Cinch Magazine

In December 2001, I moved back to Florida from Texas, bringing my aged 19 year old Arabian mare with me. Not wanting to ride alone, I encouraged my mother to purchase another horse for us to ride together on her ranch. She told me that if she did, she was getting something gaited, preferably a Paso Fino. Mom had never ridden one, but had seen one being ridden, and was enamored already.

So, we started our quest to find a Paso Fino horse for her birthday. We searched the internet over for months. We found a seller with several different horses for sale at different ages and levels of training and decided to go have a look. I knew from the first moment our eyes met that the little buckskin gelding was the one. He had my name written all over him. He was the dirtiest, roughest, toughest, scruffiest, most snarled up, wild and dangerous, horse on the place. The seller didn't even want to show him to me. They assured me they had something much sweeter and easier for me to handle. But I insisted on seeing the untouchable buckskin. It took two people with a rope to catch him in a small pen while he already wore a rope hanging from his halter. It was said that he had been gelded six months prior for "knocking the stable boys teeth in". He was terrified of humans. Touching him for the first time was electric. He trembled as I laid my hands on him. He felt like a bomb that could explode at any moment. I watched closely as the sellers worked him. I told my Mom, “Look at his eyes, he is intelligent and watches every move anyone makes. He will make a wonderful horse and be a fast learner!” I knew immediately that I was not leaving without him.

Then we were shown Candee who was already in foal. She was advertised as a brood mare but we asked to put her in the round pen and see what she would do. So they saddled her up, and the owner rode her, and she did wonderful. I rode her and she flew around the ring in a ground eating largo. My mom was thrilled just watching her. Then she got to ride her. It was Moms first time on a Paso Fino and she was grinning from ear to ear.

They REALLY didn't want to sell us the buckskin, and there was a little confusion as to who had rights to him, but we got it all worked out and the next week. My mom got a horse trailer and headed up to Ocala to pick up the unruly buckskin and her new mare, Candee. (Remember now, we were supposed to only be shopping for one horse for my mother. As fate would have it, we ended up with two and one in the oven.) We had to back the trailer up to the open end of the barn, open the geldings stall door, and run him into the trailer. It wasn't pretty but we got him loaded and put Candee in behind him. When we first unloaded him, you would have thought he was the worst stallion you'd ever seen, screaming at my Arab mare and Candee constantly. I think my father thought I’d lost my mind as he looked at my mother with a look that said “Why did you let her bring that thing home?”

Just catching him in the stall was a major accomplishment the first months. He would turn his rear to you so fast that you could never get your hand on his halter. He didn't know what a treat or an apple was, so they did no good in coaxing him closer. Leading him around was dangerous. He didn't respect your space. He would literally jump right on top of you if something startled him. Giving him a bath was a joke. You couldn't come near him with a water hose. He would either break the halter or tear down whatever you had him tied to, injuring himself and anyone in his way. His name became Tequila because he would put you on your butt so fast it would make your head spin, and the next day you felt like you had been run over by a truck. My mother hand fed him for months in order to bring him around and build some trust. We never walked in his stall that we didn't get the wrong end in our direction. Never once did he ever offer to kick us, he was genuinely frightened and would tremble, but never vicious with us.

Tequila was tireless in the round pen, running full out for what seemed like hours until I worried he would over heat. His stamina was endless. We worked for months on the ground until I got brave enough to start trying to ride him. Then when I did, he took me on several runaway adventures. The last time...I really did think I was going to die. We promptly got a trainer after that.

Before this horse, I did not know much about the Paso Fino horse other than what I knew from reading the internet. This horse prompted me to seek the knowledge I needed about the tack to train and ride him, and the knowledge about the bloodlines and the breed. He made me desire it so much and work so hard to achieve each little step, it truly was a bonding process. This horse made me earn every ounce of respect, and in turn, I learned to respect him as well.

By this time, I had attended my first BIG Paso Fino show, the Spectrum event which was held in Tampa that year. I got a taste for the Fino horses and I liked it. I couldn't wait to get into the show ring. I had the fever. This prompted me to want to know even more about the breed. I joined internet forums and discussions learning as much as I could about the history, pedigrees, gaits, and more. I wanted to know EVERYTHING. I wanted to be a part of the "group". I wanted to be someone who made things happen in the breed. The more I learned, the more I embraced the breed. In April of 2005, I began my own website and forum about the Paso Fino horse, dedicated to assisting new comers to the breed on their quest for knowledge. Meanwhile, Tequila went thru several trainers.

By this time, Tequila and I had bonded well. I always brought him apples to the barn while he was in training. When I would pull up to the barn, he even knew the sound of my car engine. Although he could not see me, he would wait for me to turn the car off and get out, and then he would let out a loud whinny, as if to say to the other horses, "My Mom is here!" The trainers always got a good laugh out of it. But even at home, he would always call out to me.

We even got to finally compete. What an experience. Tequila, being the spooky ride that he was, always made it very interesting in the ring. We got excused plenty of times, but it just made the ribbons we did win that much more deserved. I finally found a trainer that was perfect for Tequila. I cannot thank this man enough for giving me the horse I always knew he could be. When I got him back, he would walk through fire for me. After that, there was no stopping us. We had no boundaries. We competed at Nationals in 2006 and although we did not win, we achieved many personal goals I had set for us as a team that year.

I was able to take him to the beach, and for a horse who would not step in a puddle before, he braved the ocean waves for me that day. I was finally able to trust him enough to give test rides to others. My sister rode him down 5th Avenue in the New York Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2007. Mom and I participated in Pasos on Parade in 2007 where Tequila and I won best Spanish Paso Fino Costume. I rode him in the Tampa Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2008. We trail rode often with friends and attended fun shows. But most importantly, we became partners.

This horse became everything I wanted him to be and more. The last time I rode him was Thanksgiving weekend of 2008. I had most of my family there, so I ended up letting my 15 yr old cousin Sam ride him, as well as taking my very small cousins on him (bareback no less). He also gave a test ride to some one who had never ridden a Paso Fino before that day. He had become the family horse I dreamed he would be.

The week before Christmas 2008, Tequila seemed to have coliced. We treated him with banamine, but he was also running a temperature. The vet knew something was not right, and the next morning we took him to have surgery in Ocala. They opened him up to find that his intestines were disinigrating away. He was within two hours of death when we got him to the hospital. The doctors took out 10 feet of intestines and gave him a 20% chance. He fought hard the first days out of surgery, but started a downward spiral. On December 27th, 2008, I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life. I had to let my friend go. My heart will never be the same. But my life would have not been the same without him.