Ya know, Pam, then she must not be naturally gaited if she has to have shoes on to gait... that makes no sense to me, no shoes, no gait...
There are other reasons she may not gait, have you thought of them??? She could be arthritic, she could have a saddle fit problem the bit might not be right for both of you... She could be living on to wet of an area causing her feet to be to wet for the trails you are riding her on??? ETC... I don't know, but to take shoes off and have her stop gaiting makes no sense to me... Unless they are weighted? Also, did you have a farrier trim her or a barefoot trimmer trim her for going barefoot??? Sometimes a Farrier does not know how to get a Tight white line to grow out on a hoof, which by the way takes time to get after one takes shoes off any horse, especially one who has warn shoes for a long time.. Cause of the combination of shoes, trim and length of time the shoe is on, I beleive anything over 4 weeks, can and usually does cause the toe to become to long, which just leads to a long toe for them to trip on, and the white line stretches forward, cause it has no where else to go, which then can cause and usually does cause a very contracted heel, it is a mechanical response to most shoes, most shoe type trims and wearing them for more then 4 weeks, given that the hoof grows at a normal rate... I don't think one has to spend lots of money for gravel like I did, I had a low muddy spot that I had to fill in with something, before ( or was it about the same time? I have had gravel for so long, I don't remember ) anyway, before or about the time I figured out how important it was for barefoot horses, I put it in for ME, I hated having my boots sucked off, we have rich black dirt here and it was HORRIBLE in the dry lots in the spring, before all the frost was out, Now I have it for both the horses and ME, honestly, I have spent far less money on riding and caring for my barefoot horses then I did when I was shoeing them or having someone else trim them... I personally like to Farret out the reason why my horses act the way they do, why they are off, and if they have to wear shoes to gait, then there is something else going on... I want to know what it is, and what I can do to fix it, which is why I have researched, trimmed, researched, trimmed, researched and now watch and trim only when needed.. I Love it.. less time, energy and MONEY!!!! -- I and my horses love our track system, take a look~~~ http://picasaweb.google.com/dakota.charm/TrackForHorses
