Modern Bloodlines
of the Peruvian Paso Horse
| Edited from the article originally written twenty years ago (1977) by noted historian, Mr. Verne Albright, and reprinted from Peruvian Horse World Magazine. |
| Go directly to North, Lima and South Index |
It has always been difficult to trace Peruvian Paso Bloodlines. This
is due basically to the fact that the keeping of the official stud book
in Peru is only a recent activity. Until modern times there were very few
serious breeders all of whom were in almost constant contact with one another.
The keeping of a stud book seemed like a superfluous activity. Prior to
the establishment of the official stud book in Peru, which took place only
a decade ago, some bloodlines were recorded in private stud books operated
by breeders, The private Stud Books were remarkable in their accuracy. Indeed,
there was little motive for falsification. Until the last decade there has
been little commercialization of the Peruvian horse, and horses were loaned
or given away or sold for token sums. In addition, the Peruvian breeders,
by and large, have been gentlemen who believe in the ethical code which
is common to gentlemen everywhere in the world.
An example of the dedication with which these private stud books were maintained
is the hacienda Casa Grande, owned by the Gildemeister family, which had
records of its pedigrees going all the way back to 1901 sand which - realizing
the importance of a stud book - was the first to register in the official
stud book of the Asociacion Nacional de Criadores y Propietarios de Caballo
Peruanos de Paso when it was opened under the administration of the Universidad
Agraria La Molina.
Many bloodlines were passed by word of mouth, never being systematically
recorded on paper. Most of these verbal pedigrees are the subject of universal
agreement among modern breeders. But - as might be expected - some are open
to dispute.
A further complication to the tracing of bloodlines is the fact that there
are many cases of both double and duplicate names. A certain number of very
important foundation breeding animals have more than one name. Many times
a horses had a "given name" as well as another name which would
usually be based on the hacienda, region or breeder where he originated.
For example, the great Centella (mother of *Piloto and *Laurel) was sometimes
referred to as Alazana San Javier , referring to her color, alazan (chestnut),
and her origin, the Hda. San Javier near Ica. In addition there was no limit
to the number of times that a name could be used (there being no stud book
committee in charge of approving names) and very often the name was given
to two or more horses. Federico de la Torre Ugarte's famous Hda. Palomino
produced two different stallions which became known as "Palomino".
Both of these stallions had a great influence on the bloodlines in Northern
Peru, and - incidentally - neither was palomino in color, one being a roan
and the other a chestnut.
Indeed there are some names which have been used as many as two dozen times
or more.
The following article is based upon several sources. The primary sources
were conversations with some of the leading bloodline experts in Peru, such
as Fernando Ceruti, Jose "Pepe" Musante, Jose Antonio Otero, Carlos
Gonzales, and Rodolfo "Fito" Matellini.
However, the event that did most to make this article possible was the issuing
of the new stud book of the American Association of Owners and Breeders
of Peruvian Paso Horses. This stud book is about four times as large as
any previous Peruvian Paso Stud Book ever issued anywhere in the world.It
has been the product of one of the most intensive updating processes ever
attempted by a major breed registry. More than 300 pieces of documentation
were added to the AAOBPPH files. On top of this, the entire Peruvian stud
book (as compiled by the Universidad Agraria La Molina) was published for
the first time... as an index section in the AAOBPPH Stud book.
The study of bloodlines is exceedingly important to breeders of Peruvian
Paso horses. Even more than is the case in other breeds, the truly excellent
horses in this breed nearly always descend from other truly excellent horses.
This is not to deny the obvious fact that superior horses so not always
produce superior offspring.....i.e. all offspring of a great stallion of
mare will not be great, and some might even be highly inferior. Rather this
means to say that great horses do not often appear out of nowhere. There
is almost always a great bloodline behind them. The grand quality of the
modern Peruvian breed comes in an unbroken chain from the great horses of
the past. The best of modern bloodlines trace back to the best of the old
bloodlines, even though the breed has changed and improved over the years.
the most notable exception to this rule was of course, the incomparable
Sol de Oro (V), a horse of unknown origins who was to improve the Peruvian
breed as no other sire has ever improved a breed.
As the reader will notice, there has been a great deal of line breeding
practiced in the breeding of Peruvian horses. Peruvian horse breeders can
be divided into two basic categories, the "seed breeders" and
the "hybrid breeders". Breeders in Peru call a horse a hybrid
if he is the result of a cross between two completely unrelated bloodlines.
Hybrid breeders often produce great individuals, but they are not so successful
at producing great breeding animals since a hybrid carries a mixture of
very different genes. The seed breeders usually employ line breeding and
even inbreeding. they breed members - even closely related members - of
a family to one another, thereby concentrating very similar genes in the
offspring so that superior breeding animals are more likely to result. In
some branches of the Peruvian breed, the seed breeders have been remarkably
successful in producing superior show animals as well as superior breeding
animals.
The inbreeding coefficient in Peruvian horses must be extremely high since
only a few foundation horses within the last half century stand behind practically
every modern show winner. Most of the great modern show winners have come
from crossing two different lines, each of which has been line bred to some
degree. The most successful crosses have been "Northern" horses
with "Southern" horses. The cross of Southern blood and Northern
blood has produced the majority of the great show horses of the past decade
and a half. The crossing of two Southern horses has been the source of the
second greatest number of exceptional horses during recent years. Horses
from the Lima area have had an excellent potential for crossing with Northern
and /or Southern bloods, and many fine horses have come from a cross with
Lima blood. of the three major bloodlines - North, South, and Lima - only
the Southern blood can be reliably counted upon to stand without outside
influence in the crucible of show ring competition. Northern and Lima blood
are most useful when crossed, especially with Southern blood. Of course,
the North, South and Lima have each had an important influence on the other
during this century, but each region developed its own type of horse...just
as each individual breeder developed his own sub-type of horse. Horses from
each of the three major regions are remarkably similar to most other horses
from the same region and are quite different from horses of the other regions.
The following article is intended as a skeleton which can be fleshed out
with the aid of the AAOBPPH Stud book. As much as possible, registration
numbers are shown in this article to help researchers. The names of the
horses which have been imported into the United States and the AAOBPPH are
preceded by an asterisk(*) and followed by the AAOBPPH registration number.
The names of horses registered only in Peru are followed by the word "Peru"
and the Peruvian registration number. In the stud book s maintained by La
Molina,stallions were registered in numerical order starting with the number
1 and mares were registered in numerical order beginning with the number
101. This means that , from number 101 up, there are two horses with the
same number - one stallion and one mare - with nothing in the registration
number to identify the sex of the animal. Therefore, this article will contain
a S(stallion), an M(mare), or G(gelding) after the Peruvian registration
number even though there is no such alphabetical identification in the actual
Peruvian registration number.
For the sake of convenience, we shall deal with the basic bloodlines as
they developed in each major region of the country. Since the horses in
the North were by far the most numerous we will begin there.
| Go directly to Northern Bloodlines | Go directly to Lima Bloodlines | Go directly to Southern Bloodlines |