From a physiological standpoint, the average like of a race horse is approximately 20 years, and in certain rare cases horses can live to beyond 30 years. Making a comparison to humans, a foal of two years is the equivalent of a 16-18-year-old youth, while a thoroughbred of over 25 years of age is comparable to a 100-year-old man.
Foals spend the first few months of their life with their mothers before starting to wean around five-seven months and being transferred to an area dedicated to them, usually called the foal area (“puledraia”), where they complete their development up to about one year of age.
At this point, they begin breaking and training, which differs depending upon the horse is a gallop horse or a trot horse. The race activities start at around one year and a half, adn already at two years of age, they may participate in races reserved to horses of this age. At three years, thoroughbreds and trot horses are at the peak age for racing activities, which may last, on average, up to 5 years for gallop horses and up to 7 eyars for trot horses. In gallop racing, there do not exist maximum age limits for participation in races, while in trot racing, the age limit is ten years of age.
The best stallions, which are destined for reproduction, end their racing career very early: usually, four years for gallop horses and five-six for trot horses; the best mares may start to reproduce already at three years of age.
The trot horse is the fruit of a careful selection carried out over the last few centuries that has led to the development of various breeds that differ from one another. The Italian trot horse is recognized as a cross between the Russian trot horse, that is muscularly more developed, more suited to long distances but slower, and the French trot horse that is agile and fast but more suited to short distances.
Trot horses are not thoroughbreds, which “title” belongs solely to gallop horses registered in the stud book, but the various genealogies are carefully studied and registered. Trot racing also entails a rigid regulation of births, and the selection of the best stallions and the best mares, as in the case of gallop horses, constitutes the starting point for the ongoing improvement of foals and their performance.
One particular feature that is unique to Italy concerns the names of foals, since the first letter of the name allows for the year of birth to be immediately identified.
In 1978, it was decided that all foals born in such year had to have a name beginning with the letter “A”, which became “B” for those born in 1979, “C” for those born in 1980, etc. On the basis of this principle, in 2015, two-year-old horses started to run with the first letter of their names being “U”, while all foals born over the past year will have a name beginning with the letter “Z”.