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Famous Horses
in the Peruvian Paso Horse Breed
The articles on the following pages are written by
various Authors over the years and are placed here for your reading pleasure.
Be sure to check back as we locate and place articles on more of these great
horses!
Sol de Oro (V)
From an article written by Brenda Imus entitled "Predestined
for Greatness" and originally appearing in the Fall 1993 issue of 4
Beat magazine
Sire:
Dam:
Potro de Calapalla
Yegua de Francisco Degregori
Birthdate: Deceased:
January 1, 1945
?
Bred By: Alfredo Elias V of Ica,
Peru
Color: Chestnut
The horse who is considered by many to be the greatest Peruvian Paso sire
of all time was southern Peru's Sol de Oro.
This horse might well have lived out his life as a crippled scrub horse
in the mountains of southern Peru, had it not been for a man by the name
of Gustavo de la Borda. The discovery and subsequent use of Sol de Oro is
another of those stones bordering on miraculous.
In the early 1920's Peru, along with the rest of the world, entered the
Machine Age. When the Pan-American Highway came through Ica in the 30's,
southern Peruvians' need for good riding horses was diminished. Since southern
haciendas were much smaller than their northern counterparts, farmers of
that region were easily able to replace the horse with modem equipment.
Unfortunately, this was the area known for the finest Peruvian Paso bloodlines.
Once horses became little more than a hobby, many of them sold cheaply into
the hands of peasant farmers with lands located in the canyons, or quebradas,
of southern Peru. The rough mountainous terrain of this area still required
the use of horses. The geographical isolation of the quebradas ensured that
the southern bloodlines were preserved, and even intensified through line
breeding - though the size and condition of the horses declined as a result
of casual care and poor nutrition.
Gustavo de la Borda was a son of Jose de la Borda, one of the few southern
Peruvian men who still valued fine horses during this period. Upon his father's
death Gustavo inherited his father's horses. At about this time horse shows
were becoming popular, and it was a great disappointment to Gustavo de la
Borda and other southern breeders - that all of the top prizes of these
competitions went to breeders from northern and central Peru. This was a
hard pill to swallow for these horsemen, as in the past southern Peru was
well known for producing the best Peruvian Pasos in the country.
Gustavo de la Borda gradually came to the belief that many of the bloodlines
that had been lost to southern breeders were still conserved in the quebradas.
Fueled by this belief, Gustavo began traveling up and down the mountains
canyons in search of good bloodstock to bring back to his farm on the coast.
On one of these journeys Gustavo discovered a stallion who was in sorry
shape. One foreleg had been broken when the horse was roped from a mountainside
field at the age of three years. The limb had healed crookedly, and caused
the horse some pain. The stallion was considered worthless by his owners,
since he couldn't be ridden; therefore he had received very little attention
or care. The current owner couldn't tell how old the horse was, from what
farm he originated, or who had been his sire. Such facts seemed irrelevant
to the farmer, especially when considering such a sorry specimen of horseflesh.
But Gustavo de la Borda's practiced eye told him that despite outward appearances,
here was a stallion with great potential. He paid two hundred dollars for
the crippled animal.
The farmer who sold Gustavo the horse considered this buyer to be crazy
- and most of Gustavo's peers in the horse breeding business agreed with
this assessment, once they saw the stallion Gustavo brought out of the mountains.
They ridiculed him for using such a stallion on his mares, and one prominent
judge referred to the horse as "a strong box on legs." Only two
other breeders, Jose "Pepe" Musante and Alfredo Elias, Gustavo's
brother-in-law, shared his enthusiasm for the damaged stud. Gustavo was
generous in sharing the services of Sol de Oro with these other breeders.
After Pepe Musante's first crop of foals from Sol de Oro, however, his enthusiasm
was tempered for a while, and he gelded the only male among them. But Alfredo
Elias never lost faith in the stallion. As the show ring success of Alfredo
Elias's horses began to amply substantiate Gustavo's high opinion of Sol
de Oro, breeders from all over Peru requested, and received, his services
and get for their breeding programs. It was largely due to don Gustavo's
outstanding generosity that the prepotent stallion sired so many fine horses
during the time that was left him - though that was plenty of time, as the
best estimates as to Sol de Oro's age put the hardy little stallion at thirty
years when he died. Gustavo de la Borda's wisdom in rescuing this horse
from his mountainside prison has been proved over and over again through
the years. Every National Champion of Champions in Peru since 1961 has
carried Sol de Oro (V)'s blood; it has also flowed through every U. S. Champion
of Champions since 1973.