Easy Riders : Peruvian Pasos are noted for being gentle. The owners groups’ reputation is a horse of a different color.

For centuries, it was a vision beheld only in Peru: A muscular horse, its front legs flailing strangely out to the sides, that was so smooth in its gait that the flat hat of its rider remained parallel with the horizon.

Bred since the time of Pizarro and Cortes for endurance and docility, the Peruvian Paso horse could move at a fast clip for hours and not once jostle its poncho-clad passenger in the saddle.

When it was introduced into this country about 30 years ago, Americans were intrigued.

“The first time I saw one, I thought it looked like it had broken its front legs. But once I rode it, that was it,” recalled Ramona Gunnels, a 60-year-old Ventura resident who hadn’t been on a horse for 40 years when she first rode a Paso in 1982. She now owns eight.

“With this horse, you just sit there and glide along,” Gunnels said. “Anyone can ride one. And really, they are just the sweetest things.”

Promoted as “the lazy man’s horse” and “the best pleasure horse ever,” Peruvian Pasos in the United States now number about 8,000. Sixty-five percent of those horses are in Southern California and, according to one owners’ association, the highest concentration of Pasos in the country is in Ventura County.

But Pasos, known for their gentle temperament as much as for their gentle ride, apparently engender less-than-gentle emotions among those who own and breed them. There are reports of backbiting, animosity and personality conflicts severe enough that, if found in the horses themselves, would earn the animals a one-way trip to the glue factory.

The fighting spans several decades and shows no sign of abating. Most of it surrounds two rival horse associations, both of which compete neck and neck for members and have diametrically opposed views on everything from the future of the breed to the best ways to promote it.

“The sad part is that it has really hurt the breed,” said Ed Houston, a Thousand Oaks construction company owner who is one of about 20 American judges for Peruvian Paso show events.

“Most horses in the U.S. belong to the American Horse Show Assn., but the Peruvian Pasos don’t,” because there can only be one registry for each breed, he said. “It’s like having a foreign car and not being able to register it in the U.S.,” Houston said.

Said Charlie Brooks, a Simi Valley gravel company owner who also is an American judge for Peruvian Paso show events:

“The negative side is, we don’t have the exposure and services of that organization, like drug testing” for horses at show event. Also, he said, “it puts more pressure on us to come up with our own rules and guidelines.”

Now the horses are at the heart of yet another conflict. This one involves the recent decision to have two identically named championship events, each of which is sponsored by a different association.

The U. S. National Championship Show for Peruvian Pasos, sponsored by the American Assn. of Owners and Breeders of Peruvian Paso Horses, was held two weeks ago in Burbank.

The U. S. National Championship Show for Peruvian Pasos, sponsored by the Peruvian Paso Horse Registry of North America, will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Santa Barbara.

“We’re all supposed to be for the promotion of the horse, but this kind of thing doesn’t do anyone any good at all,” Brooks said.

“These groups have never been able to agree on anything,” he said, “but now they’re definitely competing with each other. It’s just confusing to everyone.”

A local Peruvian Paso breeder, who asked not to be identified, had even stronger words for the groups. “I think it’s petty and absolutely disgraceful. This bickering between the organizations has gone on long and far enough.”

To hear Pat Albright tell it, the problems began about 1962, the same year the first Paso mare arrived in the United States.

A small but intense group of owners and would-be breeders got together, tossing out every concern they could think of. They named their organization the American Assn. of Owners and Breeders of Peruvian Paso Horses, referred to now as simply “the association.”

The major issue at that time, Albright said, was how to preserve the integrity of a breed that had remained virtually unchanged for nearly 500 years.

“Americans like to Americanize everything, and sure enough, there were people who wanted to breed it bigger,” said Albright, the association’s registrar and executive secretary. “We really fought that. We said it had to stay the same.”

Peruvian breeders--upon whom most American Paso breeders at the time were reliant--agreed. And the association’s position was adopted. The result was that, for the most part, the American Paso and the Paso in Peru are still virtually identical.

But once that hurdle was overcome, there were other matters. What would be the definition of an amateur in competition? How would people qualify for championship events? And what should be the group’s policy on proper riding attire and tack?

Albright said that some members of the group believed the best way to show the horse was in its traditional, Peruvian glory. That included ponchos and ornate, silver-studded saddles. It didn’t matter that the ponchos weren’t so great for Southern California sun or that the saddles, hand-stitched and imported from Peru, were expensive and hard to find.

Others disagreed. The typical American rider, they said, wouldn’t go for the fancy stuff. It would limit the horse’s appeal.

The group debated. No consensus could be reached. Then, in 1970, the split finally occurred.

The last straw, according to Albright, was “a big fight” over the issue of using Peruvian judges at the horse shows. Traditionalists within the group argued the Peruvians added authenticity and maintained the highest standards for the horse.

Those who wanted a more Americanized event said an absence of American judges would put them at a disadvantage.

“The Peruvian judges are a little different, since in Peru there are no English classes and no pleasure classes,” which include such events as dressage and barrel racing, said horse show judge Ed Houston. “When they come here, they don’t understand those things and they say they don’t like it.

“I don’t think they want to control the breed here in America, but it’s traditional for them. They’re emotionally tied to the horse.”

Several association members left to form the Peruvian Paso Horse Registry of North America, or “The registry” as it is now commonly called.

“The association is still traditional and uses Peruvian judges, but the registry doesn’t,” Albright of the association said. “They’ve done things that are very upsetting to the Peruvians.

Also, she said, “Our people are more active than their people, and our shows are bigger. Their shows don’t do well. Now they have changed the name of their national show to the same as ours. I think it was a poor decision, ethically.”

Janetta Michael, head of the registry, agrees with Albright on some points.

True, she said, the registry was set up because of philosophical differences. And it’s also true that the registry encourages a wider number of events at shows they put on, she said.

But there the agreement ends.

“We have more horses registered with us, more shows and more clubs. We are the most active,” Michael said.

The association, she said, is a “very political organization and there’s a lot of backbiting.”

The registry, she said, was designed “to give a nonpolitical, impartial place to register your horse.”

And Michael denies Albright’s claim that the registry changed the name of its national show this year to be the same as the association’s.

“That’s not right. They’re incorrect,” Michael said. “It’s always been a championship show. It’s always been called the North American National Show. We just term it different ways depending on what fliers are going where.

“I don’t think it’s caused any great confusion,” she said. “I think people were always confused.”

If they weren’t before, they are now. Vivienne Lundquist, a Moorpark Peruvian Paso breeder and the owner of the stallion Antares, a multi-award winning Champion of Champions, said the identical names of the national shows could diminish the value of some titles.

“For a breeder, winning a division adds prestige, but it also adds value to the horse,” Lundquist said. “If you have a young mare worth $25,000, she has good blood and she wins a top spot, her value can go up to $35,000.”

It’s confusing, she said, but she finds that the best thing for owners is to stay out of the fray. “There’s the association and the registry, but I don’t get involved in all the politics,” said Gunnels, who likes to ride her Pasos in local parades and watch the faces of people who see their strange gait for the first time.

“I stay away from all of that. I just want to enjoy my horses.”