This morning I noticed that Breyer still hasn't update their new "Product of the Week" badge on their website in the last week and a half.  (Tee hee!  Love you, Breyer!)  But I did spot a new model, a BreyerFest Limited Edition which will have a very small run of only 300 pieces.

Escondido is a very handsome palomino, using the El Pastor mold.  This mold was sculpted by Chris Hess in 1974, and is definitely a favorite among collectors.  I have spotted several El Pastor conga lines in collectors' pictures!

El Pastor was a bay Paso Fino stallion, described as "one of the most credited Paso Finos of all time."  He was a beautiful and accomplished show horse, who ended up having a huge genetic impact on the Paso Fino breed.  He was named a National Foundation Sire, and was accepted into the Hall of Fame in 2000.  El Pastor died at the ripe old age of 37 in February 2000, leaving a legacy of 164 foals who have gone on to throw excellent grand-foals in his name.

Just to clear up a common confusion, the Paso Fino breed is entirely separate from the Peruvian Paso breed.  Breyer is also featuring a Spring Collectors model of Manco Capac, a red roan Peruvian Paso stallion.

Both the Peruvian Paso and the Paso Fino are naturally gaited horses.  Both have a Latin ancestry, and are descended from the Spanish jennet horse, the Barb, and the Andalusian.  

However, the Peruvian Paso is a small, tough little horse which was bred in Peru to be an "easy keeper," meaning that it could live well on relatively little feed, similar in form and function to the Morgan horse of America.

The Paso Fino is actually broken down into two groups: one hails from Puerto Rico and the other from Columbia.  The Paso Fino comes in a wider variety of sizes than the Peruvian Paso, and was bred to be a riding horse more than a working horse like the Peruvian Paso.

The biggest difference between the Peruvian Paso and the Paso Fino is on the human side: the method of training, the type of tack which is used, and the desired end result in their "way of going."  The Peruvian Paso is ridden with a special deep-seated saddle; the Paso Fino is typically ridden in a classic English saddle.  The desired Peruvian Paso's gait is long and loose, where the Paso Fino's gait is preferred short and fast.  Each breed has a body confirmation and is bitted and trained to encourage these traits.

Genetically the two breeds have been separate for several centuries.  Although many people outside the industry consider the breeds to be similar, both because of the "Paso" in their name and because of their specialized gait, this assumption is apparently pretty irksome to fanciers of one breed or the other.  I found an excellent breakdown of the difference between the two breeds here, on a website dedicated to Peruvian Pasos.