by Pernell Golden
Because I love horses, I really like horses that give me a great ride. When I first discovered the Paso Fino, it made a huge difference in my concept of a good horse ride. A Paso trail ride can be only compared to floating on cloud 9 in my opinion. One of the reasons is the Paso’s natural gait.
A horse’s gait is the way that it moves. When you determine a horses gait, you look at a number of factors including speed, foot pattern, and foot sequencing during the movement. This can vary from the walk to the full gallop, but what we are interested in when determining a good horse for trail riding is one that goes at a speed that is somewhere in between. The Paso’s unique pattern of foot movements makes the ride very smooth and there is not a lot of up and down motion for the rider.
You can hear the individual hooves in Paso’s 1-2-3-4 gait as the horse moves. It kind of reminds me of the riderless horse that rides at the funerals of presidents when they die. Granted it is different, but in my mind it has a stately feel to it. When riding a Paso Fino horse, it almost makes me feel like royalty.
Called an “ambling” gait, the Paso’s gait is a intermediate gait that is quicker than a walk but slower than a canter. The foot movement is also lateral. Lateral movement is when the front & hind feet on the same side of the horse moves in sequence.
In the Paso Fino gait, there are essentially three speeds to its gait. From slowest to fastest, there is the paso fino, paso corto, and paso largo. There is also another Paso gait called the Paso Llano and is unique to the Peruvian Paso.
There are many competitions that display the wonderful gait honed in performance Paso Fino training. If you’ve never seen it before, be sure to get on Youtube and search for “Paso Fino.” You will see many examples of the championship quality gaits of these horses. To many, the gait looks like a well orchestrated hat dance by the horse… and I guess you could say that is true. All I can say is simply amazing.
Even if you’re not trying to get started in Paso Fino competitions and just need a good riding horse, the Paso Fino makes an excellent horse to buy and enjoy it for your own pleasure. If you like to go on trial rides, you can’t beat the beautifully smooth and steady horse gait of this horse breed. Have fun and go ride a Paso!
Read more on the Paso Fino Horses at 4BRanch.com They have Paso Fino Training and boarding in Alabama.
