Behold your horses!

Meet Roy K S, a physical education teacher who is training many Kochiites to ride horses at his academy in Nettoor
Behold your horses!

KOCHI: Remember the thrilling movie scenes when the hero dashes towards the villains, jumping hurdles with ease on a powerful stallion? All of us would have dreamt about doing it at some point, but for most of us, that remains a pipe dream all our lives. But Roy K S can help you realise those heroic dreams of being a horse master. The physical education teacher based in Kochi owns the Black Stallion Horse Riding Academy near Nettoor.

Roy launched the riding school in 2019 as a means to boost adventure among children and to make them physically active. “Kis these days don’t have many options to go out and venture into activities. They sit in front of computers, mobile phones or tablets playing games. Encouraging such youngsters to take up horse riding as an activity will help them. That was my idea behind starting a horse riding school,” said Roy.

Roy’s tryst with horse riding began at a very young age. “That affection became stronger when as an NCC cadet. That is when I got to ride horses,” he said. Roy started his facility with two thoroughbred horses retired from the racetracks. “Babysteps of my horse riding academy started at SDPY Central School in Kalathara,” said Roy.Vinod G Nair, the former principal of the school was one of Roy’s greatest supporters. “But waterlogging due to high tide rendered the ground useless last year.,” said Roy who spends around `30,000 per month just to buy horse feed. According to him, during Covid induced lockdown and after that, even celebrities started approaching him wanting to learn to ride horses.

“Many including Siju Wilson, Aparna Das, director Khalid Rahman, director Vinayan’s son Vishnu, actors Sanusha, Deepak Parambol and Noble Thomas came for lessons. It was an added skill set for them. They never had much time for it due to their busy shooting schedule,” said Roy who has 10 horses in his stable currently.

“Many kids come to me now with their parents. Though it’s the kids who try first, eventually parents get hooked too, and end up joining,” he added. Roy doesn’t have a ground of his own. He uses the land under Mia Riaan Resort at Nettoor. The resort owner allows him to conduct classes and set up a stable for horses,” said Roy, who gives horse riding lessons in the evenings after finishing his duties as a physical education teacher during the day.

He takes pride in offering participants more than a good experience - a shot towards a better, unique lifestyle. Roy is now on the lookout for a ground for his school so he can start a new training exercise where students will learn to fire arrows while riding a horse. “Training for mounted archery, an Olympic event, is my next dream. But for that I would need a bigger ground,” said Roy.

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