The Paso Fino - the mount of the
Spanish Conquistadors - has proud ties to a glorious past and the prospect
of an even greater future, as this elegant smooth-gaited breed captures
the hearts of horse lovers everywhere. The Paso Fino is the oldest true
native breed of horse in the Western Hemisphere. In 1492 Columbus discovered
a horseless America. Although the ancestors of the present-day horse evolved
and developed in North America and spread to other parts of the world,
horses vanished from the New World during the Ice Age, between 8,000 and
12,000 years ago. Over 500 years ago, on his second voyage from Spain,
Columbus brought a select group of mares and stallions from the provinces
of Andalusia and Cordela, and settled them at Santa Domingo. These horses
were a mixture of Barb, Andalusian and Spanish Jennet. The Spanish Jennet
not only possessed an extremely comfortable saddle gait, but was able to
pass the gait on to its offspring. The result of the blending of the blending
of these horses was to become known as the Paso Fino breed - the horse
with the incredibly smooth gait. They became the foundation stock for remount
stations of the Conquistadors. As Spanish settlers came to the New World,
they brought more Spanish horses. During the nearly 500 years that Paso
horses have been selectively bred and perfected in the Western Hemisphere,
they have been called upon to perform a diverse role, first in the conquest
of and then in the exploration and development of the Americas. The Paso
Fino is a horse for all seasons, a horse for all climates, and a horse
for diverse purposes. From the Florida Keys to the Pacific Northwest, and
from southern California to New England, Eastern Canada, Puerto Rico and
Colombia, the Paso Fino demonstrates its remarkable versatility not just
in the show ring, but on competitive trail and endurance rides, in dressage
work, rodeo, gymkana, and back at the ranch working cattle. And he does
it all with a gait that provides unparalleled comfort for the rider. The
energy-efficient Paso Fino, with its unexcelled versatility, and unique
comfort for the rider, opens a New World for horse lovers. The Paso Fino
gait is a four-beat lateral gait, the birthright of every Paso Fino. Newborn
foals struggle to their feet and take their first faltering steps in gait.
The Paso Fino can, of course, walk freely and many of them can perform
a collected canter of a relaxed lope as well. It is essentially a broken
pace: it is lateral, not diagnol. The sequence of the footfall is right
rear, right fore, left rear, left fore. The cadence of the 1,2,3,4 beat
is rhythmic with equal time intervals between hoofbeat. There is very little
up and down movement in either the croup or the shoulder of the horse.
The gait is performed at three speeds with the collection decreasing as
speed increases. ¨
