Equestrian tournament to showcase horse-human interplay
The Hindu
The 23rd Auroville Horse Tournament is a four-day, free-entry event hosted by the Red Earth Riding School on a sylvan patch of land off the city and will feature about 140 trained horses and about 150 riders from across the country
The mystique of the horse-human interplay will underpin the show of equestrian skills as the 23rd Auroville Horse Tournament (AHT) 2023 gets under way here on Thursday.
The four-day, free-entry event hosted by the Red Earth Riding School (RERS) on a sylvan patch of land off the city, will feature about 140 trained horses and about 150 riders from across the country.
The tournament is being staged across around 15 events in the dressage, show jumping and other categories. The AHT, which aims to raise the bar of equestrian performance while also providing a platform for a new level of competition in the country, also functions as a Junior National Equestrian Championship Qualifier.
Competing teams are from Chennai, Bengaluru, Thoothukudi, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Udhagamandalam.
“In a first, we are organising an obstacle course towards the fag-end. In keeping with the fun nature of the event, we will see riders turn up in fancy costumes”, said Jacqueline Kapur, equestrian-entrepreneur and RERS founder.
Another traditional show-stopper during the annual tournament has been the freestyle dressage segment of events where riders manoeuvre the horses to music. “The bottom line in this sport is the trust between rider and horse. There is a constant exchange of non verbal cues”, she said.
The RERS, a unit under the Auroville Foundation, has prepared its spacious grounds, including two 20 by 60 metre dressage arenas, an Olympic-size jumping arena, multiple warm-up areas, stables and paddocks. “This is perhaps the only gender-neutral sport”, said Pradhyutha, a rider who along with Mithilesh, is a part of the sizeable RERS equestrian contingent competing this year.
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The 16th edition of Bhoomi Habba was held on June 8, at the Visthar campus. The festival drew a vibrant crowd who came together to celebrate eco-consciousness through a variety of engaging activities, creative workshops, panel discussions, interactive exhibits and performances, all centered around this year’s theme: “Save Water, Save Lives.”