No More Horses for Courses As Kinder Future Secured

Sometimes dreams do come true.

In 1994, the late comic actor Alberto Sordi made a film that left him with a dream that turned into a campaign. The film, Nestore - l'Ultima Corsa (Nestore - the Last Ride), was inspired by a little-known fact: that most of the horses which stand in the Piazza di Spagna waiting to draw tourists in a carriage over the cobbled streets of Rome end their days on a dinner plate.

"After 10 or 12 years working with a horse, we get fond of them," the head of the drivers' guild, Enrico Pilo, said this week.

"We try to avoid sending them for slaughter, usually by taking them to the country and giving them to a friend or selling them."

But that is often not possible. And the cost of putting a horse out to grass is way beyond what a Roman carriage driver could afford.

Horse meat is popular in Rome. Rich in iron, it is particularly recommended for pregnant women.

Then there is the price of a carcass, around €600 (£430), which comes in useful for buying a replacement horse.

Sordi's screen character was a driver who could not bring himself to take his horse, Nestore, for slaughter and ended up wandering the streets of the capital in search of a place for him.

After the film was released he lobbied local politicians for a solution. Almost two years after his death, one has been found.

The provincial authorities have agreed to finance a scheme to send the horses to a village outside the capital to be used in hippotherapy, treatment with the help of a horse aimed at curing various ailments, psychological and physical.

Mr Pilo's horse, 18 year-old Gnocchetto, will be the first to benefit.