pacers

[mylittlepony]

I would like to ask if anyone knows how to get a pacer to canter (not for just a few strides but for longer distances) ? Also i would like to ask if anyone has views on pacers jumping? I herd that it can be dangerous?

[Wally]

It all depends upon the individual horse and how he has been trained in the past.

You may well get a kind of canter, but odds on it will be disunited, comfy but disunited! I know it is difficult to train very pacy Icelandics to canter properly.

You will have to start on short bursts of canter, it's like making you write with the hand you don't normally write with. I'm right handed and I know I could write a few words left handed, but I couldn't do an essay left handed without a lot of practice.

Jumping a pacy horse again, needs time and re training.

I know pacey Icelandics will try to jump laterally, front and hind left pair of legs and front and hind right pair of legs rather than front end, back end. If you take it slowly and teach him what you want it may be possible to get him cantering and jumping, but it will take time and patience.

[jUmPingIsLifE]

my moms horse is STB and paces. when we got her she allready knew how to canter somewhat but not very good at all.

you need to be very patient and understanding, if your pacer has raced in hte past then cantering was a HUGE NO NO and they got punished for this.

lots of practice is how i got my moms horse cantering better, it helped me of cource that she allready did some cantering. wish i could help you more.

[scooby doo]

I have had two standardbreds, the first one couldnt canter very well, and as I was learning because he was my first horse, i didn't know how to get him to do it properly! He could do it with a lot pf patience and time but he never was really good at it. He ploughed along like a train! I kept him for 2 years and sold him on to another girl that wanted to learn to ride, she is now getting another horse but keeping him as a paddock mate.

My other stb I still have and she canters beautifully, it is so nice to learn on a horse that doesnt feel like its legs are falling off...lol.

So all I can say is either keep trying, take the horse to a trainer and see what they think or as horrible as it is sell them on. I know when I sold mine I cried all the way home when we dropped him off.

I am not in anyway suggesting that you sell your horse just because it wont canter properly, just that sometimes you have to move on to something else, as like jumpingislife said, they are taught that it is wrong.

[entreat]

I would like to know the same thing!!
My last post concerning Cody was that his canter sucks, and is very uncomfortable.
He's not a standardbred, but enjoys pacing and trotting (dunno where he learnt it from), but due to the comfort factor I've since decided not to canter him anymore.
I think retraining him might fall into the too hard basket, as he's just a weekend ride, and his trot's very comfy (we trotted for about 1/2hour last time - all the way home..:) )

[Shiny McShine]

I used to ride a pacer and he had a lovely canter. His owners did alot of collection work with him when they got him, and taught him to canter correctly by going from walk to canter, rather than trot to canter. If you didn't have him collected when you asked for canter he would just go into the pace, but if you really collected him up from a walk or a trot into canter then he was lovely. I think they used to do alot of tranisitions from walk to canter, not long stretches of canter, in working him up to it. They also had him well educated in lateral movements such as travers, shoulder-in and so on which seemed to help him come together a bit more and work into the canter as opposed to just running off into the pace.

I am not sure about jumping...can't say I ever jumped this boy, and I have never heard anything good nor bad about jumping pacers. Anyhow I hope that gives you some idea of an approach you can take to teaching the canter, and good luck ;).

[Cochise]

The hardest thing is the transition from trot to canter. Do heaps and heaps of this transition. Each time try and squeeze a little more canter out of him, and always always follow it up with lots and lots of praise. Never allow him to batter along at a flat out trot into the canter, but askk for it out of a nice balanced trot. Occassionally they will be cantering along fine and will slip back into a pace. Dont lose you cool, just quietly ask him back into a balanced trot and quietly ask for the canter again.
Its a time thing, and always make sure that he is balanced and taking his time.
As for jumping, I dont think that they are unsafe at all! They certainly have an awesome leap in them!
The thing that really bugs me about peoples misconceptions of SBs is about jumping and cantering. People have no patience with most of them, and dont train them like other breeds of horse to saddle and jumping. So many people I have met just face them with a small jump and this is so dangerous. Because the people think "oh he managed to jump that fine" and ask them to jump bigger jumps, and so on and so on. Nothing is being done to encourage the horses balance and rhythm right from the start. (sorry to rant lol)

[Wally]

Fákur is a weird gaited horse, he has a strong trot when its there but he is also very pacey, which for an Icelandic is weird, if pace is that strong trot is usually non existant.

If you get him into a stonking trot he cannot find his way out of it and loses his balance. He needs to be trotting gently before you can ask for anything else.

Pace too, if he takes off into pace he cannot find trot if he's pounding along.

Canter from walk is a good one for balancing up and getting legs sorted.

[entreat]

I have to admit, the last trail horse I rode (Tarmac) was ex-pacer stb from NZ, and her canter was so smooth and fast, I'd have done it all afternoon! Shw was such a sweetie!

[nakedescapee]

I think it is easier to teach a pacer to canter on an up-hill slope and very collected.

[Wally]

This is very true, trot and canter are easier up a slope, tölt is better down a slight hill.

Deep sand or long grass may help trot and canter too.

We go onto the beach and trot along the bottom of the sand-dunes to train for trot.