One type of a race horse is a Pacer. A horse that paces moves its left front foot and left hind foot forward together at the same time. Since sometimes this is hard for them they wear a special device on their legs that helps to keep their legs in motion.
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This is the pool where sore horses go to exercise. This is for the horses with stiff muscles or horses that need some extra training but not on their feet. |
| This is a close-up picture of the hopples that a pacer uses to keep their legs in the right position.. |  |
Pacers can go faster than trotters because of the way that they move. Pacers have a smother stride where as Trotters strides are more strenuous. All of my horses were Pacers except for one.
Pacers basically have the same care as Trotters. Their legs need to be bandaged, they need to be fed, and also bathed. The one thing that differs from Trotters to Pacers is the equipment that they use to race. As shown above, Pacers use special leg gear called hopples.
Trotters are another type of racehorses. A trotter's movement is such as the left front foot moves forward at the same time as the right hind foot. Breeding is what determines what gate they will choose.
A trotter has the same life as a pacer. Usually, they stand between 12.5 and 16 hands tall. Trotters are slower than pacers and their movements are more jerky. One thing about pacers and trotters is that once they decide which stride their going to use, they can't do the other anymore. Once a stride is chosen, it is final. There really aren't many differences between the 2 horses, they both are race horses, and are about the same height.
These are the only kinds of horses that are kept at the Meadowland racetrack other than a single Arabian horse that opens up the races.
Well, that's all the info I can give on Trotters and Pacers, check out my other pages at the bottom for more!!
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