The Standardbred -- A Horse for Racing and Companionship

The Standardbred horse was developed in the United States as a race horse. They are most famous for carriage racing rather than saddle racing like Thoroughbreds. Trotting races were first held in the 17th century. These races were originally held in grass but made their way to official race courses with the horses sporting harnesses. There were a variety of different horses that were bred together to produce this particular breed. They include the Narragansett Pacer, Canadian Pacer, Norfolk Trotter, Thoroughbred, Hackney and the Morgan. The crossbreeding resulted in this new breed as we know it today.

While this breed is compared to the Thoroughbred, they are longer in body and feature more muscle than the Thoroughbred. Their disposition is placid and trainable. They enjoy spending time with their handlers and like meeting challenges. Their height ranges from 14 to 17 hands. The coat is most always brown or black. Other colors are not uncommon but are not seen as often as the brown or black coloration. There may be some white coloration on the nose. This breed of horse comes in two varieties -- trotters and pacers.

The trotter prefers to race at a trotting pace as its name suggests. Pacers have a pace gait which means the forelegs and hindlegs move in unison. These horses can also of course perform all the other common horse gaits such as walking, cantering and galloping. Pacers can of course be taught to trot, and sometimes trotters can be taught to pace. If you are interested in buying or breeding this type of horse, some education is in order. Breeding horses takes more than just a stallion and a mare. There is a practice called selective breeding where sire and dams are chosen for their characteristics to produce a foal with certain traits.

There are various programs devoted to this breed including the American Standardbred Adoption Program. This program helps place former racehorses with homes as companion animals. If breeding horses is what you want to do, you should consider reading some books on the general subject of horse breeding. Some titles to consider include: The Horse Conformation Handbook by Heather Smith Thomas, The Foal is the Goal by Tena Bastian and Racehorse Breeding Theories by Frank J. Mitchell and Steven A. Roman.

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