CSI San Patrignano, a riding “boutique”

“In riding, there are competitions that are like department stores, where you can find everything, and others that are more similar to boutiques, where quality is the keynote. For me San Patrignano’s CSI 5* is definitely in the second category, where they try to achieve the best in everything: as far as competing horses and riders, organization, venue and facilities are concerned.” Stefano Morriale, the right-hand man of Eleonora Ottaviani, show director of the Vincenzo Muccioli Challenge, has a very clear opinion of the contest organized by the community.

Talking about a boutique, one’s thought go to the San Patrignano competition course, a large green field, hard to find in many other contests: “It is wonderful, but it is possible to keep it like that precisely because it was decided not to commercialize the event excessively. When it is decided to invite too many riders, sand must necessarily be used, otherwise the grass would be ruined. However, Sanpa aimed at the quality of the riders and horses and can therefore permit itself a contest course that is a spectacle for anybody; horses, riders, spectators and organizers.”

As well as the contest course, the quality of the obstacles is also very high, exactly like San Patrignano, as Morriale himself explains: “Lately, a lot of contests have been ruined due to the fact that obstacles are more or less the same everywhere. On the contrarythey are a fundamental element of every contest, must have a “personality” of their own and be able to make a world calibre competition unique. With this in mind, we decided first of all to modernize those already built in recent years, above all for the European Championship in 2005, and then to design and build an additional obstacle with a new material.”

What is it? “The new feature will be a new obstacle in fibreglass, a material that will enable us to characterize the obstacle even better, reflecting the graphic lines of the social results of San Patrignano, with the image of a boy taking off in flight. An idea conceived by the youngsters themselves, who are also looking after its realization. I only took care of the technical aspect of the obstacle.”

Where did the idea to use fibreglass come from? “At the 1998 Rome world championships, Marcello Mastronardi chose this material for two obstacles, the Goddess of Fortune and the Colosseum. However, the technique was outdated, so much so that the obstacles were heavy and therefore anything but easy to move. On the other hand, the material now at our disposal is much lighter and, in spite of this, is also resistant and safe for horses and riders, in the event of them banging into the obstacle. And the scenographic result is better than in the past.”