Stefano’s dream is to become an international rider. He has always had this passion for horses, “as far as I can remember” he said with a broad smile.
Charismatic young man of 23 years old, Stefano has worked tirelessly since June to prepare for the arrival of the horses participating to the FEI European Jumping Championship, with the team in charge of the stables. “We have moved the 90 horses of the community to other stables down the hill, cleaned up and disinfected all the boxes to welcome our European competitors,” explains Stefano. “Now we take care of the maintenance of the stables, as well as of the resident horses, mares and foals”.
In the early eighties, the founder of San Patrignano, Vincenzo Muccioli, who loved horses and was a breeder himself, decided to create a stud farm inside the community. Today, there are thirty young men taking care of the stables operations every day. The relationship between man and horse has proved to be a great therapeutic tool, helping people overcome those difficulties in relating with others, which are typical of drug addicts and other marginalised individuals. At the same time, it allows those who work in the stables to acquire work skills as grooms, blacksmiths and veterinary assistant. The stables include 180 boxes and there are 20 acres of pasture around the farm. San Patrignano’s horses include twenty selected broodmares, many of which have had successful competitive careers, and fifteen horses currently participating in national and international competitions. San Patrignano’s stud farm combines the objectives of a drug rehabilitation centre with those of a stud farm and world class equestrian sporting facilities, able to host competitions of the highest level.
“I am really happy to work in the stables” says Stefano. “I don’t think I would have stayed in San Patrignano if I wouldn’t have been given the possibility to work with horses”.
Stefano was born in Brazil, and after his mother abandoned him, was adopted by an Italian family of Bologna. “I was lucky, they were very good parents, who encouraged my passion for horses” he adds. “However, we did not really have this “family spirit”. My father was working all the time and we didn’t get to see him much. I was a difficult child, oversensitive you could say, and I think I grew up with this rage inside me and didn’t know how to get rid of it”.
“I was not very good at school, so I started to work with horses at stables in the nearby. I love jumping, and when I was seventeen, my father sent me to a French rider close to Nice. This was like a new family for me. I made a lot of friends and we were all very close together. When I came back to Italy, I continued to ride and trained with an Italian rider for one year. I was still not really happy with my life, and still had this acute feeling that I was missing a real family. I met with old school friends and started to smoke marijuana. Soon I got addicted to cocaine. After a few months however, I realised that I was no longer interested in anything, not even in horses, and that drugs were taking all the space in my life. I was twenty, and I was not familiar with the street life, I didn’t know the networks, everything was complicated and I was missing the horses badly. So I went to my father’s office and told him everything.”
Three months later, Stefano came to San Patrignano. “It was really hard at the beginning. I was not at all used to the community life. I hated the proximity and I was constantly quarrelling with the others. As I was only addicted to drugs a few months, I also considered myself as not really intoxicated, and didn’t want to be helped so much. I even tried to escape once, running down the hill like a fool. I was angry to be working in the stables but not being allowed to ride myself. I didn’t know what I wanted, stay or go, and many times I thought I would rather go. With my friend Julio, who was taking care of me when I came to the community, we fought a lot, discussed a lot. He was 30 and explained to me that this was my choice, my decision at the end of the day, but that I was leaving without have solved my problem, it would come back, he knew it, he had experienced it. And now I’m here for two years and a half, and I am much more serene and mature I think. I Then it was my turn to take care of a 19 years old boy when he arrived at San Patrigano”.
“My dream, no… my goal is to ride again, become a good jumping rider” Stefano explains quietly. “Here I had the chance to make contact with a number of riders and I know that I can go and ride in Milano when I have finished my stay here. My ultimate dream would be to train in the North of Europe. I love this horse culture that they have over there, in England and in Germany for example.”
“San Patrignano is like a big family and a real school for life” Stefano concludes. “I would like to ride under San Patrignano’s banner and offer my testimony to all the places I would go”.
Campus
