Imagine gliding down the trail, oblivious to rough terrain, without worrying about hours spent in the saddle causing back pain. This isn’t just a dream for the fortunate owners of Paso Fino horses. Born with a naturally smooth gait that creates almost no movement for the rider, they’re the perfect way to travel down the trail, especially over long distances.

Developed in the Caribbean and Latin America from Spanish horses that were imported to the Americas, the Paso Fino is known for its smooth, four-beat lateral gait, which can be performed at three speeds. The classic fino is slow in forward movement, but the feet take very quick steps. The paso corto has medium speed and stride. The paso largo moves forward the fastest, with a longer stride.

The Paso Fino is prized for its gentle spiritedness and incredible stamina. The combination makes for a popular trail and endurance horse.

Today’s Paso Fino Horse

Today, the Paso Fino Horse Association (PFHA) has over 60,000 registered horses and 3,500 members in 21 regions.

Recently, the PFHA held the International Mundial Championships in Miami, Fla., where horses from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S. competed. Classes were streamed on the USEF Network, with over 80,000 views from around the world—the most-watched event the network has ever had.

Trail riding is so popular within the breed that the PFHA created the Trail Horse Test Program. This gives riders a chance to demonstrate their Paso Fino horse’s skill at trail obstacles through a series of tests. It’s not a competition, but rather a way to gauge a horse’s ability to “complete tasks normally performed before, during, and after a trail ride.” There are three different levels—junior, senior and master—and awards are earned after successfully completing each level.

The PFHA has other recreational rider programs that reward Paso Fino owners who hit the trails. These programs include awards for recreational riding, competitive trail, endurance rides, long-distance pleasure rides, and more.

The Inside Scoop

Virginia Frost is a volunteer with the PFHA and on the board of directors representing the Virginia region. She is the chair of the amateur committee and serves on the Recreational Rider committee that administers the Trail Horse Test Program.

“In 2020, we had 40 horses participate in the Trail Horse Test Program,” she says. “This was our way to recognize and praise ‘just a trail horse.’”

Lynda Zimmerman from Minnesota has owned five Paso Fino horses since learning about the breed in a profile assignment for a science class.

“Their willing temperament, smaller size and reputation for being sensible, sure-footed trail horses appealed to me, as I was an adult student and not getting any taller or younger,” she says.

One mare she owned, Lluvia del Norte (Zia), earned the Rookie of the Year for PFHA, Upper Midwest Endurance and Competitive Rides Association (UMECRA) and Minnesota Distance Riding Association (MnDRA) in 2010.

For over nine years, Lynda and Zia competed in the PFHA Limited Distance category, documenting over 2,0000 miles before Zia retired at 20 years old. She was also a show horse, earning her PFHA Supreme Merit Award. In endurance, Zia shined as well, being a two-time PFHA Reserve Champion in Endurance/Limited Distance with many Top Tens.

Zimmerman continues to do endurance and trail riding with her younger Paso, accumulating thousands of miles and many awards along the way. HDR Petrolero de Nevado, a gelding of hers, is a three-time PFHA High Point Endurance/Limited Distance Award winner.

“All three of my competition Pasos have had great ability due to their light, athletic body types, which allow them to meet the pulse criteria for qualified finishes, but their biggest attributes are their heart and willingness,” Zimmerman says.

Donna Hajek from South Carolina fell in love with Paso Fino horses for their smooth gait, intelligence, and how they bond with humans.

“Paso Finos are very versatile, going to a show one weekend, then going out to trail ride, competitive distance riding or endurance riding the following weekend,” she explains. Hajek and her Paso Fino Sundancers Comanchero has been doing 25-mile Limited Distance rides with the American Endurance Ride Conference since 2016.

To learn more about the Paso Fino, visit the Paso Fino Horse Association website or the American Paso Fino Horse Association.

This article about Paso Fino horses appeared in the August 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Breed Portrait: Paso Fino appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Imagine gliding down the trail, oblivious to rough terrain, without worrying about hours spent in the saddle causing back pain. This isn’t just a dream for the fortunate owners of Paso Finos. Born with a naturally smooth gait that creates almost no movement for the rider, they’re the perfect way to travel down the trail, especially over long distances.

Developed in the Caribbean and Latin America from Spanish horses that were imported to the Americas, the Paso Fino is known for its smooth, four-beat lateral gait, which can be performed at three speeds. The classic fino is slow in forward movement, but the feet take very quick steps. The paso corto has medium speed and stride. The paso largo moves forward the fastest, with a longer stride.

The Paso Fino is prized for its gentle spiritedness and incredible stamina. The combination makes for a popular trail and endurance horse.

Today’s Paso Fino

Today, the Paso Fino Horse Association (PFHA) has over 60,000 registered horses and 3,500 members in 21 regions.

Recently, the PFHA held the International Mundial Championships in Miami, Fla., where horses from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S. competed. Classes were streamed on the USEF Network, with over 80,000 views from around the world—the most-watched event the network has ever had.

Trail riding is so popular within the breed that the PFHA created the Trail Horse Test Program. This gives riders a chance to demonstrate their horse’s skill at trail obstacles through a series of tests. It’s not a competition, but rather a way to gauge a horse’s ability to “complete tasks normally performed before, during, and after a trail ride.” There are three different levels—junior, senior and master—and awards are earned after successfully completing each level.

The PFHA has other recreational rider programs that reward Paso Fino owners who hit the trails. These programs include awards for recreational riding, competitive trail, endurance rides, long-distance pleasure rides, and more.

The Inside Scoop

Virginia Frost is a volunteer with the PFHA and on the board of directors representing the Virginia region. She is the chair of the amateur committee and serves on the Recreational Rider committee that administers the Trail Horse Test Program.

“In 2020, we had 40 horses participate in the Trail Horse Test Program,” she says. “This was our way to recognize and praise ‘just a trail horse.’”

Lynda Zimmerman from Minnesota has owned five Paso Finos since learning about the breed in a profile assignment for a science class.

“Their willing temperament, smaller size and reputation for being sensible, sure-footed trail horses appealed to me, as I was an adult student and not getting any taller or younger,” she says.

One mare she owned, Lluvia del Norte (Zia), earned the Rookie of the Year for PFHA, Upper Midwest Endurance and Competitive Rides Association (UMECRA) and Minnesota Distance Riding Association (MnDRA) in 2010.

For over nine years, Lynda and Zia competed in the PFHA Limited Distance category, documenting over 2,0000 miles before Zia retired at 20 years old. She was also a show horse, earning her PFHA Supreme Merit Award. In endurance, Zia shined as well, being a two-time PFHA Reserve Champion in Endurance/Limited Distance with many Top Tens.

Zimmerman continues to do endurance and trail riding with her younger Paso, accumulating thousands of miles and many awards along the way. HDR Petrolero de Nevado, a gelding of hers, is a three-time PFHA High Point Endurance/Limited Distance Award winner.

“All three of my competition Pasos have had great ability due to their light, athletic body types, which allow them to meet the pulse criteria for qualified finishes, but their biggest attributes are their heart and willingness,” Zimmerman says.

Donna Hajek from South Carolina fell in love with the breed for their smooth gait, intelligence, and how they bond with humans.

“Paso Finos are very versatile, going to a show one weekend, then going out to trail ride, competitive distance riding or endurance riding the following weekend,” she explains.

Hajek and her Paso Fino Sundancers Comanchero has been doing 25-mile Limited Distance rides with the American Endurance Ride Conference since 2016.

To learn more about the Paso Fino, visit the Paso Fino Horse Association website or the American Paso Fino Horse Association.

This article about the Paso Fino originally appeared in the August 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post All About the Paso Fino appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

That now-extinct horse from Spain, called the Jennet, was known to be compact in size and “easily gaited,” meaning it had special smooth gaits instead of just the usual walk, trot and canter. The Spaniards favored this breed and used it as their preferred light cavalry horse.

Historians believe the Jennet was the mount the Spaniards brought with them when they began colonizing Venezuela. The breed eventually spread throughout South America and became the ancestor of four of the continent’s most well-known breeds.

Paso Fino

The Paso Fino has its roots in the country of Colombia, where it was developed in the 1500s from horses brought to the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Jamaica by the Spanish conquerors. Christopher Columbus helped establish a breeding program on these islands with the goal of supplying the Spanish soldiers with horses. These carefully bred horses were then brought to both Puerto Rico and Colombia.

The genes of the Jennet gave the early Paso Finos a smooth gait. Crossings with Barbs and Andalusians added a very distinct look. Two different varieties emerged as a result of the breed’s geographical separation: a Colombian type and a Puerto Rican type. Both were bred in South America and on various islands.

In the early 1950s, members of the U.S. armed forces stationed in the West Indies began to bring Paso Finos home with them. By the 1970’s, importing Paso Finos from Colombia became popular with American horse lovers. As a result, many of the Paso Fino horses living in the U.S. today have Colombian bloodlines.

Today, the breed is treasured as a show and trail horse because of its distinct, four-beat gaits: the classic fino, the paso corto, and the paso largo. Each is progressively faster and is easy to ride.

The Mangalarga Marchador

The Mangalarga Marchador is a South American breed whose history traces back to John VI, a King of Portugal. In 1807, John VI fled his native country to avoid capture by Napoleon, escaping to Brazil. Along with his family, he brought several of his horses with him.

Known as Royal Alter horses, these horses carried the blood of Andalusians and other equines native to the Iberian Peninsula, and the Madiera and Canary Islands. Developed exclusively for the king, Royal Alters were known for their elegant stature and quiet temperament.

Once in Brazil, John VI bred his Royal Alter stallions with Barb mares that had been imported from Africa. One of the results of these crossings was a stallion named Sublime, who was owned by Prince Pedro I, the future emperor of Brazil and owner of the Hacienda Camp Alegre Farm, a respected breeding operation. Pedro I crossed Sublime with Barb and Jennet mares. The resulting horses were dubbed Sublime Horses, and became known for their speed, smooth gaits and incredible stamina.

When Mangalarga Farm, a Brazilian horse breeding facility, purchased Sublime Horses and began producing them in large numbers, the breed underwent a change of name. In the 1930s, “Marchador” was added to distinguish the horse from a related breed known as the Mangalarga Paulista, which was created by crossing the Mangalarga with Thoroughbreds, Arabians and Standardbreds.

The Mangalarga Marchador is the National Horse of Brazil, but it was relatively unknown in the U.S. until the late 1990s. In 2000, the Mangalarga Marchador Horse Association of America was formed, and horses of this breed were imported in some numbers. A marketing campaign helped bring the breed to the awareness of American horse lovers.

Marchadors are born with the ability to perform the marcha picada and the marcha batida, both four-beat gaits.

The Peruvian Horse

In the 1600s, Spain was still trying to establish complete control of the South American continent, and was fighting battles on many fronts. A shortage of horses resulted at a time when it was difficult to import more horses from the mother country. The horses already in Peru became isolated and bred only with each other over a period of years. These horses ultimately became the foundation stock for today’s Peruvian Horse, which is sometimes called the Peruvian Paso.

South American horseman of the time realized the value of this newly developed Peruvian Horse and began to deliberately breed them to emphasize certain characteristics, including the smoothest possible gaits. Land owners in Peru needed a horse they could comfortably ride for many miles as they surveyed their vast haciendas. The Peruvian Horse became the mount of choice for many of these wealthy land owners.

Today, the Peruvian Horse has grown beyond the borders of its native country and has become well-known in the U.S. The breed was first brought here in the 1960s, and the North American Peruvian Horse Association now has 25,389 registered horses.

Purebred Peruvian Horses are born with a natural ability to gait. The paso llano and sobreandando are two four-beat gaits that give the rider the experience of floating on air. The paso llano is the slower and more comfortable of the two, while the sobreandando has the same the footfalls but is a faster gait.

The Criollo

A Spaniard named Don Pedro Mendoza founded the Argentinian city of Buenos Aires in the 1500s. Mendoza owned Spanish, Barb and Portuguese horses, and when the city was set ablaze during a conflict with indigenous warriors, horses escaped into the Argentine pampas. The descendants of these escaped horses lived wild on the plains for four centuries. Because of their isolation in this rugged country, they became a distinct breed called the Criollo, known for being exceptionally hardy.

In the 19th century, South American cowboys—known as gauchos—tamed the wild Criollo horses and taught them to work with cattle. The breed remained fairly pure until the end of the century, when European and North American stallions were brought to the region.

In the early 1900s, breeders began working to save the Criollo breed from being wiped out through crossbreeding. In 1918, the Criollo was accepted into the Argentine Rural Society studbook.

Criollos are known for their exceptional endurance. The breed is popular in endurance competitions in South America, which sometimes include rides that last up to two weeks and require the horse to carry a certain amount of weight, all the while living only off the grass that grows along the route.

Individual Criollos can be found in North America, although no U.S. association for the breed currently exists. Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Germany and Italy all have registries for the breed.

This article breeds of South America appeared in the January 2020 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Horses of South America appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.