BENGALURU: Ashish Limaye is in the process of making history. For the upcoming Asian Games 2023, the 29-year-old equestrian has become the first Indian to achieve the minimum eligibility requirement for an individual entry on two horses. But his involvement in the sport first started as a hobby.
“So, when I first started riding, I used to ride in a small space. But then I went to see a national tournament in Pune where I met the late Arjuna awardee Ghulam Mohammed Khan. He took me under his wing and after that, I started competing. This was around 2004-05,” shares Limaye.
After straying away from the engineering path, Limaye decided to professionally take up horse riding around 2015. Four years later, while still in Pune, where he and his wife started a riding club, Limaye was invited by the Embassy International Riding School in Bengaluru to be a trainer. He gladly took the offer. “The number of medals that we got during those years when I was associated with Embassy was unbelievable,” says Limaye.
Regarding horse riding in India, he says the sport is picking up speed rapidly. “It is really growing a lot. It’s coming up well, and lots of kids are getting into it. But I think if you want to go to the top level, you still need better horses and for that, I think the finances are the most important thing. The sponsorship support is the main issue is what I would say. Currently, we have enough to do well at the Indian level. But if you want to enter the European circuit, the challenge is much greater,” he explains.
Limaye, who himself moved to Germany in 2021, was first amazed at how much more of a challenge the European circuit posed compared to the one back home. “I was doing very well in India. But after moving to Europe, I saw that almost everyone there was riding better than I was. In India, we rely a lot on manpower where the riders depend on others a lot and focus only on riding.
But in Europe, you don’t have a lot of help and have to do a lot of small things yourself. It took me a while to adapt. I will have to credit my coach for it. In the introductory class, I ranked about 37 out of 90 riders. And now, with her help, I have consistently ranked in the top 10 with both my horses. I think I am improving steadily and hopefully, this progress continues,” he concludes.
Equestrian Ashish Limaye, who has recently secured a spot for India at the 2023 Asian Games, speaks about his beginnings, experience of working as an instructor in Bengaluru, and the formidable European circuit.