Born from nothing, with two hands and a mare
Piossasco, in the Turin countryside. Twenty thousand square metres built from scratch by a family who used to run a bar.
The story
Giacomo Caruso buys his first mare at sixteen. She is called Antilla, she is Argentinian, and he keeps her in a field near home, paying for her with his own work. He gets up early to feed her, comes back at lunch break, comes back in the evening. Nobody in the family has anything to do with horses: he learns it all on his own.
With Pasuco, a docile Argentinian who obeyed his voice even when someone else was riding him, he wins everything there is to win in gymkhanas. In 2000 he discovers Team Penning, then almost unknown in Italy, and buys his first Quarter Horse: Beaming of Surprise, a three-year-old bay chosen by Patrizia, who looked him in the eye and made up her mind. Beaming is still at the ranch today, in perfect health, and works in the school.
Giacomo and Patrizia run a bar and, with a group of friends, a small rented riding stable. In 2007 they make their choice: horses full time. They buy an estate of over twenty thousand square metres in Piossasco and build it piece by piece: the covered arena with a sand surface and lights to work the young horses at night too, the two stable blocks on either side, the outdoor arena, the paddocks, the herd of calves, the wooden club house with its outdoor terrace and the pool.
At fourteen, Giovanni Campanaro arrives, raised in his parents’ riding stable. Patrizia describes him like this: hearing him talk about his young horses is moving, he knows their every move, and with the most difficult ones he is stubborn until he reaches the goal. He is the missing piece. Alongside them are teachers who become friends: Sergio Silvera, the South American penner who teaches them how to start young horses and still holds his clinics at the ranch; Alessandro Frassà; Dennis Pini.
The team grows from regional competitions to Italian and European ones, all the way to the world championships in the Netherlands and France, where in 2015 in Montpellier it wins with the Italian national team in both Team Penning and Ranch Sorting. Alongside Giacomo, Patrizia and Gio, their students compete: kids from the summer camps who have become penners and ride in the Open classes alongside adults.
The ranch is named after Jacopo, Giacomo and Patrizia’s son. Today he, too, is a penner.
The facilities
Covered arena
Sand surface, floodlit. Young horses are worked and competitions are run here, at night too.
Outdoor arena
A second sand arena for competitions and training, also floodlit.
Two stable blocks
9 m² loose boxes along a 3.5 m central aisle, thermal insulation, automatic drinkers, tack rooms in the middle. Up to 60–70 horses.
Our own herd
The ranch’s cattle for daily Team Penning, Ranch Sorting and Cow Horse work.
Paddocks and field shelters
Scattered through the greenery, for horses that need to stay outside.
Club house
Bar, veranda and, in summer, a pool and sun deck. July Sundays are spent here.
Fenced area
The whole ranch is enclosed: children roam free.
Villa Mirano
Partner B&B in an eighteenth-century house two kilometres away, which can also be reached on horseback. For anyone coming to multi-day clinics.
Come and see us
We are at Via Volvera 78 in Piossasco, twenty minutes from Turin. Tuesday to Friday 9am–6pm, weekends 10am–2pm.