I have a 6 year old Rocky Mountain Mare who is having issues going down hill. She is not crazy about thick sand either. She is NOT lame. When I pony her, she wants to ride the other horse down the hill. She is gaited, and seems only able to do a running walk, the faster paced gait. She can lope, but does not like to do it on a circle. Straight is O.k, along with hard flat ground. I have taken her to a vet that knows gaited horses, and he said that he could see nothing wrong with her, of course she was being tested on hard flat ground. I was thinking that she had a stifle issue. He said that she had plenty of flextion. I know it is common to cut the stifle to fix stifle problems in gaited horses, but he said that he didn't think that he could fix her. He said that he would have passed her for a vet check. I know of an arab that has a similar problem going down hill, and she too has been vetted, checking more than I did, and this horse too has shown nothing concreat. Her owner won't take her horse on unknow trails because she is afraid of an accident from her horse acting up going down some hilly cliff. I too don't have any confidence in my horse. I have tried a 3 week bute and hill treatment, that is supposed to help with stretching the stifle, but it didn't seem to show any change.

Has anyone successfully fixed a similar issue?