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Riding high on passion

City student Ranvir Nanda is one of the few civilian riders making an impact in a sport that is mostly dominated by armymen

MAN AND HIS BEAST Ranvir Nanda: `Show jumping and one-day events are tough on the horses. So far, Royal Flame has taken the load of switching events competently' PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

There is a small bunch of people who would dispute the popular adage that man's best friend is the dog. Ask any equestrian buff and s/he would say there can't be truer friend than the horse. Ranvir Nanda, a B.Sc. student at St. Joseph's College, is in a phase of his life where all he can think about are horses.

Ranvir moved to Bangalore in 1994 and first mounted a horse to learn equestrian at the Bangalore Amateur Riders' Institute. He had earlier like most youngsters ridden a pony on a short ride around a lake and that was enough to get him interested in riding. In a short while he realised that he had better things to achieve than twiddling his thumbs and waiting in a queue to get a half-hour session on a horse.

The first steps

Ranvir decided he would dedicate himself to becoming a top class rider — he soon moved to Lawrence School, Lovedale, where the main attraction was the facility for learning show jumping and horse riding. The former headmaster of the school, Dev Lahiri, a riding aficionado himself, had taken the pains to provide horse riding in the school curriculum.

Ranvir soon struck a fine rapport with the horses Hurricane and Dark Challenge at Lovedale and the school captain N.C. Subbaiah became his riding mentor. Ranvir learnt a lot from Subbaiah and coach Nitin Gupta who helped protégés before major competitions. Ranvir won his first medals in equestrian in 1999 — silver for his efforts in the Hacks Competition and a bronze in the Show Jumping (normal) event. They were the first rewards for his dedication and hard work.

Five years ago Ranvir left Lawrence School and returned to Bangalore. He acquired a horse of his own and has since trained Royal Flame to obey his commands. Royal Flame and Ranvir work pretty well in sync and Ranvir has added much to his medals tally with this retired racehorse. Last year was a great year with him winning the title of Best Young Rider. He also won three gold's at the Kolkata nationals.

The journey for Ranvir since 1999 has been tough and he owes a lot to many people. The Dhunjiboys, owners of the Five Stars Shipping Company have contributed to Ranvir's progress as an emerging rider.

"It's a very, very costly sport," says Ranvir. "I have to muster up a couple of lakhs a year to just keep my horse in training and to travel around to enter various competitions."

Ranvir also stresses on the fact that he can't expect Royal Flame to keep on performing in different events in the various competitions.

"Show jumping and one-day events are tough on the horses. So far Royal Flame has taken the load of switching events competently but I cannot expect the horse to take the travel to various venues and keep performing valiantly. We civilian riders are at a distinct disadvantage as compared to the Army riders who have huge resources and many horses to use at the competitions," Ranvir notes.

Equestrian is a growing sport in India and many genuine horse lovers are doing their bit to improve the facilities. Ranvir talks highly of people like Arunachallam, Jacqueline Kapoor and the Embassy group who are pitching in big time.

But he knows that there is a wide chasm between national and international competitions. "Realistically speaking, if I have to think of events like the forthcoming Asiad and other international events, I would have to have at least a couple of more horse to train and use for competitions. That would mean trebling the expenses. I think big corporates and companies like the ones in the Petroleum Sports Board need to get into sponsoring riders and horses. India has the talent as far as riders are concerned, what we don't have is top quality horses. The international horses are so well trained that they respond to the riders' signals so quickly and so adroitly that they gain valuable points for their riders. We need to get better horses, though the Army has imported some Hanoverians and have begun breeding operations. The demand is so much more that individual participants will always struggle to match strides with them."

Will India produce an equestrian champion in the near future? Not likely, but as long as youngsters like Ranvir press on regardless, there is at least hope.

D. RAVI SHANKAR

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