Because I love horses, I really appreciate horses that give the rider a great ride. When I first learned about the Paso Fino horse breed, it changed my concept of a good horse ride. A Paso trail ride can be only likened to floating on cloud 9 in my book. 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 an intermediate speed. 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.

The Paso Fino gait is known as an "ambling" gait. The term "ambling" gait refers to an intermediate gait of a horse. Ambling gaits are faster than a walk slower than a canter. This movement in the Paso Fino is lateral. Lateral movement is where the front and hind feet on the same side of the horse moves in sequence.

In the Paso Fino gait, there are essentially three speeds to its ambling gait. Listed from slowest to fastest, there is the paso fino, paso corto, and paso largo. There is also another one referred to as the Paso Llano and is unique to the Peruvian Paso.

There are many competitions that demonstrates the wonderful gait honed in performance Paso Fino horse training. In competition, performance Paso Finos are much more animated in their leg motions and much faster while keeping their 4-beat gait. It is really a sight to see. To many, the gait looks like a well orchestrated hat dance by the horse... all I can say is simply amazing.

Even if you're not looking to get started with a performance Paso Fino and are just looking for a good horse to ride, the Paso Fino makes an excellent horse to own. 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!

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