So, rather than recalibrate his gaits, i’m going with them. But then i do have other horses to ride for regular/normal dressage.
Colton slomo
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Aw, congrats on the adoption! I’ve been owned by Ben (we call him Bennifer 
), my pacing standardbred for the last 11 years. I got him as a 3 year old from a rescue that picked him up at an auction yard after a brief racing career. My intention was to put some basic training on him then find him an appropriate low-level dressage/riding/trail home- but he won me over and he stayed.
Before EPM, I did get to show Ben 1st level a few times- just at schooling shows mind you but we were out there doing it. When we did show we scored in the mid-low 60’s. Sometimes that was enough to get him a first or second, too. If you do some internet sleuthing you’ll find them out there doing anything from endurance to eventing and dressage. Ones to look for are JB (east coast based), Charlie (canada), and I’m sure there are others but those are actively competing.
Regarding training, and the canter- it takes a lot of work to develop the gaits. If you have the perseverance (think years, not weeks or months) and access to a good trainer/coach, you can do it. For my standardbred, Ben is has an incredibly bouncy trot and a very lateral flat canter. With lots of work the quality improves by leaps and bounds, but you have to be so on top of it, and figure out the exercises that help the most. Someone mentioned trot poles, cross rails- yes yes yes. I would not choose him or any standardbred for dressage, specifically if I wanted to seriously compete, but you can use dressage to create a nice partner.
Right now Ben is back to work- his EPM seems to have been controlled and he’s schooling 2nd. He’s been back to work solidly for about a year, and its only now that he’s been able to step it up a bit. I’m not sure that I’ll ever show him again- my fear is that the stress of travel and show may trigger the EPM.
He’s such a sweet boy, a barn favorite, and total goofball. He tries his heart out and the things he’s been able to do are really impressive- even if they don’t look like much when you compare to a more purpose bred horse. He gives his all and I’ve felt this need to protect him for his entire life- he is the best 
Good luck with your new adoptee!
here are a couple of videos of Ben. The canter video is from November 2022, about 4 months back to work- not very fit at this point. I don’t have anything more recent but maybe I can get something.
Here is a video from 2016 in a clinic, day 2, working on his trot rhythm. Day 1 we worked canter, which has always been the easier thing to work on first, and then improves the trot so much we can actually work on it.
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8pf, my trainer had us using walk / canter / walk transitions to improve his somewhat lateral canter. Sometimes he’d do a funny bunny hop while doing a trot / canter transitions so we really limited those.
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Popping in to say the Bowie Kill Pen has some Standardbreds and I am just sharing and absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever adding any attractive horses to my cart.
Mayhap a perusal leads to a good home. Not mine.
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I have 3 pacing bred standardbreds currently, and cannot say enough good things about the breed. My oldest (now 28) Ive had since he was 2, and as a junior I showed him through second level dressage with much success. We spent a lot of time working on achieving a qaulity canter, takes time but do able. What they may lack in natural physical ability, they more than make up for in disposition. As an adult ammy, the level-headed, trying-to-please attitude cannot be beat. A few photos of my herd below.
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Lovely!!
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My farrier was just here… after trimming 15 horses, i gotta say, one mustang and my standie got the ravest of reviews. He said about Colton, the standardbred, as i was taking him out the barn: “That horse has the most perfect construction and the best disposition. They should use him as a template of the perfect horse.” (and the mustang is a recently gelded young black and is quite beautiful. Farrier calls him: Black Beauty)
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Question for anyone - If you want a Standardbred to be a sport horse and for showing, do trotters generally have an easier time learning to canter than pacers? Or does it depend on the horse? I have always wondered if the extra gear (the pace) makes it more difficult for them to canter.
Also - are there more pacers that are bred/available and not as many trotters?
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Your horses look great! I hope one day we look just as good. I intend on working him long lining and ground driving. Maybe that will help
i don’t know which gaited Standardbred is most popular, i do know that pacers go faster. I think they wear hobbles in the races too 
My pacer stays in stride once he settles in it. Much more firmly in stride than say, a trot would be. Also more difficult to slow down or speed up. It’s his stride, his pace. I like that it’s his very own and decided some time ago not to try to adjust him. And once i discovered that pacers could compete in western dressage-gaited all seemed pretty wonderful.
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