With thousands of standardbreds facing the prospect of having to find a new way of life in the coming months, horse-racing enthusiasts in northern Ontario are doing their best to introduce harness horses to new lines of work.

As a story on northernlife.ca explains, standardbreds are in abundance right now and are looking for good homes, but some are already being broken to saddle, as well as taking up some other vocations.

Stating that now is the best time for those interested in taking in a harness horse, Joanne Colville of the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society said that the organization is well over capacity right now. “We're struggling to try to re-home," Colville said. "There are lots of horses on the market right now.”

“Working with a standardbred is very challenging, but very rewarding,” Danika Morin was quoted as saying in the report. “My inspiration for owning a standardbred was seeing how she had so much potential in her. I could see she was very willing and loving.”

“A lot of people think they're hot-headed because they're race horses,” said horse owner/enthusiast Lindsay Brunette said, who does her part to dispel the highly inaccurate myth. “(Standardbreds) see everything at the racetrack. They're handled on a daily basis from a young age. They are exposed to everything and anything.”

(With files from northernlife.ca)