Fanciers Say This Horse’s a Smoothie : Peru’s Paso Esteemed for Its Silk-Like Gait

Most horses go “clip-clop” when they trot, but Dino Herrera’s horse, Ideal, goes “pocka-pocka.” And the stallion’s forelegs flash to the side in an eye-catching whirl, something like a swimmer doing the crawl.

The prize-winning Ideal, a long-maned chestnut stabled on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, is a prime specimen of the Peruvian paso, a rare breed renowned for its smooth gait.

The ride on a paso is so smooth that the horses have been used in therapy for children with muscular dystrophy. At the Portuguese Bend National Horse Show in September, Lomita resident Marna Pearson, astride a Peruvian, carried a full glass of Champagne without spilling a drop.

The breed is becoming more popular, with a contingent finding a place in the Rose Bowl Parade. Indeed, actor Sylvester Stallone once was interested in buying Ideal.

On the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where in some neighborhoods bridle paths are as common as sidewalks, 40 or so Peruvians constantly draw attention with their distinctive foreleg motion.

“We stop traffic,” said Pearson, who stables several Peruvians in Rolling Hills Estates. On busy Palos Verdes Drive North, she said, a woman in a Jaguar stopped to ask about the horses. “We said, ‘You better get (a move) on or you will get hit.’ ”

Officer Concerned

Herrera had a similar experience. “A police officer stopped me,” he said. The officer said he rode horses himself--quarter horses, to be precise--Herrera recalled, and then warned him: “Your horse has broken legs.”

Although it may seem meaningless to some to contrast “clip-clop” with “pocka-pocka,” the difference between the hoofbeat sounds is important in understanding why the Peruvian paso has a smoother ride.

Horses that trot move their legs diagonally: left front and right rear strike together, and then the right front and the left rear: clip-clop.

In the motion of the Peruvian paso, however, each hoof strikes separately, first on one side, then on the other: pocka-pocka.

“This broken pace, if you will, makes for an extremely smooth ride,” said John Campagna, president of the American Assn. of Owners and Breeders of Peruvian Paso Horses. “You just sit there.”

Tennessee walking horses, which have a similar gait, lack the high-stepping forelegs that Peruvian fanciers say give the breed extraordinary stamina.

Economical Stride

“Stride for stride, they are extremely economical in the way they cover the ground,” said Campagna, who is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “To this day, people think nothing of putting 40 miles on a Peruvian horse in a day. You couldn’t get away with half of that on a trotter.”

Paso enthusiasts estimate there are 12,000 Peruvians worldwide, about half of them in the United States--compared to 2 1/2 million of the more popular quarter horses and perhaps 10 million horses nationwide.

Although they are rare today, about 400 years ago horses with smooth gaits were the rule and horses that trotted were the minority--fit only for pack animals or servants’ mounts, according to equestrian writer Verne R. Albright.

Yet in the space of 100 years, as the horse-drawn carriage made a smooth ride in the saddle less important, trotting horses, whose gait is a dominant genetic trait, took over almost everywhere.

“It was the most complete transformation that horse breeding has ever seen,” Albright writes.

The only enclave where the smooth-riding horses remained was Peru.

Primitive roads made traveling in the saddle essential and a smooth gait highly prized. The stock brought over by the Spanish conquistadors remained genetically isolated. Through the years, paso bloodlines were chosen for sweet-tempered dispositions, sure-footedness and endurance, as well as the distinctive gait.

But they were little known outside Peru until comparatively recently.

Angie Schmidt of California City, one of the first people to bring pasos to the United States, estimated that only 50 of the horses were here in 1964.

“I had read an article in the Western Horseman in 1964 about these horses. I didn’t believe the attributes,” Schmidt said. “I went to look at a couple of them near Solvang. I rode them and I found out it was all true. They were elegant, smooth-riding. I tried to buy one and they were just not available. And that is when I made arrangements to bring them in.”

The late Nancy Bogdanovich, a beneficiary of the Star-Kist fortune, is reported to have brought the first Peruvian to the Palos Verdes Peninsula aboard a tuna boat more than 20 years ago, according to Pearson, who helps run the Palos Verdes Peninsula Peruvian Paso Horse Club.

In Peru, Schmidt said, “these horses almost became extinct during the agrarian reform in the ‘60s. When the large landholders had their lands taken away from them, they quit breeding them. The Americans really saved the breed. We kept the interest up.”

American breeders did more than maintain the stock.

“Peruvians will sacrifice a lot for the gait,” Pearson said. A case in point, she said, “was the animal brought here by Bogdanovich. It had miserable hindquarters, a strange head, but it had the gait. Since then a lot has been done to improve the breed.”

A major breeder is Vivian Lundquist, whose Meadow Springs Ranch in Moorpark, with 186 Peruvians, is the largest paso ranch in Southern California.

“The North American (rider) likes to see a well-muscled rear end. Some of the horses from Peru were a little light. We are one of the pioneers in getting more muscling at the back,” she said. She is also breeding for larger size and a more shapely head.

The improvements brought by the breeding program, as well as the comparative rarity of pasos, have kept prices steady for Peruvians. It can cost $1,500 for a so-so colt to more than $100,000 for a prize-winning stallion, according to Lundquist. Prices for the more popular Arabian horses, meanwhile, have plummeted in recent years.

Prices Fairly Stable

“Our prices have maintained fairly well because (pasos) are so rare,” she said. “We couldn’t flood the market if we wanted to.”

Two years ago the Runcie Corp. of Corona decided there was enough interest in the breed to launch a monthly magazine, Caballo, devoted entirely to the Peruvian paso. Features include a monthly stallion directory, ads for Peruvian Paso Fun Wear, and the latest on controversies peculiar to the breed.

In a recent issue, Don LaFaunce of Grand Junction, Colo., wrote a story headlined, “We Must Not Allow Shoes.” The story concerned the tradition of exhibiting pasos at shows without horseshoes, a point of pride among those who contend it proves that the high-stepping gait is entirely natural.

The increased interest has been good news for Lundquist, who owns Antares, a stallion that has racked up enough blue ribbons to be designated a “multichampion champion.”

So far, in 16 horse shows for Peruvians this year, 28 horses sired by Antares won 38 titles. Such success has meant Lundquist can charge a top-of-the-line stud fee of $7,500.

“He is the world champion breeding stallion for 1987,” Lundquist said.

Herrera, who used to charge $1,750 for Ideal’s stud service, has calculated that he will be able to charge $3,000 since the horse won a blue ribbon at the U.S. National Championship Show sponsored by the American Assn. of Owners and Breeders of Peruvian Paso Horses in Scottsdale last month.

Ideal, who won a conformation class--in which horses are judged for good looks--is built “correctly,” according to Schmidt, who was a judge at the show. “He has the good back, the good body. He is representative of the breed standards.”

“He is the horse of a lifetime,” said Herrera, who plans to take the stallion to Texas, where breeders have expressed interest in him. In fact, 11 mares are waiting.

Ideal, who already has sired 10 foals, is well suited for the project, his owner said. “He is a lover,” Herrera said.

The other day, as Herrera stroked a mare named Gringa, Ideal snorted, stamped the soft ground and rolled his eyes.

“That’s one of his girls,” Herrera explained.