>>>> Nice pic, handsome boy. Kind of a big head, a bit heavy body-some sort of warmblood?
He's a little heavy right now, even if he does look muscular. And the big head is probably more from my poor camera angles - his head is actually pretty. (He's not for sale, btw.) I've always thought he looks a little Thoroughbred-ish, but probably less so since he's been in a lush pasture for three years - thus I guess I can see where you thought Warmblood. Mac is a 15.2H, 18-year-old off-the-track Standardbred pacer. He raced (pacing) until what I believe was the age limit for Standardbreds, 15. To make his story more interesting, he was a cryprtorchid stallion, never breeding, but not gelded until he retired three years ago. (If you remember the articles on cryptorchidism, I sent recently, the condition is more common in Standardbreds than in many breeds.) I first met him just a couple of months after he was gelded, when my local trainer got him in via one of the ex-racehorse placement programs to saddle break him. He won something like $250,000 in his career - not a huge fortune, but enough to keep them racing him. His racing owners paid for his saddle training and genuinely seemed determined to find him a good retirement home. His natural gaitedness? I watched as he went under saddle from the very start, with no pressure, no preconceptions as to what gait/gaits he'd do. He was completely been-there, done-that with everything groundwork wise, and he knew bits and harness, so she rode him much earlier than she would have with most horses. After a few days of walk-only, she asked him for a little speed - a nice running walk. With more encouragement, he'd break into trot. I'd definitely call him "five-gaited" in the Icelandic sense, although multi-gaited is no doubt more accurate. She started several Standarbreds under this program, but Mac was the easiest of the easy. After she had him 2-3 months (and we were both looking for the right home for him) a couple who are friends of ours took him, when they finally got the farm they'd always wanted. They bought a young QH from me, and Mac went to be his buddy. The 50-ish woman of the couple was totally new to riding, and she fell in love with my QH. Her husband had owned horses as a kid - oddly enough, his favorite was also a bay Standardbred. They made contact with Mac's original owners, who came to meet them, and helped them find a harness and cart for him. So, Mac is a retired pacer, who is now lightly driven and lightly ridden. The grandkids enjoy both of these horses. To me, this horse doesn't look like a gaited horse, but I think most of our eyes are trained to look for the wrong traits - I know mine have been. I rode him out once with my 13.0H chubby/chunky Sina a few times - and oddly their gaitedness is quite similar. When we marked his rear and back angles, we were surprised to see that hers and his were pretty similar, despite initial appearances... So, this thread probably wasn't as off-topic as it first appeared. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
