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Bruce while you have a good amount of wisdom in your post, I will say that
if your horse feels the need to trot or do whatever it needs to complete in
a sound fashion I agree that you should let your horse tell you this.

My gaited horses never want to trot under saddle. The Rack is of course a
ventroflexed gait. It cannot be held for long periods of time. The RW in a
nicely collected manner and slow is a rounded gait and they can accomplish
this gait all day and not fatigue their backs or muscles. A canter is also a
great gait for them to switch into for speed and roundness. The flatwalk
again can round out and relax them. My horses quite often will just do a
dogwalk when they are tired and this is fine too.

But they are gaited by their very breeding and that is their preferred gait.
Not a trot. If they were trotty I would not have to put weighted shoes on
them. I would have gotten the gait out of them as youngsters first under
saddle by working the hind legs and muscles. If I had a pacey horse....well
I would never buy such a horse because it is so very tough to change a pacer
to a gait period. If I had to resort to weighted shoes, I would sell the
horse if I was ignorant enough to purchase one in the first place.

Sue Walz rides a pacing horse. She doesn't mind the pace. I can tell you
there is nothing faster than a horse doing a pace. Race Track TB's can't go
as fast as a good STB Pacing horse. I know people that actually ride Pacers
in a round ring for $$ and those monsters are hitting a lick at 35 mph. It
is a mind blower to watch! A pace is an easy gait for the horse, a lateral
gait they can accomplish a lot as shown by Raven, Sue's exceptional Tevis
horse. I can't ride a pace and won't. I won't ride a trot any longer either.
Just my preferance to love a smooth natural gait such as the RW or the fast
Rack.

Now to weighted shoes. Not all weighted shoes have to be the BL. I did put
*weighted shoes* on my off track Standardbred mare that I purchased last
August. She was a harness trotter. I wanted to bring out her natural
abilities of a rack. To get her to break over from the trot to a rack I put
heavier shoes on her fronts.

Now by "heavier" I am talking 16 ounces in the front as opposed to the
standard 14oz keg shoe on the rears. Two ounce "heavier" on the rears.  No
way is this going to be considered a Big Lick package. It only took a few
rides on this mare to have her racking and now she is barefoot and still
will do her rack gait. This mare is not ridden out on trails, she is a brood
mare and ridden in neighboring plowed wheat fields for a fun rush of speed
at 18mph. in her racking gait.

I disagree with riding barefoot however. I don't care what Lee Ziegler says.
She has a lot of great stuff to say on gaited horses but she isn't god. If
you live in my neck of the woods and try to ride barefoot you are going to
hurt your horse's feet big time. Rocky, hard pan terrain. Every single
barefoot person I know of has had lameness problems trying to go barefoot
down here...every single one. I will not debate shoes vs. barefoot. You all
do what you want. But no way will you convince me it is BETTER to ride a
gaited horse barefoot to bring out gait.

Gaited horses do NOT need any gimmicks in their shoeing. They do not need
weights, angle changes, long toes, caulks, none of that nonsense. Nice
normal keg shoes like any other horse out on the trail. Forget the showring
jazz. We are endurance horses, shoe them accordingly and for your terrain.

Ride always with the kindest bit you can. Forget those gawd awful long
shanked stinkin bits you see Gaited riders going with. They don't know any
better I suppose. I ride in Myler Comfort Snaffle, Robarts low to medium
port with Kimberwick cheeks for those that need tongue relief and that is
it. We are now starting them all in rope halters then advancing to the above
mentioned bits. Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh....I can't stand to see those walking
horse torture devices especially in the hands of a novice.

amber
rackinfool
www.applegaitnendurancehorses.com


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