(28 August 2013)

We had been waiting for news about Scheggia nel Vento, the mare injured during a training race on Saturday 17 August. She had been transported directly to the Perugia University Veterinary Clinic. No updates were subsequently given and to date the official website of Quintana gives only an indication that the accident happened - in spite of the fact that the mare died two days after sustaining the injury. That information we obtained direct from Prof Marco Pepe, Director of the clinic, who we questioned about the incident as follows:

IHP: Prof Pepe, is it true that Scheggia nel Vento is dead?
Prof Pepe: <<Unfortunately yes. The horse sustained her injury on Saturday (fracture of a hind leg), she was given stabilising first aid treatment on the spot then transferred by horse ambulance to our clinic, where we kept her under observation until Monday. We then attempted to repair the injury by applying a plate, an operation requiring a general anaesthetic. However the trauma, sustained at high speed, had caused decreased vasclularity which made operating impossible. The horse was therefore euthanised on the operating table.>>

IHP: Do you consider that adequate measures were taken to avoid this accident?
Prof Pepe: <<These types of accidents are not easily avoided, given the stress on the limbs on bends and taking into account the fact that often the animals do not stop immediately, thus aggravating the problem. I have to say that at Quintina di Foligno they set aside unlimited funds for treatment for injured horses. Furthermore, from the moment the horses are selected for a race they are no longer the responsibility of the owners who, in the event of accident and injury, have no say at all in the medical procedures and treatments the horse should receive. Every year there one Animal Rights association is granted a place on the Health Commission: this year it is the ENPA of Perugia.>>

IHP: Do you consider that some uses of horses subject them to inherent risk?
Prof Pepe: <<No matter how strongly this type of racing can be disputed, I think we have to credit them with the fact that they protect dozens of rejected racehorses from a very uncertain fate every year, horses who might otherwise end up who knows where. Quintana di Foligno looks to the welfare of their horses even once their racetrack careers are over.>>

Italian Horse Protection has a different viewpoint from this last observation: we are against the use of animals in Palios as well as the exploitation of them for commercial or sporting purposes. The protection and wellbeing of horses should be guaranteed automatically, as should their natural needs: it should not be required to consider choices between better and worse types of exploitation.


RELATED ARTICLES:
- There is doping and doping, 8 August 2012
- Quintana of Ascoli: Innocenti rides, the palio finally shows its true colours, 14 July 2012
- Quintana of Foligno: A horse put down, another one hurt, 5 June 2010