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[RC] Standardbreds...& part... - k s swigart

Heidi said:


OK, I admit to being dumb!  What is the difference between a
Standardbred  and a Saddlebred?  Are they both cart-trotting horses?



Yes, sort of--but the difference is that the Standarbreds were bred

for

speed and the Saddlebreds for ease and style.  :-)


Actually no, not at all.  The original definition of a Standardbred is
any horse (and you could breed whatever you liked to get it) that could
trot a mile in harness within a specified "standard" amount of time
(which has gotten to be less and less since the original standard was
set back in the 1800s (and the breed now includes pacers as well as
trotters).  The horses are of predominantly thoroughbred blood (but not
entirely).  The breed was specified and designed exclusively as a
trotting/harness horse.

The Saddlebred, on the other hand, was bred specifially to be a SADDLE
horse (i.e. one to be ridden, not one to be used in harness), hence the
name.  And while they, too, trace in many lines to the Thoroughbred,
they are bred to be smooth gaited riding horses and will usually be
pretty well predisposed to the assorted variation of the four-beat
lateral gaits of the assortment of gaited horses.

So, while both breeds share a rather substantial amount of Thoroughbred
ancestry (although not many of the same Thoroughbreds), their selection
criteria have been completely different, since one was selected as a
trotting harness horse and the other as a smooth gaited saddle horse.

There are some Saddlebred afficianados who put Saddlebreds in harness
and will use them for such; however, there are people who put arabian
horses in harness too, despite the fact that neither of these breeds had
ability as a harness horse as part of their selection criteria (and hard
core drivers have a tendency to steer clear of them:)).

If I were looking for a good driving horse, I wouldn't start out looking
at Saddlebreds, and if I were looking for a good riding horse, I
wouldn't start out looking at Standardbreds.  This doesn't mean that
there are no individuals within these breeds that can be used for these
purposes, just that it wasn't the original intent of the breed.

kat
Orange County, Calif.





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