How do they choose the 10 horses

Tomorrow is the day of the Tratta in which the horses are chosen that will be assigned to the 10 participating Contrade. In this article we want to try to explain how one gets the 10 chosen horses.

Article 45 of the Palio regulations stipulates that after the battery a meeting is held at the town hall where the 10 participating captains are present, under the chairmanship of the mayor, assisted by the secretary, the municipal veterinarian and the mossiere.

At the meeting, only the captains have a casting vote, while the vet and the Mossiere are tasked with providing information and technical advice. In addition, the vet has the task of giving a motivated technical opinion on each horse before the selection begins.

Subsequently, Rule 46 stipulates that the horses presented and tested must be discussed separately and, if necessary, put to the vote, according to the number with which they were presented that same morning. Each horse is discussed separately starting with number 1. By elimination, you end up with 10 horses. These are assigned a new number from 1 to 10, which is called ‘numero di orecchio’ (ear number). These are assigned in order of the number that was painted on the horse’s buttocks.

As for the vote, each horse is voted on by a simple majority. When requested by a captain, voting takes place in secret and therefore anonymously.