My future? Working as a groom
The real key players of the San Patrignano CSI5* are the community’s 1,500 youngsters. For them horse riding and the contest itself are a means for helping them overcome their problems. Sometimes even discovering a passion and turning it into a job.
“I’ve always liked horses, but I’d never have thought they could represent a professional opportunity for me.” Alessio would like to continue to work in stables once he finishes his program at San Patrignano. “Working as a groom. That’s what I’d like to do. I’m learning: I take care of the horses, look after them and see to everything.” An all-round responsibility that makes a groom a fundamental figure, perhaps even more so than the riders themselves.
“There are about twenty of us working in the stables. We’re training to acquire all the knowledge necessary for running a stud farm, looking after not only the horses’ cleaning, but their nutrition - exercising them in the walker or the paddock - and their medical treatment.”
Alessio continues to talk, talking about himself and thinking of his future as he continues to stroke the muzzle of a three-year old colt: “Thanks to them, I’ve managed to get rid of some of my shyness, I‘ve opened up more and I‘m rediscovering myself.”
There are eighty horses at San Patrignano: 15 ponies, 15 brood mares, Italian champion Nadir, winner of the 1998/1999 Performance Test, of the 2002 seven-year old title and fourth with the Italian team in the 2005 European Championship, held precisely at San Patrignano, one of the key animals in the Libro Genealogico del Sella Italiano, plus nine three-year old colts of which some are ready to be broken in, and Ai-lian, Asha, Beijing, Utopia: four young horses that we’re preparing for competitive activity and are following the procedure to qualify for the finals of the championship of their class.
Alessio says, “Ai-lian, Asha and Beijing are colts with important qualities and the most promising. One of their features is that they have the same “mother” in common, Weihaiwej, a blued-eyed mare that is a part of horse riding history, thanks to results achieved in contests all over the world and the double gold (individual and team) at the 1994 World Championships. At the end of her competitive career, she came to San Patrignano’s stud farm, where she began her new “career” as a mother.
Alessio continues to talk, “We look after them every day, interacting with Valentina Interlenghi, the young lady rider who rides our horses. In the meantime, in this period, our thoughts are also on the July competition”.
The Csi * Vincenzo Muccioli Challenge, scheduled from 30th July to 1st August 2010 – there is not much time left and preparations are in full swing. He concludes “It’s a great occasion for professional growth and a great opportunity for networking with professionals from all over the world.”
Horses and riders will be hosted in the new stables that San Patrignano has entirely restructured. A new roof, terracotta floor and new systems, all thanks to experts in the sector and above all thanks to the community’s youngsters. “The boxes have all been sanded down and re-painted by us all, to make our stables even better equipped and more competitive”, concludes Alessio.
