{"id":326,"date":"2025-03-13T13:31:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/?p=326"},"modified":"2025-03-13T14:28:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:28:19","slug":"horsing-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/?p=326","title":{"rendered":"Ride Above It (100 Women\/BBC Worldwide)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

100 Women<\/em><\/strong> is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013, that examines the role of women in the 21st century. Initiated by the then BBC Controller Liliane Landor to address the under-representation of women in the media, the series focusses on the issues and achievements of women in society today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the series, Ride Above It<\/em><\/strong> is a 30-min observational style documentary directed by Claire Tailyour that follows a group of disabled girls in Italy as they prepare to compete in the Veneto Regional Championships in horse vaulting. Described as gymnastics on horseback, horse vaulting requires enormous stamina, balance and precision to execute complicated routines on a moving horse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen Claire first contacted us, I have to admit I hadn\u2019t heard of horse vaulting,\u201d recounted Marinella Nicolson, (Fixer and Production Manager for ITALYFixer<\/strong>), \u201cso when I discovered that it was gymnastics on a galloping horse, I was blown away!\u201d Fabio Di Segni<\/strong> and Marinella were tasked with finding the filming location<\/strong>, a centre in Italy where disabled girls practiced horse vaulting. After some research<\/strong>, they narrowed in on La Fenice, a stables near Verona run by 3-time World Champion vaulter, Anna Cavallaro, and the man who trained her, Nelson Vidoni. \u201cWhat appealed to us and to Claire, was the fact that Anna and Nelson train able-bodied and disabled children side-by-side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Location Manager, Fabio Di Segni<\/strong>, had done the location scout<\/strong>, two contributors <\/strong>were chosen to follow as they prepared for the championships. Antinisca, 45, started horse vaulting in her 30s. She has Down’s syndrome and was one of the first disabled people to do the sport as part of a programme initiated by Italy’s National Association for Families and People with Disabilities (ANFFAS) when they teamed up with La Fenice. The other contributor was Beatrice, 8, also with Down\u2019s Syndrome, who started at La Fenice four years ago and straightaway fell in love with horses and riding. Her mother, Alice, says that Beatrice now achieves goals that nobody thought possible. \u201cPeople said that Beatrice would never ride a bicycle on her own, but now she goes off for long rides alone,\u201d Alice says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filming <\/strong>for Ride Above It<\/strong> started 5 weeks before the Veneto Regional Championships, and while everyone is pretty confident about Antinisca there\u2019s some concern that Beatrice won\u2019t be up to it. They are used to practicing on a mechanical horse, which is a non-motorized horse-shaped block controlled by the rider’s movement. Now they are trying to perfect their moves for the freestyle routine on a real horse. Nelson is very clear that no-one will enter the competition who he doesn’t think is ready: \u201cI want people to say \u2018Wow, how great these riders are\u2019 when we compete.\u201d While Nelson is very focused on the competitive element of vaulting, he also sees huge therapeutic benefits for able-bodied and disabled children alike. “The animal becomes a friend and that helps to improve co-ordination, self-esteem, finding balance and socialising,” he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I am very tough with them, even if afterwards I hug them,” says Nelson. “People with disabilities need guidance too. It must be the same as with other people we train, there’s no difference.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camera crew <\/strong>returns for the day of the finals. Antinisca admits to last-minute nerves. And there next to her is Beatrice, dressed in a Minnie Mouse outfit, her hair in pigtails with a big grin. Nelson says that she is ready to compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a small success,” says her mother. “I hope the first of many.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice approaches the horse with Anna and mounts easily. She performs her routine with a big grin and is greeted with enthusiastic applause from the audience. She\u2019s smashed it and she and her partner Cecilia win the silver medal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Antinisca is in the ring with partners Michele and Alberto. She mounts the horse, stands behind him and moves into her routine, suspended on Michele\u2019s shoulders. The performance goes smoothly, and they dismount clearly satisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film <\/strong>ends with a heart-warming scene, where many a mother sheds a tear, the team hold up their gold medals and bow to the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Ride Above It is one of the most enjoyable television productions<\/strong> that I\u2019ve worked on,\u201d said Marinella. \u201cFabio and I became very fond of the contributors and it was so moving to see Beatrice\u2019s progress and how thrilled she was to win. We are full of admiration for Nelson and Anna, their love of the sport and dedication to the children is really humbling to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

100 Women is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013, that examines the role of women in the 21st century. Initiated by the then BBC Controller Liliane Landor to address the under-representation of women in the media, the series focusses on the issues and achievements of women in society today.  As part of the series, Ride Above […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-our-work","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2026.italyfixer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}