It’s funny how some moments in your life you never forget; your emotions, your physical well-being, your thoughts. At that moment you are completely 100% in that moment. To me, that is what it feels to truly life, feeling absolutely everything, with each breath you take.

One of those moments takes me back to the 1991 PPHRNA National Show in Santa Barbara, CA. I had been living with Frank and Merlene Sutalo of Paseo del Traza during school breaks, taking lessons from Julio Soto. My equestrian background was in jumpers so I really needed help learning how to actually sit in a saddle and about the Peruvian Horse. I had no intention of showing but Merlene told me that it was like my final exam so off to the National Show we went. Talk about baptism by fire!

We arrived at the show with three horses in tow: Frank’s stallion Favorito, a beautiful young mare H-S Azalea and an older mare that I loved dearly, Carisma de Solana. We settled in and then took the horses to the arena to familiarize them with it. Julio was riding Favorito and instead of Frank hopping on next, he turned to me and said, “You should ride him.” Now mind you, I had been riding at the Sutalos for about six months and I had ridden Favorito only twice before, so I thought, “Why on earth would Frank ask me to ride him? I barely even know the horse!” However, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity; the few times I had ridden him were really fun! He was energetic, willing and knew that he was the king of the ranch.

So I got on Favorito and off we went! To describe how he was to ride, the closest thing I can think of is driving a Ferrari; you knew there was a lot of horsepower underneath you! He knew it, everyone around us knew it and I most certainly knew it. At the ranch, I typically rode the mares (my true love for riding I think) but Favorito was a stallion, and boy did he strut his stuff. I returned to Frank after a few laps, and the most surprising thing came out of his mouth, “You look good on him. You should show him tomorrow in the Stallions Performance class.”

Mind you, Frank is an old-school sort of man and if I turned down the ride on his horse, he may have taken it as me thinking that I was “better” than his horse. So far from the truth! I was a 19 year old kid that barely knew Favorito and I was so afraid that I would not do the horse justice. Furthermore, the only class that Frank was scheduled to ride him in was that class and I certainly didn’t want to take away his one ride on his horse!

Regardless of knowing Frank and what he would think, I declined the invitation to ride Favorito. However, I hemmed, hawed and stressed over the situation all night. My mother and I discussed it and decided that it would probably be better if I accepted the ride. Then came the sleepless night of stressing about doing the horse justice. Thank goodness I was only 19 and could handle a sleepless night like a champ!

The morning came and off to the show we went. I rode Carisma in Bareback Equitation and next was Favorito. I was so zoned in on the horse that I didn’t even pay attention to who was in the warm up arena with me. As we lined up in the center of the competition ring, Jorge Valenzuela on Pisquero, Roberto Quijandria on RDS Dominguero, Hilario Carrera, Jr. on a well-ribboned performance horse from the north, Raul Risso on *RyR Galileo, Benni Barto on *Villa Secreto, Greg Malaby on Sindical+, Penny Allen on Zenu Manu and others stood in the line up with me. The horse and rider teams that lined the area from end to end was truly amazing. As soon as I saw the line up, I was instantly horrified. And here I was on Favorito, scared to death. All I kept thinking was, “Do the best you can Charlotte!”

The class seemed to take forever but it flew by me in a flash. We were asked to go to the rail and Favorito was READY! He was hollering to make sure that everyone knew that he was the lord of the ring for those 30 minutes. Maneuvers were asked for and then they asked for number 145 (our number; I will never forget) to go through the serpentine. I had already passed the start of the cones so we pulled in to make a circle to come back to the beginning of the serpentine. As I came around, there was one of the judges right in front of me. I thought, “Oh, I’ve lost the class for sure now. Running a judge over is definitely a bad thing!” Fortunately, I didn’t run over Annette and we made it through the serpentines like it was nothing. Favorito took care of everything without missing a step.

Now, I’m not sure what the record is for holding your breath before passing out, but I’m positive that I hold the unofficial record. Every time I passed my mom and Merlene, they wouldn’t give me tips on how to improve our ride but they would just tell me, “breathe!!” I was so incredibly nervous. And that was just when the competition started getting good!

We reversed and one rider decided to pass us and run us into the wall. I was horrified but Favorito held his ground and just kept going. A few minutes later after our circles, another rider proceeded to pass us and then stop short right in front of us. Again, I didn’t know what to do but Favorito saved the day. He did everything to a T: stop, stand, back, circle, serpentines. If the judges had asked him to serve tea, he probably would have done it perfectly.

The class ended and we were sent to the end of the arena to wait for the results. Franked walked to the back of the stands where I could see him. As each horse was called, he said that he could see a little bit more color come back to my face. As the numbers were called and they weren’t number 145, Frank would do a little celebratory dance. The numbers kept coming and 145 still hadn’t been called. When were we going to be called? Favorito was perfect but he had to take care of me the whole class! Well, second place was called and it still wasn’t 145; I just remember taking in the biggest breath ever and wanting to cry; WE WON!

We collected our ribbon and made our victory lap. I was amazed and so proud to ride such a wonderful horse. As I left the arena, my circulatory system began to function again and then the jitters started. I couldn’t even walk the horse out. What an unforgettable ride.

So, now you know the story of my first blue ribbon. I will never forget it and I will never forget the noble Favorito. Thank you Frank for letting me ride him; I know that he was one of your dearest four-legged friends ever. May Favorito rest in peace.

Favorito

(Fenix x Graciela)

1984-2009

The Southern California Peruvian Paso Horse Club Parade team pursuing a position in the 2010 Rose Parade, made their debut this year on March 7th at the 43rd annual Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade. Riding into town with the Pacific Ocean in the background, all of the riders were adorned in newly designed satin red ponchos with matching hatbands. The horses were decorated with matching neck ribbons and red and silver tinsel in the mane and on the tailpiece under red, white and blue bows. Our white neck scarves were set off with small red roses. Needless to say, you could see us coming!

The Laguna Beach crowd was incredibly enthusiastic, applauding, thanking us, commenting on our beautiful horses and of course the age-old question, “What kind of horses are they?” All of the riders were just as enthusiastic with lots of parade waves and answering questions as we proceeded down the route.

While we came down the route in threes, we popped into two barrida lines as we approached the Judge’s stand. We had lots of room to move at a good clip and as the pace increased, so did the applause, whistles and cheering from the crowd. Just after passing the Judge’s stand, we dropped into a single file line and made a u-turn back by the Judges stand. As we turned to pass the stand again, we moved back into our two barrida lines and flew by the Judges for the third time. The noise of the crowd seemed to double! It was over too quickly and everyone just wanted to do it again. Another highlight of the day was winning the President’s Theme Trophy.

On Saturday, March 21st the team participated in the 51st San Juan Fiesta of the Swallows Parade. This is considered to be the largest equestrian parade in the west! This was also a much longer day and a huge crowd of enthusiastic spectators. At one point in the parade, we were asked to do a “trick” for the crowd. Bonnie and Jorge were leading and split off into two directions followed by the rest of us. We were in two, simultaneous circles moving at a good Paso Llano and the crowd went crazy! There were 176 entries in this parade and we took first place in our division! It was a great day and everyone was tired by had fun and look forward to our next team event: the Norco Spring Parade on April 18.

A special thanks to our team co-captain, Patty White and to my sister, Lori Hollis for her photography!

The True Walking Horse
By Charlotte Dicke Becerra

Not too long ago, I read a short article about racking horses in which the author commented that there are “too many gaits”. This got me thinking… yes and no. The horse as a species has only five basic gaits: walk, trot, canter, gallop and pace. Each of these gaits are defined by the horse’s footfall. In theory, all horses can do all five gaits but their conformation enables them to excel at some more than others. It is also their conformation that enables them to perform gaits in between these five basic ones, known as broken gaits. As breeders, we have essentially molded their form to fit our necessary functions for each particular breed.

“Gaited” horses typically travel in what one could call a derivative or broken version of the trot or pace. For the Peruvian Horse, their treasured paso llano is thought of as coming out of the pace and we often describe the paso llano as a “broken pace”. But let’s think about this for a minute… Gaits are defined by the order that the horse’s feet hit the ground, not the amount of time between each footfall.

Now, watch a Peruvian Horse go from a walk to the paso llano. Has the footfall changed? Very slightly. The horse more often has three feet on the ground, not two as in a pace. A Peruvian Horse whose footfall is closer to that of the walk is typically considered better gaited than a Peruvian whose footfall is closer to the pace. So, in essence, the Peruvian’s way of going is better defined as a broken walk than a broken pace.

When Americans think of walking horses, those developed on the plantations of southern states typically come to mind. These horses’ most desirable gait is what is what we call a rack. Based upon the footfall, we would define this as something between a walk and a trot. For hundreds of years, Peruvian Horse breeders have selected horses that do not favor the trot and its jarring motion. They selected for horses that did not pace nor trot but walked. While both execute a broken gait, based upon these observations, the Peruvian Horse would more clearly define what is a true walking horse than an American “walking horse”.

As Peruvian Horse breeders, we highly prize our horse’s silky smooth gait. To breed good horses, we must understand what function and therefore form, we truly desire of them. So no matter what you call it, I ask of you to remember what we really are breeding for and cherish what no other breed can do better than the Peruvian, and that is walk.

I have been apprehensive about starting a blog on PHQuarterly.com because I really don’t want to be in the limelight. However, I really enjoy my experiences with Peruvian Horses and LOVE to share my stories! While these stories are only tid-bits, I thought that you may enjoy them…

What better story to share first than one about the 2008 Nationals this October in Ft. Worth, TX. I had the great honor of showing some absolutely wonderful horses this year such as *GCLP Mariluna owned by Frank and Merlene Sutalo, EG Maravilla owned by Edie Gandy, WF Nostalgia owned by Gene Pepe and National Laureado Breeding Stallion WFP El Joven Peru+ owned by Raul and Lauren Risso. I couldn’t have asked for a better slate of horses to ride! Needless to say, I was honored.

Now, I have to tell you about my ride on Joven in the Senior Horse 13+ – Performance Class. On Friday, Raul and Lauren were came to me and asked if I would ride Joven in the class. National Laureado Breeding Stallion WFP El Joven Peru+ in Performance?? Lauren told me, “He’s never seen a cone in his life but he’ll be fine.” My friend Dianna assured me, “It doesn’t matter. All of the horses that Lauren trains are awesome. He’ll be perfect.” I thought that was a little crazy but ok, I’m game!

Later that evening, I practiced on him after Raul rode him to victory in the Senior Horse 13+ – Breeding class. What a wonderful horse. For all of those years, I had watched him and wondered what it was like to ride him. First, he’s a big boy and with his brio, you can really feel that you have a horse under you. What a thrill! Now, on to the performance maneuvers…

He did everything like a champ but had no idea WHY I was asking him to do circles, stop, stand, back, etc. He didn’t have to do this EVER in his show career so why now!? I’m sure he thought that I was nuts. “Ok lady, I have NO idea why you’re asking me for this stuff but I’ll do it. Piece of cake!”

So then came time to show. As it is with all horse shows… hurry and wait… Joven and I waited a lonnnng time. Lauren and Joven did a fantastic job showing and winning the AOTR – Stallions Gait 4+. I was ready with whites, poncho and hat waiting by their stalls after their class as I wasn’t sure how long we had before our big debut in the Performance division class. Well, we had a long time…

Joven and I explored the tunnels of the arena, visited with fellow exhibitors, drank a little water (it was a really long wait), practiced these silly maneuvers and waited some more. It was finally time to enter the arena.

Now, you have to remember that Joven has only been shown in classes like zootecnico, breeding and gait. He’s not a performance horse. However, he’s a well trained PERUVIAN HORSE. His performance is another example of why this breed is so incredible… He certainly knew how to serpentine even though he’d never seen cones. He most definitely knew how to circle even though he’d never been asked to do it in the show ring. He also knows how to stop, back and stand but was questioning my judgment as to why I asked him inside the arena, where he’d always been asked to strut his stuff.

He did everything beautifully. I have ridden horses that have been in training for months just to show in Performance that didn’t do everything as well as Joven did. He didn’t think that the cones were rattlesnakes and try to attack them. He stopped on a dime and stood like a perfect gentleman until I asked him to continue on. The only reservations that he had the entire class were: 1) why do you want me to be so relaxed – I’m in the show arena for God’s sake! And 2) How many circles are we going to make?? Ohhh, what a wonderful ride! Hilarious because I was grateful for the small things (like not killing cones, stopping, etc.) but WOW, what a gentleman.

We took second in the class but dear Joven was awarded High Point Senior Horse of Show and I am so honored to have been a part of his success. Hopefully, Raul and Lauren will bring him again to the show so Joven can have the “crazy lady that asks for strange things” ride him once again.

Happy Trails,
Charlotte