It's a smooth ride.
The natural, four-beat gait of the Puerto Rican Paso Fino is the horse's most identifiable feature.
Nearly 30 of the rare horses demonstrated their lightness of foot at the 21st Paso Fino Celebration Show at the Hippodrome on Saturday and Sunday. The show alternates each year between North Augusta and Columbia.
Each hoof strikes the ground independently, evenly distributing the horse's weight in such a way that he does not need to shift it.
Therefore, the rump barely moves, making for a smooth ride for his passenger, said judge Stella Manberg-Wise.
So smooth is the gait that one competition Saturday included riders holding wine glasses full of tea.
"You don't bounce in the saddle at all," said Patti Smith, event co-chairwoman.
In other competitions, the Paso Fino, which means "fine step," is judged on the evenness of the cadence, which is measured as the horse walks across a fino board.
Though the Paso Fino Federation of America, the sponsor of the Hippodrome event, holds several shows each year that include other breeds, this one is strictly for purebred Puerto Rican Paso Finos.
Manberg-Wise estimated there are only about 43,000 Paso Fino horses worldwide and only about 150 in Aiken County.
"It's really quite a rare breed," she said.
Gail Brown, the president of the federation, raises the horses at her Palmetto Pride Paso Fino Farm in Batesburg, S.C.
"The babies are naturally gaited," she said. "We don't train them to gait."
She called them "easy keepers" because they don't need to be shod, don't eat much and don't have a lot of health problems.
"They're easy to handle, and they like people," she said.
The ease of their gait makes them a good horse for riders with physical conditions, such as a bad back, which would limit their ability to ride other breeds.
The federation will hold a Fall Classic on Oct. 9 at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia.
For more information about the federation, go to http://purepuertoricanpasofino.org.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
