The high preparation required for the Palio of Faenza and the strong competition between the five districts have led the Faenza equestrian school to the highest levels, capable of training knights who get during the years victories and awards in all the palios and other tournaments in Italy. The stables are working every day of the year and are trained at the ‘Rioni Civic Center’, a modern structure available thanks to the municipal administration and located in Faenza in via S. Orsola 31. Here, horses, riders and masters of stable are trained every day until the day of Niballo tournament.
The Civic Center is divided among the five local stables and represents an excellence of its kind. A space with great potential that in recent years has hosted various equestrian events, including the Hurdle Equestrian Competition and Rionilandia, a day dedicated to children with games, visits to the stables, horseback riding with ponies, puppets, food stands and performances by local knights. In 2017 the ‘Rioni Civic Center’ officially joined the FISE circuit, the Italian Equestrian Sports Federation.
Horses first
The Civic Center is first and foremost the place where horses are grown, trained and looked after. An important aspect of modern races is around the health of the horses that run the carousel. Thanks to efforts carried out in this way by the Municipality and the Palio Committee, Faenza has the acknowledged merit of having started a new path grating that the health of horses is protected by a special Commission composed of university professors specializing in equine pathologies and veterinary representatives of the AUSL of Romagna.
Recently, a “passport” was also set up for the Palio, i.e a veterinary record prepared at least 90 days before the race that describes the animal’s state of health and its medical history, including the pharmacological treatments to which it was subjected: this documentation and the relative checks made before and after the race, largely guarantee the regularity of the tournament and the health of the horses, in compliance with the most advanced regulatory and specialist guidelines on the subject.