CHENNAI: Be it any sport, the person involved in it should have passion, resilience, and concentration, among other aspects, to excel and shine. What if it is not just the athlete, but an animal they need to perform in a sport? One such is the equestrian sports, in which the horse also takes part, with the same stamina as the rider for better results.
This sport was invented in ancient Greece as chariot racing, and gradually, it was branched into different disciplines. Equestrian is a broad term used to refer to sporting disciplines performed on horseback. There are different types of equestrian sports like polo, racing, and dressage. But only three events are part of the Olympics — eventing, dressage, and show jumping. It is also the only sport where both men and women compete against each other.
Taking this legacy forward in the city are young riders of The Chennai Equitation Centre (CEC) who displayed an unsurpassed performance in dressage at the Annual Junior National Equestrian Championships held in Bengaluru last month. The CEC had trained 10 champion horses and as many talented riders to enter the events and fight for the top rankings among 500 horse-rider pairs across the country. They won the tourney with 14 medals in both individual and team dressage events.
Dressage is an equestrian sport that needs rigorous practice and exceptional coordination with the horse. It is a sport in which horses and riders’ moves should sync with music. It is amazing how the young riders managed to perform with the horses, which may be five times heavier than them.
“For us, horse riding is not just a sport, it teaches us a lot of important life lessons. When you learn how to ride a horse, you also learn how to communicate through your thoughts and actions rather than with words. As a good rider, you need to feel and understand every little movement of your team member (the horse), so you can be in harmony while carrying out difficult moves. This feeling and sensitivity for the needs of others is a very important life skill that is often overlooked. Horse riding is also about determination and learning to overcome your fears,” Isabelle Hasleder, one of the coaches at the Chennai Equitation Centre explains.
The Chennai Equitation Centre, which was formerly known as Chennai Equestrian Academy, was founded in 1997 by Kishore Funtani. The primary goal of the academy was to revamp the horse riding culture of Chennai, which vanished in the early 80’s. The academy mostly focused on the youngsters and encouraged them to get on this sport with imported horses from The Netherlands and Germany. Escobar, Fuerstentanz (which translates to The Dukes Dance), Duncan, Xaria, and Lamborghini are some of the star horses of the academy. “If you take young children, you can tune them according to the requirements and bring them up. So, we started the academy, focusing on the young people. Even in the Asian Games, India was able to bag medals in the dressage. So, there is great progress going on and we want to be a part of that,” says Kishore.
Over the years, the sport has grown leaps and bounds, resulting in winning the gold in the team dressage event in the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China. With this achievement, India broke a 41-year medal drought in the equestrian sport. And the Chennai Equestrian Club became the hub for the best dressage coaching centre.
The ambitious horse riders dream of representing India in the 2026 Asian Games. “I was very fond of animals from a young age and the sport gave me the chance to participate with horses. So, I attended a three-day camp in CEC and I developed more interest in it. At the age of 12, I took the sport seriously and started training regularly in CEC. For the last two years, I have appeared in the nationals and I am very happy with my achievements. My dream is to represent the nation in Asian Games 2026,” shares Miraya Dadabhoy, one of the youngest riders from CEC who bagged team gold and individual silver in nationals.