I am a little prejudice but my Morgans done just
fine in endurance. Hawk is closing in on 5K AERC miles and hopefully we will
earn the decade team next year.
Now I need another horse and am thinking about
looking at a Standardbred my only concern is he's a pacer. Are there many of
them out there? Mary
There are naturally pacing and naturally trotting bloodlines in
Standardbreds.
However, virtually all Standardbreds are turned into pacers using
hobbles
immediately upon entering training. The trainers at the Standardbred
barn
where I boarded my Morgans for six years said it is because the horses
can
go faster without breaking into a canter in the pacing gait and
that a
good trotter is just overall harder to "make" and "keep." There
are
comparatively few races left for trotters, and--althought there's
nothing
that makes a Standardbred person's heart soar like watching a good
trotter--bringing one along using that gait has become pretty rare.
After having pacepacepacepacepace being the only thing they are
allowed to do, year-in, year-out, there didn't seem to be many of
them
that would revert to a trot when left to themselves to frolic in the
paddocks. A few. Mostly, after their roll, kick, and gallop,
they'd
shamble around the paddock in the most ugly, hybrid, hitchy mess
of a something gait you could think of.
I really grew to respect these horses. Almost all of them had
good,
