History
of the Paso Fino
When Christopher Columbus made his second voyage to the New World, he brought with him a select group of twenty-five horses. These horses had to be relatively small, but powerful enough to carry the heavily armored Conquistadors. The horses he selected came from the Spanish provinces of Andalusia and Cordela. breed was a mixture of the Andalusian, the Spanish Barb from North Africa, and the Spanish Jennet (now extinct as a breed). The Spanish Jennet not only possessed an extremely comfortable saddle gait, but also able to pass the gait on to its offspring. The result of the blending of these horses was a relatively small, but powerful horse with an incredibly smooth gait. The Conquistadors called them “los caballos de paso fino”, which translates as “the horses with the fine walk”. Over time the Paso Fino was interbred with other European horses and disappeared from North America as a distinct breed. Their influence can be seen, though, in the lineage of the Spanish Mustang, not to be confused with the feral mustangs managed by the Bureau of Land Management. However, Latin breeders in South America and the Caribbean Islands prized these wonderful Paso Fino horses and developed this breed into what
When Christopher Columbus made his second voyage to the New World, he brought with him a select group of twenty-five horses. These horses had to be relatively small, but powerful enough to carry the heavily armored Conquistadors. The horses he selected came from the Spanish provinces of Andalusia and Cordela. breed was a mixture of the Andalusian, the Spanish Barb from North Africa, and the Spanish Jennet (now extinct as a breed). The Spanish Jennet not only possessed an extremely comfortable saddle gait, but also able to pass the gait on to its offspring. The result of the blending of these horses was a relatively small, but powerful horse with an incredibly smooth gait. The Conquistadors called them “los caballos de paso fino”, which translates as “the horses with the fine walk”. Over time the Paso Fino was interbred with other European horses and disappeared from North America as a distinct breed. Their influence can be seen, though, in the lineage of the Spanish Mustang, not to be confused with the feral mustangs managed by the Bureau of Land Management. However, Latin breeders in South America and the Caribbean Islands prized these wonderful Paso Fino horses and developed this breed into what
we call
today the modern Paso Fino horse. Over the years,
selective breeding produced regional variations of
thePaso Fino in Puerto Rico, Peru, Cuba and
Columbia. reintroduction of the Paso Fino in the
North American continent began in the 1940s when
American service personnel stationed in Puerto Rico
discovered the Paso Fino and brought them back with
them to the mainland. In the 1960s Americans began
to import the Columbian Paso Fino to further
enhance the quickness of the Paso Fino gait. Today
there are over 35,000 registered Paso Finos in the
United States representing about 14,000
owners.