03/12/2020

“Essere” is the new work of art donated to our Association by the photographer Francesco Caruso and the Academy Model Management agency

Italian Horse Protection once again chooses empathy, contact and mutual respect as a unifying thread for the 12 months of its new calendar crafted by photographer Francesco Caruso who, through an elegant range of images, photographed the models selected by the Academy Model Management agency in Padua. Professionals who have given their time free of charge to tell the story of the daily commitment of our Association to care for mistreated and abused horses.

“When we talk of horses and the daily commitment of IHP, the grim stories and pictures showing injustice, violence and mistreatment juxtapose with those moments of pure poetry which these special, yet so often abused, animals offer us - says the President of IHP, Sonny Richichi. Our calendar brings a message which is also a wish: that the purity of their nature wins over brutality.”

Special thanks go to photographer Francesco Caruso, who tells us about the inspiration behind this project: “Here, as the images unroll, doing gives way to being. People and horses come together and tell a story of a world where they can live as equals, without subordination. It is an exchange: horses know how to repay our care and attention – by teaching us to listen to ourselves, they bring us authenticity, trust, acceptance, and the essential balance between strength and fragility. They give us whatever we ourselves are ready to accept and understand.”

The proceeds from the sales of the 2021 calendar will be used to support one of the Association's many projects: finding a new space to house the seven seropositive horses entrusted to the care of IHP. The horses are currently on land in the municipality of Montaione (province of Florence) which must return to the hands of the owner by the end of March 2021.

"All these horses were rescued from certain death in 2007," explains Richichi. "That year, the Ministry of Health imposed sweep checks throughout Italy to verify the presence of horses who tested positive for the equine infectious anaemia virus in order to eradicate it. The result was a massacre as most owners, convinced wrongly that the disease could spread easily and driven by fear induced by the health authorities, had their horses slaughtered when they tested positive. It’s as if the Local Health Authority came to our house and told us to kill the dog because it tested positive for leishmaniasis."

"IHP was at the time the only association in Italy and Europe that struggled to find and set up pasture exclusively for horses testing positive for infectious anaemia, so as to keep them at a safe distance from animals that tested negative”, continues the President of IHP. “We saved these horses from slaughter, gave them a free and happy life, and demonstrated what leading experts have been saying for years: equine infectious anaemia is not as contagious as people tend to believe. This disease is not dangerous and it makes no sense to take drastic measures that are completely disproportionate to the scale of the problem. These horses have always been very healthy, they have never shown symptoms of the disease but we are still forced to keep them isolated, because the law has never been changed. Some of our horses arrived here because their owners had opposed the slaughter and sought help, and they found us. Now we have to find a new home for them.”

The calendar can be ordered online from the website of Italian Horse Protection with a minimum contribution of 10 Euro: CLICK HERE

PREVIEW OF IHP CALENDAR