With fewer than 500 Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino horses registered with the Federation, these horses are cherished by owners and breeders.
We value the history of the breed, strive to produce horses that meet the demands of present day American riders, and breed towards the future, ensuring breed standards, tradition and purity is maintained in the next generations.
ABOUT THE BREED
Puerto Rican Paso Finos range in size from 13 to 15hh and can be found in a variety of colors with and without markings, including pinto.
The general impression is a beautiful and proud horse, with upright carriage. The Pure Puerto Rican horses should have an excellent disposition, strength, a willing attitude, intelligence, and stamina. Most have long flowing manes, forelocks and tails.
They are a remarkably versatile breed, not only show and parade horses as thought by many. They are athletic, sure footed and agile. Training, as with other breeds, can develop the ability to jump, excel in competitive trail events, trail ride and successfully compete in barrel racing and gymkhanas. They are comfortable on the ranch with their natural born instinct for working cattle. The Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino can lope or gallop without ruining the gait! Puerto Rican Paso Finos are capable of participating in a wide variety of disciplines and events, and do so with extreme comfort for the rider.
The Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino's gait is performed at three speeds.
Fino is executed fully collected with incredibly fast footfall,
The corto gait is executed with a forward speed similar to a trot with medium extension and collection. The corto is the perfect trail and pleasure riding gait.
Largo is a ground covering gait with bold, animated and long strides.
BREED HISTORY
In November of 1493 Columbus brought ashore 20 stallions and 5 mares. They would become the foundation stock for the remount stations of the conquistadors. These horses were a mixture of Barb, an animal of great stamina and strength, the Andalusian, courageous and powerful and the Spanish Jennet, a lighter breed of horse, possessing a comfortable saddle gait that would allow settlers to travel greater distances without tiring.
As Spanish settlers came to the new world, they brought additional Spanish horses that would be selectively bred with the original foundation stock.
The selective breeding of the best criollo with future imported stock resulted in the foundation of a new breed of horse, the Paso Fino, named for the smooth natural gait that it performed. Then towards the end of the 19th century, the noted breeding of some of the most extraordinary horses resulted in what would impact the future of the Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino.
By the mid 1940s American servicemen stationed in Puerto Rico discovered the smooth riding Paso Fino.
They not only grew to admire the breed, they recognized that it was unlike any other riding horse that existed back home. A number of servicemen brought Paso Finos with them upon returning home after
World War II.
Early imports were originally registered with the first Paso Fino Horse association in North America (American Paso Fino Horse Assoc.) and were given the designation PR after registration numbers to identify those horses as imported from Puerto Rico.
In 1987 the Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino Federation of America, Inc. was incorporated in Columbia, S. C. The goal is to preserve, protect and promote the Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino horse. Working with the Puerto Rican Department of Agriculture's Commissioner of Paso Fino to ensure the breed, who's number total only about 2,500 is not lost.
OUR HISTORY
In 1989, we had owned Paso Finos for only 2 years, but found ourselves in need of a stallion. We located a breeder that was close to where we lived at the time. This was in British Columbia Canada, and Paso Finos of any kind were very rare.
Upon arriving, the owner, an older gentleman described how the stallion was now in his 20s and had not been used much in the past few years. As we waited outside the dimly lit barn, the owner brought out the most magnificent golden palomino stallion I had ever seen. He showed some age, but you could see the horse that he once was! We made arrangements to bring the magnificent stallion home. His name was Rey de Oro SL (King of Gold), and as we delved in to his past we discovered that he was was pure Puerto Rican, and had been imported from the island in the early 70s.
It was then that we began to realize the treasure that we had found. Not long after, we purchased an older mare with much of the same history.
The Paso Fino industry was changing rapidly then, and the American Paso Fino soon became a melting pot of different strains, with the Colombian horse dominating the showring and market place. Our interest in Paso Finos with pinto markings drove our breeding program, but Pure Puerto Rican pinto horses were nearly impossible to find and harder to purchase. As with many breeders in the US and Canada, we began to breed a blend of Paso Fino strains to be able to produce the horses that we had come to love.
Recently however, we found ourselves presented with the opportunity to purchase THREE pinto Pure Puerto Rican Paso Finos. The number of pintos in the breed is very small so we did not hesitate, not even for a moment, and the deal was finalized without seeing them in person. We were not disappointed when they stepped off of the trailer.
We are still passionate about breeding and promoting the American Paso Fino horse, and now we have added the Pure Puerto Rican Paso Finos that will be bred true to their heritage and history.
Trademark Farms, breeding quality tobiano and sabino pintos, specializing in pleasure and working Paso Finos - if you dream in color, and want to experience the smoothest ride in the world, call or email to arrange a visit.
