BENGALURU: The recently-concluded Junior National Equestrian Championship (JNEC) in Bhopal, witnessed 17-year-old Shlok Jhunjhunwala from city-based Embassy International Riding School (EIRS) emerge as champion in the young rider category, raking up two individual gold medals and one silver medal. He was also named the ‘Best Rider of the Year’ for the second consecutive time.
Jhunjhunwala also topped the first-ever freestyle dressage held in India at the event. “Freestyle was something that none of us knew how to do, and we had little time to practice. I chose to do my routine with Bollywood music, because I wanted to stand out. My sister helped me pick the music and along with my trainer, we planned everything well and it was a great experience,” he shares.
A Mumbai-native, Jhunjhunwala has been riding since he was eight. Lacking the physical fitness to take up other competitive sports, he says riding helped give him a sense of accomplishment. “I used to go to a riding camp near Pune a few times a year. I knew basic horse riding before that and loved riding ponies when I was young, but it was mostly just for fun. At that time, I wasn’t physically fit for a lot of other sports, so riding gave me a sense of accomplishment,” he says, adding that he started to compete in events at a trainer’s suggestion. “I started enjoying that feeling you get when you’re up against others, and are doing well. Once you achieve something, it drives you to do more,” he says.
On his first attempt at the JNEC in 2019, Jhunjhunwala was placed fourth and managed to achieve a team silver medal. The next year, he got his first individual gold medal in show jumping, which prompted him to take the sport seriously. “My parents started to get invested, both financially and physically. I started training with EIRS, which helped up my game, both in terms of fitness and technique. I have faced different challenges since then as well. Being away from home in 2020 took a toll on me, while in 2022, I was placed in a higher category where I was faced with riders with more experience. I guess 2021 was easier than the rest,” he shares.
In 2020, Jhunjhunwala also got his own horse, a major step to which he attributes a lot of progress since then. “Artemis was my first horse. She’s retired now because of a medical issue. But she took me a long way. I have two other horses right now, Hulchul and Ignatius. The former is really special to me, he’s come a long way from not being able to do any sort of dressage to being in the top 10. Ignatius has a massive heart. I’ve given him a few terrible experiences in the arena through my mistakes, but he has always been great,” he adds.
Currently studying in Class 11, Jhunjhunwala hopes to pursue engineering in the future and continue riding professionally. “India has a long way to go before being on the same level as the west. The level of competition we have here is nowhere close to that over there,” he concludes.