According to reports received by our association a few days ago, a horse named Flambo, during a lungeing session, fell heavily to the ground due to improper use of the two lunge lines.

The horse, it seems, remained immobile on the ground, unable to get up, and was then forcibly put back on his feet by the stable boys, riders, technicians and users of the riding centre and pushed back to his box. A few hours later, it seems, the horse died in severe pain with muscular spasms, without being seen by any veterinary and without the owner being informed of the horse’s severe suffering, which lasted for several hours.

IHP immediately wrote to the pertinent authorities requesting them to verify the information it had received, while waiting to know the results of the autopsy performed by the “Isformtituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Lazio e Toscana”.
Unfortunately, the autopsy confirmed that something very strange had happened that day: Flambo, in fact, had compound fractures of the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae.

Why then, if what has been reported by several eye-witnesses is true, was the horse pulled upright by force, pushed to his box and left to agonize for 3 and a half hour? Why was the owner informed, by telephone, that his horse had “a little colic, nothing to worry about”, a circumstance shown to be untrue by the autopsy?
To seek a full explanation for this happening, we presented a statement to the Public Prosecutor’s Office today.

"We often receive reports of violent training practices involving unacceptable submission of the horse, which consist of throwing the horse abruptly to the ground by the combined use of the two lunge lines - states Sonny Richichi, IHP’s President - Such practices, which put the health, the well-being and even the life of the animal at risk, are contrary the principles of FISE, of CONI and of FEI concerning the management of horses, and violate the legal regulations as well: “Codice per la tutela e la gestione degli equidi del Ministero della Salute e Codice penale art. 544 bis e seguenti” [Code for safeguarding and managing equines issued by the Ministry of Public Health and Penal Code art. 544 bis and following]."

We do not know whether this applies to Flambo’s case, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office will have to find out.
Certainly, it would be a strange coincidence – if verified - the report of a similar accident in the same riding centre, in which a horse is said to have suffered the fracture of two coccygeal vertebrae. We have also informed the authorities of this report, so that it too can be investigated.