When fellow equestrians and Paso Fino enthusiasts first suggested that Heidi Young consider riding with a drill team, Young demurred.

“I had bought myself a very good-looking Paso Fino, and they said, ‘You should try this, because it’s fun, and your horse would look great,’” recalled Young, a Connecticut native and US Equestrian member who now resides in Horseshoe Bend, Idaho. “I said, ‘Oh, no, I don’t do that kind of thing. I don’t like arena work since I had to suffer through that taking lessons back East!’ Well, they talked me into it, and, of course, it was fun!

“The process of riding drill is in the practices that you do with your team,” Young explained. “You’re improving your skills as a rider and the ability of your horse, but you’re doing it as a team. There aren’t a lot of horse events where you get to work as a team and where it isn’t just about you and your horse. So this is different, and that was part of what made it fun. Of course, at my first performance my horse messed up, and we ended up skittering across the arena, as I knew he would! But he did look good doing it, as they’d said he would!"

Young became more than a convert: now she teaches the Southern Comfort Gaited Horse Club’s Spanish drill team, which is made up almost entirely of Paso Finos.  She also coaches the club's American gaited team, made up of Tennessee Walkers and various Mountain horses.  The team, located near Boise, Idaho, generally consists of six to eight members ranging in age from 18 to 80. They perform at various functions around southern Idaho.

“We just want to share the benefits of this Spanish breed with other people," Young said. "The performance is to be entertaining, but it’s mostly to show off our horses!”

According to information about the breed provided by the Paso Fino Horse Association, "Paso Finos are born with a completely natural gait unique to the breed. The name 'Paso Fino' means 'fine step.' The evenly spaced four-beat lateral gait is purposeful, with each foot contacting the ground independently in a regular sequence at precise intervals, making the movement a rapid, unbroken rhythm. This results in an unparalleled smooth, comfortable ride which does not require posting. The Paso Fino is capable of executing other gaits that are natural to horses, including the relaxed walk and lope, or canter, which contributes to the breed's versatility and makes Paso Finos ideal for drill team work. Proud carriage, grace, and elegance are a reflection of the Paso Fino's authentic Spanish heritage. Today's Paso Finos are descendants of the horses ridden by the Conquistadors as they traveled through South and Central America."

“I love the Paso Finos’ extreme athleticism," said Young. "They’re like a four-wheel-drive tank. I have one 24-year-old horse and a youngster who is six, and there is nothing they can’t handle. They rarely say, ‘Oh, I don’t think I can manage that.’ They’re so capable at maneuvering themselves.

“The Paso Fino also is a particularly social horse, and getting the most out of a Paso Fino is easier if you have a relationship with them,” she added. “The cool stuff happens with a horse and rider who have worked together a lot and established that connection. Pasos are quite fun that way.”

From a rider’s perspective, drill team isn’t just fun. It also offers a new and challenging opportunity to put techniques from other disciplines to work in a new way.

“The riders often are learning things and perhaps applying things they’ve learned in other lessons,” Young said. “They’re seeing why it’s beneficial to be able to control your horse’s body and to be able to ask for a proper turn and why you half-halt before you do a 180-degree turn. The application of that can be challenging to a new rider, but they quickly see why they need to, because when you have a line of riders moving together, everybody needs to execute a proper 90-degree turn at the same time. If you do a sloppy, skidding turn and your horse falls out to the outside when they shouldn’t, it becomes really obvious to you that you need to do something different!

“Drill team work forces you to be very accurate in what you’re asking for and what you’re accepting from your horse,” she continued. “If you’re riding in formation, then you must be able to rate your horse, and you’ll learn it pretty quick! The other horses will help you, and the other riders will be right there next to you, so your horse gets lots of support for doing this right. It comes together pretty quickly. You don’t need to do complicated maneuvers and routines right off the bat. You learn by working through simple things. But it’s really cool to see people really step up their game after just a few practices and be able to accomplish more than they imagined. It’s fulfilling.”

As with most horsemanship lessons, the skills riders learn from drill team also can be applied to other disciplines, from trail riding to the show ring. The horse must be maneuverable, and the horse and rider both must maintain focus.

“During a performance, drill team riders might have to be able to ride with one hand and hold a flag in the other, at a canter, changing leads at specific points, for six or seven minutes,” Young said. “It’s quite a different application of skill and precision than you find in arena work or rail work at a walk, trot, and canter.”

Young owned Arabians and competed in the sport of endurance before switching to Paso Finos.

“I came into riding and owning Paso Finos as many folks do, because of a bad back, and I didn’t want to go through having to post as much,” she said. “I got into Paso Finos because Pasos and Arabs are very similar, in that they’re smaller, highly intelligent, very social, and require someone who doesn’t mind energy, movement, and forwardness.”

In addition to coaching and riding with the drill team, Young also enjoys mountain trail rides with her two Paso Finos, 24-year-old Arroganté and six-year-old Rico. “They are so good on the trail,” she said. “They just go and go and go, and you don’t have to work. I’ve done endurance on Arroganté when he was a little bit younger, and I’m just getting into riding sidesaddle on him. We’ll see how that goes! We do some parades, too, and sidesaddle would be good for parades.”

Click here to see the Southern Comfort Gaited Horse Club’s Spanish drill team in action. To learn more about the Paso Fino breed, visit the Paso Fino Horse Association and US Equestrian’s Paso Fino page.

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