Just north of Los Angeles, on a stretch of beautiful Southern California coastline, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy - with help - has been acquiring land. The goal is to eventually put together a corridor all the way from Topanga Canyon to Point Mugu. "There's country back there that I didn't know existed," comments Henry Curry, a resident of nearby Thousand Oaks. "It's amazing to find such a pristine area so near one of the most heavily-populated areas on earth." This land had long been private property, fenced and surrounded by "No Trespassing" signs. The conservancy stepped in before the large holdings were subdivided. First, it rebuilt trails that had been washed out or otherwise destroyed. Then it removed barbwire fences and opened the area to hikers and horseback riders.

The Chumash Indians once walked these same trails. The first horses on them were ridden by the Spanish; and hundreds of years later, Henry Curry is following their hoofprints on Peruvian Pasos, a breed descended from Spanish horses.

Dr. Curry's taste in Peruvians was influenced by his early association with the breed. Back then he spent a lot of time riding *Laurel, a stallion that had been National Champion of Champions in Peru. After his big win in 1969, the beautiful chestnut stallion returned the following year to defend his title. Perhaps no champion ever came back to defend a national title under quite such circumstances! *Laurel left owner Alfredo Elias's hacienda on foot and carried his trainer through deep sand...every inch of the way to the showgrounds near Lima. In six days, he crossed 300 kilometers of the driest desert on earth; and he arrived ready to defend his title.

Many congratulated Alfredo Elias's courage in sending his magnificent stallion to demonstrate the endurance of the Peruvian breed. It must be conceded, however, that Se–or Elias had an ace in the hole... another of his stallions, Regional, was the almost-certain winner that year.

The truly courageous player was *Laurel, who made the trek and then sparkled in the show arena, making Regional work hard for the first of his three National Champion of Champion awards. There are many who say that *Laurel was the year's biggest winner for showing a toughness uncommon among show horses of any breed.

It was no coincidence that *Laurel was later purchased and imported by Dr. Michael Pardue, a neighbor of Henry Curry's. Dr. Curry had strongly recommended the famed stallion to his colleague. One suspects an ulterior motive because Henry rode *Laurel hundreds of miles during the years that Pardue owned the horse. Henry admired the regal style of a horse good enough to have been Peru's National Champion of Champions; but it was the horse's ability on the trail that most impressed him.

Of his many rides on *Laurel, Henry remembers being most impressed in the remote California mountains behind Hidden Valley. Taking a shortcut to avoid backtracking through some particularly rough country, he and *Laurel got into country that was ever-more-rugged.

"The chaparral as high as *Laurel's withers," Curry remembers, "and so thick that neither of us could see the ground."

The farther they went, the worse it got.

"It was one of those deals where you keep thinking things are just about to get better," Curry remembers, "but they kept getting worse. There were a lot of loose rocks on the ground, but neither of us could see to avoid them. With almost every step, *Laurel would dislodge them; and I could hear the rolling and crashing together. I would have turned around, but it was too steep. We were committed, and the brush was so thick that dismounting wasn't an option.

"I think almost any other horse would have wound up in a heap on the ground, but *Laurel never took a misstep. He picked his way like a spider going across its web."

Henry came up against a barbwire fence, which he had to cut, pass through and then repair. Later a ranch foreman caught him on property where he didn't belong.

"How'd you get here?" the man was furious and salted his speech freely with profanity. "You can't have gotten on this property without coming through my fence."

Henry started to answer, but the foreman didn't give him time.

"If you cut my fence, you're gonna to wish you hadn't!"

A torrent of unflattering references to Henry's ancestry followed.

"I didn't have any choice," Henry tried to explain. "I got part way down that ridge, and there was nothing I could do."Between the foreman's expletives, Henry pointed toward the ridge he had descended.

"My God! You came down that ridge!" the foreman said, the tone of his voice suddenly changing. "Really?"

"Yes," Henry said, knowing his story would check out if the foreman cared to hike up there and take a look.

"I'll be damned," the man muttered, respect in his voice. "I don't think anyone ever did that before!"

Today Henry's herd understandably contains many descendants of *Laurel.

"I got started with Peruvian horses because I borrowed a horse one day and went for a trail ride with my neighbor, Bob Miller." 1 Henry remembers. "Both of our horses were trotters, and it felt like my kidneys were being driven into my pelvis, which I think they were! I thought: if I have to ride a horse like this, I'm going to find something else to do!"

Later Henry mentioned to Bob that his dream was a smooth-riding horse that covers ground.

"Sounds as though you'd like Peruvian Pasos," Dr. Miller said immediately.

On Miller's recommendation, Henry visited a breeder and took a test ride.

"It took me all of ten seconds to decide that was what I wanted, " he says.

After *Laurel, Dr. Curry's next serious tail riding was done in Colorado, where he bought a ranch. For years he divided his spare time between his home in southern California and his ranch. One of his neighbors in Colorado was an outfitter; and just before hunting season, he always took a several-day ride to scout southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains for game. One year, Henry was invited to go along. He'd been doing some trail riding on a four-year-old Peruvian mare named Juliana, but she wasn't really ready for a tough ride.

"She'd never even been trailered ... let alone tied to a picket line, forded streams or even been ridden with other horses," Henry recalls, "but I didn't want to miss such a wonderful opportunity so I decided to give her a try."

The other riders were on big Quarter horses and Quarter Horse crosses. They gave Henry's mare a look that said: "Pretty little horse. She ain't gonna make it!"

They were out for three days in rugged country.

"Every time I've taken Peruvians on a pack trip, I could tell they enjoyed it," Henry reports. "Juliana was no exception. She didn't know much; I even had to teach her to drink from a running stream; but she was always fresh and perky. I'm sure the other riders were surprised. Considering she wasn't a Quarter Horse, their praise was lavish. They said things like: ÔWhy that little ol' horse done okay.'"

Another time, on a trip in the Weminuche Wilderness Area, Henry and his trainer were following a well-marked trail when they came to an unmarked fork. They took the right branch, a decision that almost ended in tragedy!

Rounding a corner, the two riders abruptly found themselves on a ledge-type trail with a 500-foot vertical drop on one side. The trail was so narrow that Henry's horse came very close to slipping over the side.

When the trail widened again, Dr. Curry let out a sigh of relief.

"There should have been a sign saying: "Hikers Only" on that right fork," he commented.

"I ain't never lettin' you lead me nowhere again," the trainer huffed. "That scared me, and I don't get scared!"

One spring, Henry accompanied the outfitters into the mountains above the Purgatory Ski area. They were the year's first visitors after enough snow melted to permit access. It was the first mountain trip Henry had made on Especial. That early in the year and with Henry living in California, the young stallion wasn't in particularly good condition, but he was game.

The country was a collection of steep ridges, and snow was still four feet deep in places. Henry was comforted to know the the mechanics of their gait make Peruvians extremely surefooted.

"Several times we got into snow on downhill sections," Henry describes one hazard. "Several times gravity took control, and the horses started skiing. We couldn't be sure where we'd stop...or how!"

The uphill climbs weren't much better.

"One climb was so steep that one of the other horses lay down and just flat quit," Henry remembers.

Especial didn't; and after all was said and done, he received the ultimate praise: "Why that little ol' horse done okay."

Riding in California's Santa Monica Mountains was no letdown when Henry went back home after visits to his ranch. From the highest peaks, the ocean vistas were spectacular, and the Peruvians made getting there easy.

"If I don't ride for six weeks, I can get on my Peruvians and enjoy myself", Henry reports with a smile. "Try that on a trotting horse."

Harking back to the days when he spent most of his spare time trail riding Peru's National Champion of Champions, Henry rides even his most successful show horses hard.

"I've always liked a horse that covers ground," Henry will tell you, "as long as it doesn't mistreat me in the process. Most of my horses can average about 12.5 MPH, in good country. You get up to that speed on a trotting horse, and you get beat up!"

In the process of buying a ranch in Oregon, Henry plans to take most of his horses there, though he will continue to live in California. One gets the feeling that Oregon cowboy will soon be scratching his head and saying: "Why that little ol' horse done okay."

For further information about Peruvian horses, visit the Internet Web Site of the American Association of Owners and Breeders of Peruvian Paso Horses at: http://www.aaobpph.org

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1 - Dr. Robert Miller is a nationally-known veterinarian who frequently writes for national publications such as The Western Horseman and whose seminars are much in demand throughout the United States.- Back to Article