Jimmy Espino – Past, Present, and Future in Paso Fino

PPF: Hello Jimmy, thank you so much for spending this time with Perfiles del Paso Fino.
JE: Thank you, thanks to you, Ms. Maritza and to all the people of Perfiles del Paso Fino and to the audience of the horse world.

PPF: Alright, for those who don’t know you, could you please share a little about your beginning in the Paso Fino world?
JE: My beginnings in Paso Fino came about in the town of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. Since I was a very young boy, I was 6 six old, a great passion for horses awoke inside of me and that is where it all began. Something very funny happened.

PPF: What was that?
JE: The very first time I started talking about horses, that I as a child became enthusiastic about horses, it was over a pony. I saw a pony while going to visit some of my father’s relatives in the town of Manatee. Nowadays, traveling from Trujillo Alto to Manatee is a 30-minute trip, but back then 3 hours could pass, and we still hadn’t arrived. I don’t know if air conditioning in cars didn’t exist, or if my father’s car didn’t have any, but the heat was unbearable. I was 6 years old jumping from one side of the car to the other, I was so uncomfortable. I remember I was in the back seat with my grandmother and at some point, I saw a pony. My grandmother said to me, “if you stay still and calm down, I will buy you that pony.” It was like magic, I sat still the whole way. And that is when it all began.
PPF: And did they buy you the pony?
JE: No.

PPF: But your mind had already been made up.
JE: But from that day forward, the word horse was forever imbedded in my vocabulary.
PPF: Wow, but were your father or grandfather, did you come from an equine background, or not at all?
JE: No, no. My family does not have an equine background. The whole family became horse enthusiasts later, once they had seen me evolve in the horse world. That’s when they actually came to get to know the industry, but not before then.

PPF: So then, what happened from that point forward? At what point did you learn to ride or to learn?

JE: Out in the country, in the area where I lived, there was a farm called “El Chaparral”. Back then, it was very famous. I could get from my house to that farm in like 3 minutes. So, I would always go on the weekends, mainly on Saturdays, when I was like 7 or 8 years old. I have always been able to appear older because of my size, though I was actually quite young. And I remember asking the owners to give me the chance to clean the stalls. It used to take me all day to clean just one stall because back then we didn’t have stalls like the ones that exist today. That was my greatest satisfaction; for the weekend to come so that I could go clean a stall. That’s really where it all started. I believe that anyone who starts from that point, has a great advantage. It’s the first step. You learn to value everything and, most of all, to love the horse. I hadn’t’ realized that I felt such a strong love and passion for horses that, thanks to God, have led me to fulfill many dreams and goals. I humbly believe that I have actually surpassed them by a longshot, compared to what I had in mind or to where I wanted to reach.

PPF: Of course. So then tell me, who taught you how to ride?
JE: Well, since I was a young boy, I have always been a very detailed-oriented person. I notice everything. Back then, I remember that the Pure Puerto Rican Horse movement was very popular in Puerto Rico. At that farm, at that time, there were riders like Tin Perez, Che Orozco, Inú… They were students of a great teacher who at that time had just emigrated to the United States. That was Mr. Juan Ramon Figueroa. At that time, the riders who predominated the competitions of Pure horses in Puerto Rico, were Mr. Minin Quillan and his workers. I take my hat off to them. He is no longer with us, but he was always and will always be a great teacher of the art. Simultaneously, there was another rider, Cesar Figueroa, Mr. Kundá’s brother. When I saw him riding in the showring, either him or Minin Quillan, I would get goosebumps from just watching. I used to always say that someday I wanted to handle a horse like these two grandiose masters did. I must have been 12 years old at the time.

PPF: You were still a young boy.
JE: I have been a professional ever since I was 14 years old. Here’s another funny anecdote. Back then, I wanted to appear to be much older so that the equine association would allow me to belong. My peach fuzz, that would one day be a beard, at that time were just cute fuzz. I don’t know why I did this, but I used to shave it. So, ever since I was 14, I already had some beard and appeared to be older.

PPF: You shaved to make the fuzz grow into coarse hair.
JE: Exactly! They then thought I was older and started to give me the opportunity to ride. In the horse world, when I first started, I was able to help these riders I mentioned who rode the Pure Puerto Rican horses. I also helped others who weren’t as famous as these men I already mentioned. There was a rider, who I respect immensely. We used to kindly call him Cheito, because his name was Jose, Cheito Caifáz, after a horse he used to compete. He was a person to watch while riding a horse. After all the time that has passed and the amount of evolution in horse training, still today, we use techniques those riders used to use back then. They are necessary methods, and they provide very important results. The first person to ever show me an American snaffle was Cheito Caifáz. He used to place that tool in all his horses’ mouths. This is a tool that became extremely common for us from around the mid-1990s to now. And so long ago, these trainers using another system, were already using these tools. What I used to do was take something from everybody. I observed things I like about one trainer, I helped another trainer, I actually helped everybody and asked questions meanwhile. I am living and have lived during the past few years a very beautiful experience. That is having my nephew with me, even showing next to me in the show ring. I get to watch how he develops and see the quality of work and his qualities as a trainer. To see him as a professional in the show ring is something that fills me with great emotion. As I said earlier, we are not people who come from an equine background. I am the first horseman in my family. So, to watch them follow in my footsteps fills me with great joy, satisfaction, and emotions.

PPF: What is the daily inspiration that drives you to do your work?
JE: My daily inspiration… I believe it comes from being a person who keeps looking ahead even after reaching a goal. I have never been one to conform. If I wanted to reach something, I do, and then I find ways to improve it, to perfect it. Everything can always be improved. So, I can tell you that my passion is the horse. I love to breed and to train horses. Every day I think about ways to improve myself and how I can improve what I did yesterday. This is my world. I’m the type of person that when I find myself outside of the horse world for one, two, or three days, and I start feeling like I lost five or ten years. I feel the need to return.

PPF: Same here!
JE: I think that the definition of all this is simply passion.

PPF: Alright, you know very well that you are an idol for many children.
JE: I tell you…

PPF: Tell me, what time does Jimmy Espino wake up?
JE: When I started trying to become someone in the horse world, I used to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. By 5:30am, I was already riding the first horse of the day and I would never get back home before 11:30pm. I had to eat and bathe in 30 minutes so that I could at least sleep four and a half hours and then start all over again. I did that for a long time, and those who know me and lived through that experience with me know that it is true. That went on for 20 years. Nowadays, the schedule changed by one hour. I wake up at 5:30am, but I’ll be honest with you, I am not riding a horse by 6:30am. At this point in my life, I try to dedicate time to myself and to my health. But I am still an early riser. I am up by 6am and by 7 or 7:30am, I am dedicating time to myself by going to work out. That exercise helps me to channel my ideas. That makes my body feel good. I arrive to the farm around 9:30am. I try to leave the farm the latest by, myself, around 8pm. That is a general rule that I established for myself because I believe that I no longer have the same energy I had when I was a kid. However, I would like to note that those who follow in my footsteps, do come to work a lot earlier than me and do leave the farm much later than I do. Why? Because they want to be like me. The best part of all is that when they do those things, they are not like me, they have long ago become better than me. They just need more time so that they can continue to achieve all that is coming to them. The thing is that everything stems from and starts at this being what we love. When you do what you love, you really never feel that you are tired or that it is too much work. No. You are doing something that is truly your passion. So, as I said to you in the beginning, we surpass goals that at one point we saw so far to reach, and we say ‘wow’. It wasn’t actually far away; it was just that what I wanted to reach was actually reached a long time ago.

PPF: What is the most difficult aspect of your work?
JE: The most difficult aspect for me is not dedicating the amount of time to family that they deserve. I would love to spend more time with them. I’d love to have a social life with them. Yet, I am very fortunate because even though I can’t have a social life with them outside of my work, they have integrated themselves and have come to work with me. Also, there is something I am going through right now, for example. I have older children who know I love them and who, when they come to see this interview, I want them to know that at that point, I didn’t dedicate the time that they truly deserved, but that it is something I do regret.

PPF: What do you like most or enjoy most about your work?
JE: When I have the chance to receive visits from friends at the farm and we start to chat, to discuss bloodlines, to share our breeding plans, and to exchange ideas, that is, for me, so exciting. It is so exhilarating and is something so important for me. Another thing I love in the horse world is going to a horse show. Training horses and getting them ready for show is a lot of hard work, but once I am at the show and I spend time with my horse-world friends and I go to the show ring, I love that, I enjoy it so much. I have talked to my nephew about it and tell him ‘There will be a day when I cannot ride so many horses, but you at least train one or two for me so that I could still get in there.’ I at least want to be able to have short ride because I really enjoy doing that. So, I think there are two things I like the most: being able to take a horse to the show ring, because that is a huge satisfaction, and being able to discuss bloodlines, seeing the breedings we planned being successful, seeing the similar characteristics, seeing what a stallion or a broodmare is showing through offspring. Those are very big, important, satisfying aspects for me.

PPF: What is the last thing you feel and do, or think, when you pass from the pre ring into the show ring? That last path where we’re entering with all our might.
JE: At that moment is when I disconnect and become one and blend together with the horse. I always say that the trick to all this is you knowing what the horse is thinking. That is everything. If you know what the horse is thinking, you will be able to handle it, without making any mistakes. The cleanest and best presentation of a horse is what shows which horse is shown the best. Thus, if you get first, second, third, or don’t get any ribbon at all, as long as it is evident that the right work has been done and a dignified performance has been shown, I believe that we have reason to feel proud of ourselves.

PPF: From your beginning, having reached this point of having acquired the level and recognition you have, and even being a leader for trainers of the future, what is your greatest satisfaction as a trainer and breeder?
JE: As a breeder, the satisfaction I feel is huge. I feel that way because I have left a legacy in this sport. I have had the opportunity to spend time with many trainers who today are extremely successful trainers, who have taken my experience, my advice, and all that I have lived through as an example, and it has served them. I love it when they go into the show ring to demonstrate all their talent and all their work and even so when they defeat me, it makes me feel happy. These are different times. These times have a lot of professionalism and respect. The worker and trainer of horses is respected for what he or she is: as a businessperson, as a professional of the industry who does a job that not just anyone can do. The horse trainer is an artisan because you must be born with the ability to train a horse. All those people who have that ability have been born with it. Obviously, they gave it the dedication to develop it, but they were born with the ability. Just like an artisan is born with the ability to create a sculpture, the same goes for a horse trainer. Being able to feel that I contributed a grain of sand to anyone, gives me a great feeling of satisfaction. I think, I believe that I am returning something to all that this industry has given to me.

PPF: What would you say has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your career?
JE: When I lived and worked in Puerto Rico, fortunately, I was extremely successful, extremely. I had acquired the recognition of everyone not only in my area, but in the Paso Fino industry worldwide. Whenever I traveled to the Dominican Republic, Colombia, or the United States, I would feel that respect given to me as a professional and as a colleague. Personally, I used to think I was a nobody back then. And at a point in time, the thought crossed my mind that I had all the merits and had acquired all the points that I could in this career and that I had nothing else to earn for myself. I asked myself what I was doing there. Fortunately, I had divided my attention to other branches of business where I would not be dependent upon always working with horses. I thought to myself, ‘if I am going to work with horses, I will be sacrificing family time’. Why? Because I dedicate myself to horses 24 hours a day. I don’t know how to dedicate 8 hours to a horse, that doesn’t exist for me. So then, I decided to focus on real estate, which was another aspect of my work. It was starting to develop at the time, and I thought I would then leave working with horses. This is what I was analyzing with myself… so, the Jimmy on the right would ask the Jimmy on the left, ‘but why?’ and the left Jimmy would say, ‘you won this, you were the highest pointed trainer for five years, there was this, and that, and that, and that. What else do you want to achieve here?’ That was the point. What else did I want to achieve? And as the right and the left Jimmy were asking what else I wanted to achieve, one of them answered ‘you know what? Go to where the biggest and most famous trainers are to see if you can measure up to them.’ At that moment, when I made that decision, at the end of November, I recall that Mr. Antonio Lopez, who we call “Pusito” as a sign of affection, was in the Tampa, Florida area. He was the owner of Criadero LM. He was a client of mine in Puerto Rico. I did not work exclusively for him, but he was one of my clients. He called at that moment and asked how I was doing. I replied that I was doing some thinking and he asked what about. He and I always had a very nice relationship and I used to value his opinion a lot. So, I said, ‘Mr. Antonio, I am considering this, but I don’t want to decide on it because I honestly, I don’t want to leave Puerto Rico and leave you in the air with your horses. You have been such a special person to me.’ And he replied, ‘is that the problem?’ I answered, ‘well, yes.’ He responded, ‘you know what? Let’s just buy a farm out there.’ And I thought I was just thinking about moving, but I had never lived in the United States and there was a certain fear where I’d wonder if I was making the right decision or not. So, I figured I was taking a more secure step with the support of this client.

PPF: Of course.
JE: So, he said to me, ‘listen, this is very simple. I am in Tampa. Take a flight and I’ll see you here in Tampa and then we’ll go up to Ocala. Let’s go find a farm that you like.’ And that’s how it happened. I called a few friends to see what was for sale in the area and we ended up buying a farm north of Ocala, which was Hacienda LM until a few days ago. I feel, nowadays, with the same enthusiasm, with the same fever, as we say in Puerto Rico, with the same thirst as when I was 16 years old. And just as a side note, on top of feeling motivated like when I was 16 years old, I now also have experience. We have arrived here to Miami some 8 weeks ago with the hopes that when we come to maybe 12 months, we can have our infrastructure well on its way in order to be able to offer it to the general horse world population. I feel very happy because in a short time I have met many new horse world friends that I hadn’t been able to spend time with before. I feel their kindness and motivation and I think this is another stage in my career that I like and am enjoying. I like it! I believe big and great accomplishments are coming our way and will be forever engraved in history. That feeling I have since I arrived to Miami, I hadn’t felt, I think, since I was 16 years old.

PPF: And speaking of your moving to Miami, this was something that caused quite the sensation and even a certain anxiety among some. What was the reason for making this change?
JE: The equine industry has been everything for me. It is my passion, and it is my world. I am a person that has visited places in the world only because I was following some horse. When I came to the United States, to Ocala, I came because at that time, speaking of horses and their training, Ocala was like the central point, and I wanted to be working alongside all the biggest and best trainers. We were already there for 20 years, so, it was time to move to Miami. Why Miami? Because, truly, Miami, to me, is the center, not of the United States, not of Florida. Please don’t anyone take this the wrong way, it is my very personal opinion, but to me Miami is the center of the world. I have clients that haven’t seen their horses in a good 7 or 8 years. I have suggested to them to take their horses to the country where they live so they can enjoy them. And they tell me, ‘no, Jimmy, I have horses because of you. If you don’t manage our horses, we rather not have horses. You can sell them.’ I have other clients who I only see at horse shows. Unfortunately, most of those shows throughout 20 years have been up north. They never got a chance to make it to nationals, and to top it all off, their horses were the champions. I say all this because at this point in my life, I do everything I do because I enjoy it. I enjoy competing horses, but I also enjoy spending time with my clients. I want to be able to be accessible to my people. I have been here for 8 weeks and all my people, including those I hadn’t seen in 7 years and those who would only come to horse shows, have already come to visit at this farm two times. It’s all due to the accessibility of this city. Ocala is a gorgeous city because the vegetation, the organization, the cleanliness, it’s beautiful! But it doesn’t have accessibility… accessibility for the type of people that we are as Hispanics. We Hispanics like to resolve everything in just one day. I, personally, for my personal satisfaction, want to have my people close to me. In the business aspect, my clients have always been very supportive. There was never a problem, I’d receive their payment every 30 days, but I need to be able to see them.

PPF: So, it was the human aspect that brought you here.
JE: Definitely.

PPF: Because you were already enjoying the horses 100%, but you were lacking interaction with your clients.
JE: Exactly. I am at a point in my life that I focus on personal satisfaction, while keeping my professionalism and the guidelines we have always followed. I want to work in a way that I can enjoy everything and can see that I am allowing others to enjoy themselves as well and be comfortable also. Thus, I think that because of this, even bigger things those that have already come are to be expected. So, this is how I feel, and this is what we will prove in the next few years to have been accurate or not. But, for now, I feel very happy.

PPF: What advice do you have for the youth who aspire to be professional trainers as successful as you are?
JE: We must follow our dreams and our passion. If you really live through it, if you enjoy it and you feel it, do it. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something or that you will not make it. Because if you truly want it, you will make it happen. When I was a child, there were many people who told me that I couldn’t and that I wasn’t good at it, even though I was a child. What that did was give me more energy and more desire to move forward. Today, I am the one who succeeded. What we did was allow ourselves to be guided by our passion and doing what we like to do. We work with our hearts. We never feel that we work too much. We never feel that we are dedicating too much time to our workday. We finish very tired, but with a great feeling of happiness. That makes it all nice. It’s so nice.

PPF: And as you say those words, what would you say today to Jimmy Espino at 18 years old?
JE: If you had to start everything all over again, do it exactly as you did it all from the beginning. I have truly lived through the horses. I have been absolutely happy. In those moments where you were thinking about a worry or a problem, you would start thinking about a horse and forget about everything. For that reason, if you started all over again, do it exactly the same way. I do not regret any part of it.

PPF: Who has been the most influential person in your career?
JE: I have honestly been influenced by many people. Why? Because I value everybody, I respect everybody, and I admire everybody. This is a very large and beautiful industry. I think that all those people who have always come close to me with positive vibes, are people who have influenced my life. And thanks to all those people, I have so much energy and so much comes from them, truly.

PPF: What is the most important aspect of your work?
JE: If we are referring to training, I think that would be for the horses that I train to be handled by anyone. That is very satisfying to me and is of great importance. Additionally, for all the horses that we sell to become even better. That also gives me a huge feeling of satisfaction. And as a breeder, when we see that something we thought of came to pass and, on top of that, we are able to train it, and to show it, and even reach a national competition. Then, to see that one of them is grand champion, another one of ours is the reserve grand champion. As we say, a country boy from Trujillo Alto, which is such a small town in Puerto Rico, has done it all with his heart. We do everything with our heart.

PPF: What do you like the most about horses?
JE: What I like most about horses is all the family and all the friends that I have met. Like I said, all the places I have travelled outside of my country have been because of horses. So, that makes me feel very happy and grateful to the horse. Horses have led me to meet very beautiful people and cultures. Honestly, I am very grateful to horses for that.

PPF: If you had to describe your work with only one word, which word would represent your work?
JE: My life.

PPF: What do you want people to know or remember the most about you?
JE: That I have been and always will be, until the last day of life God gives me, a person who has wanted to help anyone who comes next to me. I have done it from the heart and in very good faith. That I have been very grateful to the industry. That whenever I feel I can contribute in a positive way, I will continue to give and do. I also want to set an example to children and young adults. It isn’t about being like me, it’s about being much better than me. They can do it. All they have to do is put your heart and dedication into it and make it happen. Reaching it is so much closer than everyone believes it to be.

PPF: Jimmy, thank you very much. This has been a very nice experience and it’s something we had been trying to accomplish for several months. It took us a while, but thank you.
JE: Thanks to you, for the visit and for the interview. And to all the viewers, you know that Jimmy Espino of Criadero JH is always here for you.
PPF: Thank you so much.