#standardbred pacer

[track2hack]

08.10.2024

Some very happy ponies blowing off a bit of steam before our ride tonight 🤣🤣

[abostongirlinkentucky]

Today’s view…

[mcrmadness]

Do you currently work as a horse groom? If so can you tell us about it? What discipline, what breed(s), what you like most, what do Finnish barns do in winter to keep horses warm, etc. Also why are Icelandic horses popular for trail riding/tourists? Why not finnhorses?

Oh what an interesting ask! Thank you, Anon!

I'm not currently working as one, but I worked as one for long enough to be able to answer to this :D I specialized in harness racing, and in Finland we have only trotters (vs. USA, where they also have pacers, but that's not what we do here and a horse running in pace leads to disqualification as it's faster than trot). I have also worked/been in a training at different riding stables, as well. I'll but my answer under the cut eventually because it will get SO long :D

What do you mean by discipline? It depends on a stable a lot how things are dealth with. Finland also has very strict laws about stuff like the minimum sizes of a stable/horse boxes, the outdoor areas and all that stuff. The stables I have worked at, try to provide as much outdoor time to the horses as possible which I also prefer - horses were made for moving and being outdoors, not for standing indoors most of the day. That is why I disapprove stables that have too many horses for the amount of paddocks and where horses get only a few hours of the day outdoors, or spend their outdoor time mostly in the walkers. The places I've worked at had no walkers at all.

The heating side of stables probably depends on the stable. The harness racing stable I worked at for almost 5 years (but several times within a period of 8 years), had heating only in the blankets/equipment room, washing stall and the break room for people. Some of these had a radiator, some had underfloor heating. The stable had no heating whatsoever - it was in the middle of the building so it had two doors, and then bigger sliding doors at the both ends of the building. The secret was: horses are so warm that their body heat is enough to heat up a full stable. Plus its better for the horses when the stable is not too warm, it remained somewhere abover 0 Celsius, I would say it was around +5C inside the stable in the winter, as I didn't really need my winter jacket there when working. We just kept the doors closed when it got really cold, and kept a horse in every corner of the stable to keep the water pipes from freezing. And when the stable was full of horses at nights, we didn't fully close the middle door unless it was really cold outside, as the stable would just get way too moist from all the heat that comes from the horses (especially after training, as the horses sweat and keep steaming as they dry).

It was also important to take the horses outside even in the winter. Standardbreds wear thick winter blankets, Finnhorses can survive without them but some stallions grow so thin and silky hair even in the winter that we often put blankets on them anyway. Cold doesn't really bother horses who grow a thick fur, but rain and wet snow are worse as it can go through the fur and cause back muscle problems to some horses. I know that at riding stables they often put tons of blankets on horses or clip them to keep them from growing thick fur, but I have never really understood this. I believe in more natural ways, and that horses enjoy being "naked" as often as possible, and I believe in using blankets only to dry them or when the cold or rain can actually make them freeze. So, I believe in using blankets only when there's an actual need because of the horse.

What comes to breeds - in harness racing we usually have warmbloods and cold bloods, latter being Finnhorses. The warmbloods are either American standardbreds, French trotters or mixtures of them two. Russian trotter/orvol have become much more rare nowadays and I have never seen them in my work. Most trotters in Finland are bay or chestnut (or sometimes black), but occasionally there might be grey horses too and that is most likely brought into the genetics by trotters of Russian/orlov origin as there was (or is?) lots of grey orvol trotters.

Riding horses are a different story. Different European warmblood riding horse breeds are very very common, especially German breeds. From ponies Welsh ponies are super common, as well as Shetland ponies. Sometimes you also see New Forest ponies, and Gotlann Russ ponies, and Haflingers, and especially mixed breeds or ponies whose family tree is a complete mystery to everyone. Latter are often bought and brought from abroad, especially back in the 90s and 2000s it was super common for riding schools to go buy cheap horses and ponies from Europe, and later sell them here for higher price. We also have Estonian breeds here often, Estonian horse is very similar to Finnhorse as they're also often slightly more draft than regular riding horses, but also chill and reliable like Finnhorses. But they come in so many sizes and shapes, I've known one whose withers were ar 180cm or something and he was the chillest horse ever. I rode him at least once as it was at a stable where I originally started my horse hobby and horseback riding. Norwegian Fjord horses are also popular here, and I've ridden at least one once.

Icelandic horses are very popular because they are probably the best breed ever for difficult grounds. They are also very chill, brave and co-operative. Finnhorses are good too and really fit for every horse sport ever, but I would say Finnhorses can be a bit more scaredy for trail riding. Finnhorses are also really strong, so sometimes it might require an experienced rider to be able to control one. Riding schools also often get their Finnhorses from harness racing stables after a horse's career is over, and they have this 5th gear built in them. If they enter the "MUST RUN" mode, they just get really competitive and can be difficult to control. Also when driving, Finnhorses are REALLY tough and sometimes even the best of drivers have to work really hard to keep them in control as they just have incredibly strong necks and heads, and they're not as sensitive to the bit as most warmblood horses are. I have driven both, and sometimes the arms really hurt like hell after Finnhorses because they just. Are like that. Meanwhile a standardbred might slow down when you just slightly pull the reins with your fingers. With Finnhorses you pull with your whole weight and body and the Finnhorse just pulls back because they want to RUN RUN RUN. (But of course some standardbreds are also like this, it's so much up to the horse's personality really.)

I have ridden an Icelandic horse once and I absolutely loved it! They feel extremely reliable and easy to control (at least the ones they give for beginners). Plus they have 4 or 5 gaits, and tölt was made for trail riding exclusively. The horse I was riding, was having a hard time finding that gait and she actually switched to it through gallop, but once she entered tölt... it really does feel extremely comfortable! It's something else. It's literally like sitting on a chair, the horse's ass just dropped down and I wasn't moving in the saddle at all and it was incredibly comfortable gait! I definitely want to go trail riding on an Icelandic horse one day again!

This whole short trail riding trip was so bizarre btw, because we went there late on the evening in the winter so it was pitch black, but we went trail riding anyway. Everyone had headlamps (me, my classmate of that time and the person leading the trail ride), and suddenly we heard some weird barking sound coming towards us. A small animal stopped in front of the horses, went completely quiet and was staring at the horses like "what the fuck are those?", and the horses stared at it like "what the fuck is that?" :D It was a raccoon dog! And then it just turned around and started running away and kept barking. It is one of the weirdest encounters ever with a wild animal, and I was told these dogs don't bark, but this one definitely was barking. I will never forget that animal's face when it just stopped there like in cartoons to stare at these big weird animals who were completely chill and just stared at this weirdly behaving and huge mitten-looking thing. That also just shows how Icelandic horses are like, I don't remember my horse even flinching, she just was staring at the raccoon dog and tried to understand wtf is that but running away didn't even cross her mind. Some other breeds could have turned around and ran away in panic. Of course there's also huge differences between horses, I have worked with more sensitive horses who get scared by everything, and then very chill horses of the same breed who don't bother getting scared by anything ever.

I also want to say one thing about Finnhorses: they are a funny breed. Most of them are extremely smart, and some of them are pranksters. I'm convinced that some of them understand Finnish, because I speak to horses a lot and I swear some of them understood exactly what I said. One particular gelding didn't like being caught from the paddock and would always start evading and running away, even when offered carrots or bread. Then one day the same thing started again, and I was not really feeling it. I just said him "[Name], your owner is here, don't you want to go for a walk with him?" as the owner visited there only a few times a year. The gelding waled directly to my lap and let me catch him. I swear he understood what I said, I still don't know how, but he had just been running away from me and then was like "okay well in THAT case, I can come indoors with you" and walked directly to me.

Tho, it's not just Finn horses, all horses have those really smart invidivuals that cause problems by figuring out how to open paddocks or doors and they become the best escape artists ever, driving the humans nuts. Usually the smarter the horse, the more opinions they have over everything. Including what happens in the races. Some days they just don't feel like winning, and they don't. Some days they keep teasing everyone and then go like "ok actually I do want to win today" and then they win the race. You really work together with the horse, and no horse is forced to do anything, because they simply won't run nor win if they are not feeling like it. My then-employer used to say that the horses choose their own career, so sometimes I've seen mares quit their career and become breedmares because they just lost their motivation for running for good, so so be it, then.

Okay, I hope this opened this even a bit now :D Feel free to ask more if I didn't answer everything, or if there's something else you would like to know (more) about! Also forgive me for this long answer, I just love horses so much and I've got so many great memories from working with amazing horses, including that time when I tamed a 3-year-old Finnhorse stallion who had barely been handled at all :D But that's a story for another time.

[gustavomirabalcastro]

Caballo Caminante de Tennessee

El caballo caminante Tennessee fue creado desde una mezcla de varias razas reconocidas de otros equinos logrando cualidades que se adaptan a varias actividades. #CaballoTennessee #GustavoMirabal #GustavoMirabalCastro

Caballo Caminante de Tennessee El mundo de la hípica tiene variedad de razas que en la mayoría son producto de las  mezclas para aprovechar las bondades de cada una. Así es el caballo caminante de Tennessee  surge en la composición entre:  Narragansett y Canadian Pacer, Standardbred, Thoroughbred, Morgan y American Saddlebred. Hablar de este caballo es recordarlo desde sus orígenes como un animal…

[srfadoption]

Holiday At The Farm!!  Come Out And Meet The Horses. Farm Tour, Horse Parade, Mounted Police Demonstration, Gift Auction, Line Dancing, Food Trucks, Tack Sale, Special Gift To The First 50 People, Try A Pacer, Register In Advance Come Out And Meet The Horses At The Standardbred Retirement Foundation. More Than 75 New Four Legged Friends To Meet. Our Organization Has Been Rescuing, Rehabilitating, And Finding Loving Adoptive Homes For Discarded, And Often Abused Standardbred Horses For More Than 34 Years. Over That Time We've Managed To Save More Than 5000 Horses! These Horses Go On To Work As Therapy Animals For Veterans And Special Needs Children And Adults. They Also Become Mounted Police Horses, Dressage Horses, Barrel Racers, Trail Horses And Just About Any Horse Activity! Known As The Brainiac Breed, They're Smart And Level Headed Enough To Do Any Task You Give Them :D Our Holiday At The Farm Event Kicks Off The Holiday Season In A Way That Only Horses Can. Bringing Joy To Those Around Them

[horsesarecreatures]

No Nukes - 1979 Standardbred Stallion

No Nukes was a pacer bred in New Jersey who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. He won 10 out of 19 races and was syndicated for $5 million, the third highest price for a freshman Standardbred stallion. He then become the 3rd most money-winning sire of all time.  He sired the winners of more than $118 million and was the first sire to have three double-millionaires - Â Die Laughing, Western Hanover, and Jate Lobell.

He was owned by & stood at stud at the farm where Amba and Indy are now - Indy is the only Standardbred there now but she is related to him through Most Happy Fella. No Nuke’s stall was the oversized one where the owner now puts her three mini donkeys in at night. I wish I could travel back in time and see what the place was like when he was there. 

[myheartsandhooves]

The River, 9 year old standardbred.

[theequeerstrian]

Joins three Standardbred groups on facebook and posts in them plus the carriage driving groups if anyone uses off track standies for pleasure driving Silence on all fronts Seriously???

[ajantajudd]

Vinny heading back from and Tommy heading out to early morning work through the mist and red gums . .⚡______________________⚡ Always in my heart Love courage beauty spirit Beautiful soul mates . . ⚡______________________ ⚡ . @ajantajudd Image & Haiku All Rights Reserved #trees #treesofinstagram #standardbred #pacers #equine #horse #horses #gumtree #fog #horsesofinstagram #redgum #sunrise #dawn #haikusofinstagram #haiku #mernda #haikuu #mist #spirituality #photooftheday #poetsofinstagram #poetry #love #poets #poet #poetrycommunity #spirit #gum #sacred #gumtree #ancient #igers #instagood #instadaily #yourhappyspace (at Mernda, Victoria, Australia) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUhkqPBKm5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w5un1sr4cmrd

[equiiines]

Rode a horse again today, for the first time since I fell off last year, on the same horse, Cole (A big fleabitten grey arab)

Just walking around, but considering when I got on (didn't ride) a different horse (Bart, an ancient pacer standardbred) I completely freaked out, so I think that's progress

[rosakajo]

LOVELY LADIES PT 1

We are so excited to introduce our 3 wonderful new mares!

The first in spotlight will be Komique NV, a Standardbred bought from @claraholland ♡ She’s hot-headed, fast and energetic, but also so affectionate it’s adorable. A sweetheart who will do anything for kisses and scratches. She’s also the first pacer in our harness racing team.

[track2hack]

03.10.2024

One VERY brave man crossing the impassable thrashing river of doom and destruction (a 3-foot wide irrigation creek that barely went over his ankles)

[mountedhistory]

I actually thought of that 😂 I too had an Icelander. It seems it’s only the three basic gaits that are represented here though?

We’re testing out Equilab Equestrian Tracker this week to track our training (very exciting). Please let us have good weather or else our wimp stats will be zero. Have you tried the app before?

[countryequinelove-blog]

She knows when there's a camera.

[horsesarecreatures]

Cam Fella - Standardbred Stallion

Grandsire of Indy 

[madrivervalleyicelandics]

So I'm really curious; I have a standardbred pacer who has been taught to trot and I would like her to be able to switch between the two gaits. She only paces when she is worried. How would I go about teaching her to do both?

Hi! While I don’t give out specific training advice for individual cases on the internet, I did write an article on Gait Separation Training for the USIHC Quarterly Magazine that goes pretty in depth and would probably be really helpful.

You can read that and every other issue of the magazine ever written, online, as well as getting a new paper copy of the magazine 4 times per year, by becoming a USIHC member. There are a lot of other great training articles that would also apply to your horse, so it could be a resource worth investing in. The cost to subscribe is $45 per year, that makes you a USIHC member and comes with access to all issues of the magazine.

You can find the magazine / become a member at www.icelandics.org

I also have a Webseries on Patreon where I am currently starting a young gaited horse under saddle using clicker training, and recording every single training session with him from start to finish. Each episode includes a full training session and an in-depth theory lecture. Gait separation training is of course among the topics, and I have already done the work of demonstrating how to put his lateral and diagonal gaits on separate vocal cues using targeting at liberty, so if you subscribe now, you will have access to those videos and be able to follow us through the rest of the journey as well.

Access to the webseries can be found at Patreon.com/MadRiverValleyIcelandics

Hope these resources are helpful!