While the love for horse riding is nowhere close to that for golf in Bangalore, it has its own special place. Unfortunately, while the culture of horse riding is not new, the lack of infrastructure or encouragement for the new generations of riders is deplorable.
There are various riding schools spread across the City, from Embassy International Riding School in Devanahalli to Princess Academy of Equitation near Palace Grounds, among others. But from the looks of it, there aren’t enough takers for the sport.
Nitin Gupta, head coach at Equestrian Centre For Excellence (ECE), shares his perspective. “The numbers are slowly growing for the sport, but they aren’t as much as they should be. We get around 20 enquiries per week, but only one or two of them
materialise. The reason is simple – it’s too expensive.
The maintenance of each horse costs around Rs 30,000 per month, and the riding charges vary. Besides, every time you go for a competition, it costs around Rs 2 lakh for an up-down trip with your horse,” he explains, adding that the costs are still much cheaper than it is in the North.
He also points out that while corporate sponsors ought to come in for the sport, the dominance of the Army in the federation makes them steer clear.
According to him, the best age to start riding is ideally between six and eight. “It’s a beautiful sport because one is interacting with something with a mind of its own, unlike in a racket or ball game. It’s a team sport because the horse needs to understand what you want,” says Nitin.
His thoughts resonate with Philip Woods, a professional trainer at the Race Course, who had previously taught horse riding at both Princess Academy and ECE. “There are people who pursue horse riding as a hobby or an exercise. For basic sessions, the student pays per class for 30-45 minutes and it’s fairly affordable. For those who take up the sport seriously for competitions, it’s very expensive since the maintenance cost of the horses and the riding school itself is very high,” he says.
Asked what alternative there is for this problem, he recommends that horse riding be made a part of schools’ extra-curricular activities. “If schools introduce it as an extra-curricular activity, there will probably be more children wanting to learn the sport, which would in turn bring down the cost. Not all schools can provide the facility, but it’s an option worth considering, as they have in schools like Indus International and Jain International,” he adds.
Even parents are bothered by the scathing infrastructural gap that needs to be immediately addressed to encourage more children to pursue the sport.
“What is disappointing is that the government doesn’t support the sport much; it’s usually the individual families who do. Active promotion of the sport needs to be done by the government because it is very expensive — they could give grants or more facilities available to more people, making riding schools viable in the long run,” shares a concerned Mamta Ajila, whose 15-year-old daughter has been riding for over seven years now.
As a mother, she has seen how the sport helps in the overall development of
a child. “Riding as a sport is excellent for children — it instills confidence, requires them to be outdoors and teaches them compassion through their interaction with an animal like the horse. Bangalore really has the potential to churn out great show jumpers at
the Olympic level, especially because most of the top national-level jumpers at the junior level are from here,” she concludes.