1	PolitIcons From Bill Richardson to Mel Martinez, a look at the Latino power brokers shaping the national elections. read more...
2	The Pride of Puerto Rico The delicate gait and beauty of the Paso Fino horse makes it an icon of the island. read more...
3	In Good Company The people and organizations leading the way for Hispanics in business. read more...
4	Grand Slam Tennis champ Fernando González perseveres to the top of his game. read more...
5	Into the Light Latin pop star Fanny Lu burns bright with the success of her first release and plans for her next CD. read more...
6	Killer Instincts Music impresario by day and DJ by night, Camillo Lara follows his gut in creating his trademark sound. read more...
7	Mixing it Up Gilberto Santa Rosa reaffirms his top spot in tropical music while claiming new ground as a balladeer. read more...

Pride of the Islands

With its delicate gait and rare beauty, Puerto Rico’s Paso Fino horse is one of the country’s prized icons.

By Teresa Gordon

DESCRIBING the rhythmic, four-beat gait of the Puerto Rican Paso Fino horse is a little like clapping out the clave to someone unfamiliar with Latin music. It’s better to experience the horse’s distinctive and melodious taca-taca-taca-taca footfall in person.
“There is a lot of music in this horse,” says Joselyn Suarez, a longtime Paso Fino owner and breeder. (No doubt Puerto Rican salsa singer, composer and Paso Fino owner Ismael Miranda would agree.) Instead of the up-and-down bounce of a typical mount, the Paso Fino moves horizontally forward with a steady, unbroken 1-2-3-4 beat of its hooves. First the right front leg lifts, followed by the right hind leg, then the left front leg, and lastly, the left hind leg, so that one hoof is always in the air as three touch the ground at the same time. The movement is a slow glide forward.
With its refined head, long flowing mane and tail, gracefully arched neck and deeply expressive eyes, the horse commands attention. Colors range from pinto, black and chestnut to elegant grey, palomino and buckskin.
This beautiful, rare and striking breed with a proud silhouette and unique dance-like gait is one of the prides of Puerto Rico and has a rich history stretching back to its Spanish roots. Experts believe the compact horse to be the first breed native to the Western Hemisphere. And in many ways, the development of the Paso Fino horse in Puerto Rico mirrors the settlement of the island nation itself, with its melding of races and cultures.
In 1493 in his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus introduced the breed’s ancestors to the Caribbean. Spaniards imported shiploads of Andalusians, Barbs and Spanish Jennets to Puerto Rico, La Española (what is now the Dominican Republic) and other islands in the region. The Spanish Jennet, a breed now extinct, was prized for its smooth, four-beat lateral gait, and its ability to pass on that gait to its offspring when bred with Barbs and Andalusians. The offspring became known as los caballos de paso fino or the horses with the fine gait.
“Smoothest ride in the world,” says Luis Laguna Mimoso, a Caguas attorney and Paso Fino owner and competition judge. “These horses carry that gait inside naturally. They are born with it.”
The horses, beloved as they are in today’s horse culture, were equally as prized at the beginnings of the New World settlement. In 1509, Juan Ponce de Leon, then governor of Puerto Rico, brought the first horses from La Española to the island, and soon horses became the country’s principal export. With its regal bearing, luxurious mane and tail, and spirited brio or demeanor, the Paso Fino would be easy to mistake for a mere show horse. But it is a hard-working breed, able to deliver a smooth ride for hours. Those qualities made it popular among wealthy landowners who needed such a steed to survey their vast sugar cane plantations.
Today in Puerto Rico the horse has become a part of the cultural landscape, even as the breed has become popular in other parts of Latin America, Europe and the United States. And Paso Fino registries and competitions have emerged all over the world.
Just as the horses developed differences as they were bred in different parts of the globe, so have differing Paso Fino philosophies been born. One horse association may be devoted only to pure bloodlines while another believes that a better horse could be bred by mixing top Puerto Rican Paso Finos with those of other countries. One such group, the Asociación de Criadores de Caballos de Paso Fino de America (Los Abiertos), championed breeding and competition among the best Paso Finos from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Santa Domingo, Aruba, Curacao, the United States, Germany and Switzerland.
Insurance executive Jaime Santiago, who with his late brother Alberto was part of a group that formed Los Abiertos in Puerto Rico in 1973, says there is a great deal of pride in breeding a good Paso Fino, rather than just purchasing one.
“A horse is born three times,” says Santiago, who competed in the 1972 Olympic Games as a target shooter. “First with the pairing of a proper stallion and mare, then as a colt fed with proper chow. Finally, a horse needs proper training. Paso Finos are fast learners, but require patience.”
For those hoping to buy a Paso Fino, “the sky’s the limit,” says Sonia Oliver, current president of Los Abiertos and owner of more than 30 Paso Finos. She estimates prices for the horses range from $l,000 to as much as $l million. In fact, she says, one horse participating in the international competition Los Abiertos arranges in Ponce annually has been insured for $2.5 million.
Still, there is no price tag on love, and the affair with the Paso Fino breed runs deep. Oliver’s son Felix, from her marriage to Alberto Santiago, was instrumental in the evolution of Los Abiertos. Battling back from brain cancer treatment and hoping to compete again, Felix led the group to open the competition to young riders. Los Abiertos named the youth competition for Felix in 1996, the year before he died at 17.
Oliver credits time caring for and riding her Paso Finos as her way of coping with her son’s tragic death. Indeed, the resounding chorus from owners of Paso Finos is that this proud breed with the music in its hooves is part therapist. Just as you are likely to catch the salsa stylings of El Gran Combo pulsating from the boutiques and car radios along the streets of Old San Juan, inspiring your heart to dance, so too have the magical, musical hoofbeats of the Paso Fino captured the souls of its owners.
“You carry the Paso Fino in your blood,” says Suarez. “It becomes part of your lifestyle.”