Hi Annie,

As a breeder, exhibitor of padded performance Walking horses, flatshod horses, trail Walking Horses and Spotted Saddle Horses, let me tell you that a Walking Horse or a Spotted Horse will make your day and your ride. I have been in this business for 55 years and there is no breed ANYWHERE that can compete with these horses.

In response to your comment,

(I oooed and aaawed over the TWH show performance, but sickened when I learned how they were trained to achieve the championship level..)

I just want to say, don't believe everything you hear. Our horses are the best conditioned, trained and humanely treated of any breed in existence. Just remember that all breeds have training practices that everyone doesn't agree with, and the Walking Horse industry has evolved through the dark ages, so to speak. But the industry is clean, sound and probably a lot more humane in training practices than any other breed out there. I could list instances of almost every other breed's "hidden" training techniques, but I keep in mind that a few bad apples do not make the entire bushel bad. People love to bad-mouth another breed that isn't the one they have....mostly from just plain old jealousy. I encourage you to try Walking Horses and find out what good people make it up from the top of the show performance ranks to the trail horses......we all do the same gait but with different amounts of animation, etc through training and shoeing. We would love to have you join our industry and find the real truth and not some hateful gossip from 40 years ago. Good luck finding a good horse and I really hope it's a Walking Horse!!

I think the big problem is that the Somalis are being placed in a state that is close mined- white population that is not open to different cultures. The Somalis should be placed in cities such a Minnesota or New York and so on because these cities value different cultures and are opine-mined. I my self being a Somali I immigrated to Shelbyville but I was made to feel extremely uncomfortable and not wanted by these white folks. I since then moved to Toronto, Canada- wouldn't be happier with how people are embracing me. People in Shelbyville are definitely not ready to deal or welcome Somali refugees

Annie,

I have owned QH's,Paints,Arabians and several other ungaited horses. I once said I'd never own a gaited horse. Then I moved back home to Shelbyville, after many years of working/playing with horses in Texas & Kentucky. I grew up in Shelbyville and rode horses with many folks that had TWH's. To keep up I frequently had to trot & lope my QH.

Once I returned to Shelbyville I found that many people had also started riding Spotted Saddle Horses and most of my clients brought me Spots. Well I never should have said never. I ended up falling in love with the breed and now I have 3 Spots in addition to an Appy & QH. Now of course the QH & the Appy can run circles around them, but the Walkers & Spots can saddle walk and easily walk away from the ungaited horses & they can do it ALL day long.

The Spots are my favorite trail horse and mine are very smooth. Now I honestly don't know if TWH's are smoother, but I would not doubt it. My Spots also can cover lots of ground...probably twice as much as an ungaited horse and I just really prefer horses with mixed colors.

I would suggest that you try the TWH & a SSH. They can both hold up to whatever riding you wish to do as long as they have been conditioned to it, as any other horse should be. Do your homework on whom you buy your horse from and in my opinion be very cautious about buying former show horses.

Good luck in your search and I hope to see you on the trails someday on your gaited horse.

I am a walking horse owner,yes to your question about,can a walking horse make 5or 6 days of riding, yes we go out of state for that long of a ride.our horses are ridden,in hills and hollow's so there in good shape,for 5 or 6days of riding.any where you want to go...........