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Re: [RC] Standardbreds...& part... - katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Heidi's response here reminds me very much of my father's favorite joke:

Question: "What do Santa Claus and a mouse have in common?"
Answer: "They both have long white beards, except for the mouse." :)

What she has in essence said is:  "Standardbreds and Saddlebreds are the
same except for the fact that they were initially bred and have
historically been used for completely different purposes." :)

Other than the fact that both breeds are American in origin and trace in
some of their ancestry to the English Thoroughbred (which just about every
American breed does :)), Standardbreds and Saddlebreds have little in
common.

Yes, you can ride a Standardbred, but that ain't what he was designed for.
And yes, you can drive a Saddlebred, but that ain't what he was designed
for.
Although, personally I would be more inclined to ride a Standardbred than
to drive a Saddlebred.

Standardbreds and Saddlebreds have as much in common with each other as
they do with Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Morgans, etc.  They are all "light"
breeds of horses.

kat
Orange County, Calif.


From:  heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Actually no, not at all.  The original definition of a Standardbred is
any horse (and you could breed whatever you liked to get it) that could
trot a mile in harness within a specified "standard" amount of time
(which has gotten to be less and less since the original standard was
set back in the 1800s (and the breed now includes pacers as well as
trotters).  The horses are of predominantly thoroughbred blood (but not
entirely).  The breed was specified and designed exclusively as a
trotting/harness horse.

Yes, as I said, bred for speed.  :-)

The Saddlebred, on the other hand, was bred specifially to be a SADDLE
horse (i.e. one to be ridden, not one to be used in harness), hence the
name.  And while they, too, trace in many lines to the Thoroughbred,
they are bred to be smooth gaited riding horses and will usually be
pretty well predisposed to the assorted variation of the four-beat
lateral gaits of the assortment of gaited horses.

And again yes, as I said--not bred for speed but for comfort.  And while
you are technically correct that the Saddlebred was bred to ride (hence
the name) the breed has also historically been used in fine harness,
displaying the same traits in harness for which it was bred for under
saddle--ease and comfort, rather than speed.  :-)

So, while both breeds share a rather substantial amount of Thoroughbred
ancestry (although not many of the same Thoroughbreds), their selection
criteria have been completely different, since one was selected as a
trotting harness horse and the other as a smooth gaited saddle horse.

Yep, same traits I specified...  :-)

There are some Saddlebred afficianados who put Saddlebreds in harness
and will use them for such; however, there are people who put arabian
horses in harness too, despite the fact that neither of these breeds had
ability as a harness horse as part of their selection criteria (and hard
core drivers have a tendency to steer clear of them:)).

In the times in which the Saddlebred was developed, a great many saddle
horses did double duty as fine harness horses.  I'd wager that a goodly
percentage of Robert E. Lee's cavalry (many of which were mounted on
Saddlebreds) were riding horses that knew how to drive as well.

If I were looking for a good driving horse, I wouldn't start out looking
at Saddlebreds, and if I were looking for a good riding horse, I
wouldn't start out looking at Standardbreds.  This doesn't mean that
there are no individuals within these breeds that can be used for these
purposes, just that it wasn't the original intent of the breed.

While you are correct about the initial intent, the traits that the
Standardbred developed in harness nonetheless make him an outstanding
riding horse for purposes which entail going forward--such as endurance
riding.  And while you are correct that breeds such as the Arabian and
Saddlebred were not initially bred to drive, the same attributes which
make outstanding riding horses (balanced conformation, self-carriage,
trainability, etc.) will also make for good driving horses.  The Arab in
the desert had no cause to be driven--there were few places in the Bedouin
environment where pulling a wheeled vehicle was practical.  But the Arab
certainly took to being driven like a duck to water when he was first
introduced to Europe and North America--and much of the unsuitability of
modern ones has come about due to the same breeding practices that has
diminished their usefulness as riding horses...

Heidi



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