the prancing horse

Have you ever wondered as to the background of the famous prancing horse captured in the logo of Ferrari? Well this, as they say, is almost directly from the horse’s mouth!

“The story of the prancing horse is simple and fascinating. The horse was painted on the fuselage of the fighter plane flown by Francesco Baracca, a heroic Italian pilot who died on Mount Montello: the Italian ace of aces of the First World War. In 1923, when I won the first Savio circuit, which was run in Ravenna, I met Count Enrico Baracca, the pilot’s father, and subsequently his mother, Countess Paolina. One day she said to me: “Ferrari, why don’t you put my son’s rampant horse on your car? It will bring you luck.”

I still have Baracca’s photograph with the dedication by his parents, in which they entrusted the emblem to me. The horse was black and has remained so; I added the canary yellow background because it is the colour of Modena.”

From the Enzo Ferrari memoirs: “My Terrible Joys”, by Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988).