It's here - heaven itself! It arrived today on the back of a trailer and Red hasn't stopped stuffing his face since.
Red is not as brave as Huey, so when it rolled into the paddock - he watched it like a hawk, expecting it to leap up and engulf him with it's stringy-evilness .... When he discovered the giant stringball-of-death infact contained HAY, and not horse-eating monsters as he'd expected, you could almost see the merry jig he was performing in his head at the sight of it ....
I had an interesting discussion with the guy who delivered the bales for me - we chatted for a while, and got onto the topic that both Huey and Red were Standardbreds - ex pacers.... Now don't me wrong, he was a really nice chappy, really helpful, has great hay at great prices and will deliver - but seems another person who believes Standies can't do anything but wear a harness and pull a sulky on the track.... His comments will be in red, mine blue...
"Oh. But they're no good for riding. Right?!"
"They're excellent for riding. Very level headed - and can do anything they're asked. They just have to be retrained after they finish racing."
"They don't step-out well though, do they?"
"This guy (I pointed to Red) tracks up very nicely. He's been shown in breed classes so far, and we're working on our Dressage. The other one, (pointed to Huey) has a huge stride - overtracks actually. But hasn't done much, due to.... (explained Huey's hoof saga briefly)"
.... I then went on to explain that these guys (Standies) are now doing very well in Endurance and will often be kept as pacers for it as well....
"Oh. So what's it like to ride a pace then?"
"It's actually very comfortable once your used to it! No need to rise, just let your hips go. It's less labour-intensive for both you, and your horse, than trotting is"..
-nods in thought-
I don't think he believed me, but he was polite enough to listen and to ask questions. I definitely appreciate and respect that in a fellow horseperson; rather than having to listen to the usual negative stereotypical crap about how standardbreds can't do this and can't do that... Nooooooooo, they CAN, it's just that no-one has bothered to train and showcase them under saddle before now ... You can't take a horse straight from the track, who has many months, often YEARS, of muscle memory and expect them to perform movements they're not conditioned to do, nor trained to do. Not to mention the standy racehorse is well aware they get DISCIPLINED for breaking gait so it takes a little while to let them know it's now okay to trot, canter, and travel in a round frame,not hollow, when working...
It would be like sinking 30K into a dressage-bred warmblood and getting pissy because it can't do piaffe, passage, travers or canter piroeuttes without first training and conditioning them to do so.... The difference is, the warmblood is being taught from scratch with no former training/conditioning to govern it's attitude/behaviour/muscle memory; the Standardbred is being retrained into life after racing, and sometimes takes time to make the transition into it's second career.... Training people, training!! -end of rant-
However, all that is about to change! A new Standy group is forming in my area, and we're looking to promote these diamonds in the rough anyway we can :o) .... But for now - here are the lads, stuffing their faces for all it's worth, incase I take the holy-hay-bale away!!
