Italy

    King James I, already bored with heavy horses, received a gift of a "dozen gallant mares with foals, four horses and eleven stallions," all heavy Neapolitan Coursers, which arrived at Greenwich Palace on April 3, 1605.  Any disappointment was misplaced for these noble animals, with their Spanish blood and "clustering locks," were part of the current war-machine, and of considerable importance in those times.  Neapolitans are part-ancestors of the Frederiksborg and Hanoverian and of many heavy breeds.
    Horses were used in Italy during the Iron Age.  The small, thick-set Venetian horses of 400 BC, apparently possessed "flat noses."  The Roman emperor, Caligula, made his friends dine with his favorite horse.  Some Popes kept large herds running wild.  Pope Gregory III forbade the eating of horseflesh, but he was later ignored by those monks who prepared a special blessing for the delicacy.  Henry VIII imported Mantuan (Lombardy) Chargers, for carrying armored men, or riders with their wives riding pillion.  In Florence, horse races were run through the crowded streets and the sport became wildly popular.  Today the Palio, a celebrated, exciting horse race, ridden bareback and to very local rules for the past 250 years, takes place twice yearly around the central campo at Siena.  (For more information about the people mentioned above, see Profiles.)
    In Italy today, horse breeding is State organized and is one of the few countries where Trotters are revered above Thoroughbred race horses.  Both Salerno and Calabrese horses possess Thoroughbred blood and some Salernos still own traces of Neapolitan, but they are types, named after their districts of origin rather than specific breeds.  First-class as army and riding horses, many are trained at the two renowned equitation centers, Pinerolo and Tor di Quinto--some specifically for sport like the famous show-jumpers Merano and Posillipo, ridden by the even more famous D'Inzeo brothers.
    One source mentioned horses bred in Italy as including: Avelignese Italian light horses crossed with Anglo-Arab, Thoroughbred, Hackney, and Belgian; Norfolk-Breton draft; Haflinger (small draft of the Tyrol); Karster horse; and Maremmana (Salerno) horse.
    The Maremmana is a breed of Italian all-purpose horses produced in the Maremmana district of Tuscany, cross-bred from Oriental and native stock.  They stand 61-64 inches tall and are generally bay or brown, sometimes black, and less often chestnut or grey.

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