My first date with the Horse

            On popular demand based on the feedback about ‘My tryst with Destiny’, I would devote the next few posts to my experiences at the NDA. Interpolating Anjit Bose’s thoughts – you can take an ex-NDA out of NDA but you cannot take NDA out of him; let us live in nostalgia for a while. (Some ‘padding’ has been done deliberately for non-NDA friends on fb – NDA types will have to bear with me please.)

            Of all the training (or otherwise) activities at the Academy, horse riding would easily beat all others hands down as the most ‘entertaining’. It not only entertains the ‘ustaad’ and the ‘horse’, it also entertains the un-affected fellow cadets watching from the side lines in the hope that a similar fate does not befall them in the near future. As for my learning from the equestrian lines, I don’t know if I learnt riding or not, but I definitely learnt how to mount and dismount the animal including the inescapable involuntary dismounting during the lane jump in fourth term.  

            So on my first day at the riding class, after being told about the name of the animal (pure ka nnam, ‘ghoda’- angreji mein ‘horse’) and three parts of the horse and how to recognize whether it is a male or female; (by counting its teeth of course – as the cadets are not expected to do look for the obvious sign which is only for the civilians) we were given a demo as to how to mount and dis mount the animal. Then it was our turn to select one horse from the line-up and practice the act repeatedly. Now, to tell you the truth, I was not very keen to mount any horse and so, was deliberately slow in approaching the animal line-up. By the time I reached my destination, all horses were taken up and the one which was left was the tallest – would have been definitely six and a half feet at the saddle as I could barely reach it standing on my toes. So I looked at the ‘ustaad’ with appealing eyes and made the obvious statement, “Ustaad, yeh to bahut uncha hai. Main is par kaise mount karun?  His reply is still fresh in my mind – “To apne pitaji ko letter likh kar ek sirhi mangwa lo.”

            With no scope of changing the horse, I stood on my tip toes and managed to hold on to ends of the saddle and gave my self a push in an attempt to jump and mount as demonstrated. The horse must have realized my predicament and decided to increase the degree of difficulty for this ‘piddly’ cadet. So it started initially a slow trot, then a canter with me hanging on to the saddle for approximately five hundred meters before the horse decided to start galloping. I had no option to loosen my grip and fall in the drain next to the area. When the 'ustaad' saw me in this unscheduled act, he galloped on his horse to my location and added insult to the injury, “Abhi yehan khare hoke sirhi ka intezar karega ya ghora lekar wapas ayega?” Needless to say that whatever little enthusiasm I may have had for riding, died then and there and I some how managed to clear the basic and reached the final term (fourth) for riding.

            ‘Lane Jump’ is the ultimate test of mating (not literally) of the man and animal together in the poetic “do jism, ek jaan” fashion. So you are made to mount a saddle less horse (obviously without stirrups). Its reign is knotted short over its neck which you can hold by leaning forward. There are ten obstacles of various heights and widths in a lane which I think is about 500 meter long. So the average distance between two consecutive obstacles is 50 meters. The 'ustaad' leads the horse and the rider pair to the beginning of the lane and then gives one whip of his cane at the back of the animal prompting it to start galloping without the word ‘go’. You are taught during practices to lean forward during each jump and also shout “aage”. Whether this “aage” is meant for you or the horse remains a mystery to me to date. Most of the riders manage to survive till the middle of the course before falling off the animal and then running behind it to get hold of him.

            I leaned forward and shouted “aage” three times but at the third jump, only the horse managed to go “aage” while I fell off “peechhe”. Somehow, no limbs were broken and after a not very long chase, I did manage to retrieve my horse and hand it over to the “saees”. Thankfully, this was the last equestrian event of cadets’ training at NDA with no more involuntary dismounts and running behind the animals.