The Paso Fino Horse Gait Is A Smooth Trail Ride
Because I love horses, I really like horses that give the rider a great ride. When I first learned about the Paso Fino, it changed my concept of a good horse ride. A Paso trail ride can be only likened to floating on a cloud in my opinion. One of the reasons is the Paso’s natural gait.
In case you don’t know, a horse’s gait is the way that it moves. In determining a horse’s gait, you look at the pattern, speed, positions, and the sequence of steps that a horse takes while it is moving. The Paso Fino is special in the fact that it has a unique pattern of foot movements that give it a very smooth ride. You won’t see this horse bounding its rider up-and-down as it moves.
The distinctive cadence of the Paso’s 1-2-3-4 step pattern gives riders a gliding-ly smooth ride as the horse almost seems to float to its destination. Once you ride one, you will know what I mean.
Called an “ambling” gait, the Paso’s gait is a intermediate gait that is faster than a walk but slower than a canter. As its feet walk, you will notice they move in what is called a “lateral” motion where the front and hind hooves move in sequence to one another.
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 found in the Peruvian Paso.
There are many Paso Fino completitions that demonstrates the wonderful gait honed in Paso Fino horse 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 with a performance Paso Fino 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!
