The Costeno (also spelled Costeño) is a Peruvian criollo horse breed native to the coastal lowlands of Peru. It descends directly from Iberian horses — Andalusian, Barb, and Spanish Jennet stock — brought by Spanish colonizers in the sixteenth century and subsequently isolated in the coastal region for several hundred years. Along with the Serrano (a highland variant), the Costeno is considered one of the primary genetic foundations of the Peruvian Paso.
The breed is known for a naturally smooth, four-beat ambling smooth lateral gait — the paso llano or sobreandando — produced without training aids. This gaited movement results from the same lateral timing inherited from the Spanish Jennet foundation bloodlines, and it is one of the traits systematically selected when Peruvian breeders began standardizing the Peruvian Paso in the twentieth century. The Costeno’s conformation is lighter and more refined than the highland Serrano, reflecting adaptation to hot coastal conditions and influencing the Peruvian Paso’s characteristic elegance and termino (the outward arc of the foreleg in motion).
Today the Costeno is recognized as a distinct type within Peruvian equine heritage, though it is less formally bred as a separate entity than the standardized Peruvian Paso. The Association of Breeders and Owners of Peruvian Paso Horses (ACBPPP) in Peru maintains the Peruvian Paso registry, which encompasses Costeno-descended horses. The Costeno’s contribution to the breed is its coastal softness of movement and refined refined conformation; the Serrano contributed hardiness and muscular strength. Together the two regional types produced one of the most athletically distinctive gaited breeds in the world.
Further Reading: The Costeno is one of the regional types whose gaited movement was consolidated into the Peruvian Paso (Wikipedia), itself a descendant of the broader Criollo horse family that spread through the Americas from Spanish colonial stock.