My 5yr old Standardbred prefers to canter rather than trot.. she will fall into a very uncoordinated canter when she starts to loose her rhythm in the trot.. then she will fall into a pace. Any tips?? (We have been told she was never raced but she was a rescue)

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed.

I have a Welch C who goes from Trot to a paced fast trot which is quite unpleasant to ride. I just can get her to transition to canter. I will try Walk direct to canter! Any other advise to stop this pacing gait?

Why are you riding a green horse in a double bridle?

I'm adopting a 20 year Standardbred. His last race was 2009 and has probably been used to pull a buggy. If he starts pacing, do I bring him back to the walk and circle him at the walk and then ask for the trot again?

when teaching a pacer to learn a trot (he trots normally in the pasture) under saddle, when they rever to pace, do you stop (transition to a walk) then ask again? He does very well picking up trot when using ground poles, but without them he tends to stick to his pace (sometimes he picks up trot- but its not consistent without the ground poles)

I found that teaching my standardbred to canter was best done on uneven ground or snow.

Thank you so much, perfect video!

Something else I can try thanks 😊

Hi

Any suggestions for a standy who’s left canter is fine but the right...she’s like a sport motorcycle (crotch rocket) and her hind legs are all over the place. I’ve spent many years just trying to get the correct lead. She has that now but the balance for the right lead is a nightmare. ***hoping you see this despite the video being 3 years old***

Any help finding a saddle that fits, I'm struggling over here 😂😂🤦

i’m unsure if you will see this, but are you located in sydney?

what a darling she is!

She was stumbling a lot

So pretty

you will find that if you have better connection with the mouth she/he will canter more forward. i have a off the standy and yes you have to work hard with them

What’s wrong with Standardbreds cuz I don’t get all this re training stuff

If they are right off the track, will they understand what a canter aide means? (Leg on girth, other slightly behind girth)

That wind! Sounds like a storm!

How awesome you have a stb! Lovely horse!

Love your vids! They help so much!

WoW looking great! I am retraining an OTSB and goodness gracious I understand how difficult it is to ride that canter. My mare has to buck every time I ask for the canter just so she can put her feet in the right direction. Keep up the good work!

Hi Jagat! Thank you for watching my videos! I have never heard of warmblood trotters before... Standardbreds can either trot or pace for racing, both use some type of hobble/leg straps to make them pace so both outside legs go forward at the same time (for the pacing bred Standardbreds) or for the trotter bred horses it stops them cantering and makes them do an exaggerated trot where the diagonal legs over extend themselves. My two horses were pacers, they trained to be racehorses and trialled but never made it to actual competitive racing as they both were injured. The trotters here can be more difficult to teach canter as they are actively taught not to canter, I don’t know much about it but I think how they are taught the gear kind of “punishes” them when they canter and it’s more comfortable for them to do the trot instead. Some of them can be ingrained with trotting and reluctant to canter as they thinks it’s the wrong thing to do. Having said that with kindness and patience they do get it and are quite happy to please once they know what you want. Remi and Ricochet were 4 when I got them, but there is a program called HRV HERO here in Australia who places racehorses into retrainers for rehoming. Several have been over 10 and easily slip into new careers. My horses don’t have shoes as they have really good feet and the ground is not hard here, however in summer if I was competing a lot I would put shoes on. Standardbreds are very good doers, and have generally have excellent feet unlike the thoroughbreds. Remi learnt canter in about 5 months but it was pretty awful. She and ricochet are my only 2 I’ve refrained so I didn’t know what I was doing. If I did it again now I think I could produce it a lot quicker. My coach always says 18months of great basics and then you can do some amazing things pretty quick... but if you are wanting to do for reselling you could teach them canter pretty quick. Because mine were in harness, they don’t bend like the throughbreds, so when you get on they have no concept of turning or bending through the rib cage. They just move their shoulders around their hindlegs and keep their body straight. So I spent a lot of time slowing down the walk, using my body to turn the horse and get them to start bending and unstiffen their spines. When they can bend in the walk, you can do bits of trotting on straight lines and then make big ovals so just turning a little instead of being on a constant bend on a circle. Trot slowly and just short periods and go back to bending in walk. Then you can teach them to move shoulders or hind quarters over while bending at walk to increase suppleness which makes the trotting on a circle easier. Then when you can trot a circle in balance and not too fast you can ask for canter for a few strides and let them come back before they loose balance. Reward praise and make a huge deal out of any little effort they make, they need to know that this weird thing we are asking is what we want. Once they get their confidence with canter you can start to make it look pretty.

Hi Brodi. great video, Remi s moving nicely and you ve taught her to be really relaxed and its nice to see both of you work as a team. I ve seen some of your training videos and I have some questions... the reason I ask is that I m interested to retrain trotting warmbloods in Sweden into riding horses. So would be grateful for any help. 1. How old are the horses that you retrain? Does catching them young make it any easier? 2. Have they been racehorses? 3. Do your horses have shoes? (I tried looking, it seems that they dont) 4. Is it difficult for them to canter and how long does it take for them to canter like in the above video? I do realise that this depends on each individual horse.... still on an average do the trotters canter easily, especially if you work slow and steady with them, like you do. I have trained many gallop racehorses into really good hacking horses, am thinking of doing the same with the warmblood trotters. Therefore I ask. Thanks and great stuff, keep it up.

Thank you, this is such gentle important training for any horse

Thank you so much! These have helped my 14 year old standardbred so much <3

Great video. What camera setup are you using??

When you're speaking and standing still, is it possible to get the mic closer? I cannot hear you at all -

This is pretty good but have no idea why pple feel the need to hang onto a horses mouth, maybe try bitless might work better for the horse

Every time you lean forward it puts her off balance

Get rid of the huge stick shes not on the track *SMH*

what is the distance between poles?

What kind of saddle is that?

Volume is super low. Can you adjust? Can't hear well

Wish I had seen that when I was trying to get my pacer mare to trot!!! Now, she’s has an amazing trot, but it took time, effort and a lot of poles 😂😂😂

Shame about the wind noise, your videos are so good

Important things to remember doing this: 1 Forget about the position of the horses head, just concentrate on getting the horse to turn when you turn your shoulders. 2 Slower is better.... don't go any faster than what I am... literally one step at a time is great, it gives these horses enough time to coordinate their legs, they are used to pacing and going fast. slow them down ALOT so they can balance themselves and not get flustered3 Keep your legs relaxed... floppy even. Be conscious if you tense your muscles and if you do make them go relaxed again. Any time I ask for leg, I take it off first before putting it back on the horse, and I try to just let my leg flop back on without any force or use of heels. Hold the reins like you would a wheelbarrow, slightly apart, when you turn a wheelbarrow your inside hand comes down slightly, your outside rein comes up slightly, you turn from your waist and your inside shoulder comes back and your outside shoulder goes forward. You should have a little more weight on the inside stirrup so that the horse learns to bend around your leg. The aim of this exercise is to make your horse turn when you turn your shoulders. If they do not turn gently turn the head a bit with the inside rein only and turn your body more... to the point of looking at the tail if you have to! Reward when your horse starts to move in the direction you have asked. Repeat until they are fluent both sides. To halt, simply stop going with the horse.. lean back slightly and sit normally when they stop. Pat. Make a big deal. Soon you will be able to do downward transitions with balance and self carriage. To walk on keep hand forward, take your legs off and then tap them back on very lightly and without force, don't keep squeezing if no response, take both legs off and leg it flop back to the side. Reward pat praise!