Name

The name “Paso Fino” was coined during the 19th century in Puerto Rico to name its native breed of horses and their particular four-beat, evenly-spaced lateral gait.  There is written documentation that the Paso Fino breed was well-known and admired throughout the Antilles since the mid-1800s.¹  Since that time, Puerto Rican horses have been imported by other countries to improve their own breeds.  Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and some claim that even Colombia imported mares from Puerto Rico.  In the United States, they became the foundation bloodstock of the American Paso Fino.

There are other Paso breeds, such as the Colombian Paso (renamed Colombian Paso Fino after the 1970s for commercial purposes), the American Paso Fino (the cross between Colombian Pasos and Paso Finos from Puerto Rico), and the Peruvian Paso (the native breed from Peru).  Although all share a common ancestor and perform a similar four-beat gait, these are different breeds from the Pure Paso Fino from Puerto Rico.

Origin 

Like other breeds in America, the Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino was developed from the horses brought by the Spanish conquerors to the New World.  Those fiery war horses of Iberic-Barb ancestry were of a type of horse known as Spanish Jennets.  In his treatise from 1562, Il Cavallarizzo, Claudio Corte wrote that the Jennet was the most commonly used horse by the Spanish light cavalry.  Those horses were small in stature, rustic, strong, agile, and hardy, with the courage to excel in battle, and were often amblers.

The selective breeding and the singular topography of each country, and the outcrosses (or the lack of them) to other breeds, produced the different breeds of horses in America.  Each one was designed to meet the needs and preferences of its country of origin.

Dr. Gus Cothran, a geneticist at Texas A&M University, wrote in 2007 that “the Puerto Rico Paso Fino appears to be clearly related to Old World Iberian horses and may be one of the closest representatives left of the type of horse the Spanish brought to the Americas 500 years ago.”²  This statement and the scientific evidence collected from several genetic studies confirm the almost zero influence of exterior blood in the Puerto Rican Paso Fino.

Gait and Other Characteristics

Unlike other breeds in the Americas, the Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino does not usually perform diagonal gaits like the trot or trocha.  The unique Paso Fino gait is natural to them and can be performed at three levels of speed and extension of stride.  Classic Fino is the collected show gait with rapid footfalls and covers as little ground as possible.  Paso Corto is more relaxed and slightly extended, an excellent gait for trail riding.  Paso Largo is the speed version of the gait, and it is performed at maximum extension and stride, often reaching speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.  Foals are often seen performing the Paso Fino gait next to their mothers; that is why we said this breed is “born to gait.”

The Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino comes in almost any color, including roans and pintos, with or without white markings.  They range in size from 13 to 15 hands and weigh between 700 and 1,100 pounds.

“Tiger eye”³ is an autosomal recessive genetic trait that produces amber-colored eyes. While a similar amber eye phenotype can be found in other breeds, the specific variant named the “Tiger Eye” was originally found in Pure Puerto Rican Paso Finos, and has not been determined to exist in other breeds to current knowledge.

Versatility

The Pure Puerto Rican Paso Fino is so smooth and comfortable that some people call it “the Cadillac of horse breeds.”  But because of their great versatility, it is better to think of them as “4WD all-terrain SUV with the luxury package included” of horses.

On the island of Puerto Rico, the breed is used almost exclusively as show horses, but they can make excellent trail horses too.  Some lines have “cow sense” and make great ranch horses.  Puerto Rican Paso Finos have been known to participate in barrels and poles races, long-distance events, dressage, and rescues in the mountains … there was even a Puerto Rican Paso Fino mare that was trained as a police horse in South Carolina.  Their comfortable gait makes them wonderful therapy horses, and people who have a hard time riding due to old age or injury could be able to ride again on a Puerto Rican Paso Fino.

Endangered

Once “the most admired breed on the Antilles,”⁴ the Puerto Rican Paso Fino is now classified as a rare breed. The Livestock Conservancy recognized it as a threatened breed in 2020, and the Equus Survival Trust included the breed in their Equine Conservation List under Critical status in 2022. Today, there are approximately 1,800 horses on the island of Puerto Rico and about 300 on the U.S. mainland—fewer than 2,100 horses worldwide.

Call to Action

Interested in helping preserve this heritage breed? Visit our farm and learn how you can support our mission.

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Bibliography

1. De Hostos, Adolfo. Historia de San Juan, Ciudad Murada. Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Puerto Rico, 1966.  Schœlcher, Victor. Les colonies étrangères dans l’Amérique et Hayti (Foreign colonies in America and Haiti) (2 vols., 1843). Quoted by José M. Laracuente in his book Historia Cronológica del Caballo Puertorriqueño, pages 71-72. ↩︎
2. Dr. E. Gus Cothran, Analysis of Genetic Diversity in the Puerto Rico Paso Fino, Texas A & M University. ↩︎
3. Mack M, Kowalski E, Grahn R, Bras D, Penedo MCT, Bellone R. Two Variants in SLC24A5 Are Associated with “Tiger-Eye” Iris Pigmentation in Puerto Rican Paso Fino Horses. G3 (Bethesda). 2017 Aug 7;7(8):2799-2806. doi: 10.1534/g3.117.043786. PMID: 28655738; PMCID: PMC5555483. ↩︎
4. De Hostos, Historia de San Juan; and Schœlcher, Les colonies étrangères. ↩︎