On the southern fringe of Auroville is a whimsical land where you get to meet a motley mix of characters, ranging from Hector to Phantom.
And, it is not just those going by fanciful names of a Greek epic warrior or the comic-book hero, the 10-hectare expanse here is home to others with names as colourful as Adora, Compera, Iberica, Sunshine, Caramel and Water Music.
This is the neighbourhood, or ‘neigh’-bourhood should we say, of stallions, mares, ponies and geldings.
The horses are the pride of Red Earth Riding School (RERS) where so many youth from these parts have earned their spurs, so to speak, in the most passionate of hobbies — horse riding.
Apart from teaching youngsters to ride, the school has helped place Puducherry on the equestrian map of the country notching up a reputation as a centre of dressage and show jumping excellence.
In February, RERS hosted the Puducherry Equestrian Challenge 2015 hosted by Red Earth Riding School, Auroville, featuring a week-long dressage show that attracted horse riders from across the country.
The RERS stock includes the only two Andalusian Stallions in India, former race horses, geldings and the newly acquired “high-value breeds which came with passports.” Some of the animals were rescued and rehabilitated from the streets.
RERS offers English classical style riding lessons to about 30 children at any given time. And every month, many more newcomers sign up to learn to make their horse walk or trot at the basic level and go over the dressage routines in the advanced classes. One can take up learning horse riding in adult life too, but it is strict no-no if you weigh in excess of 80 kg.
“If you break it down, the whole process of horse riding is about the bond of trust between the rider and the horse,” says Jacqueline Kapur who founded RERS.
It was about two decades and a half ago that she , who hails from the German city of Bottrop, chose Auroville as home and Hidesign founder Dilip Kapur as spouse.
Horses had been a part of her childhood.
“When I was young I didn’t have the money to own a horse,” she says. Many years later, she would own quite a stock of magnificent horses. The inspiration for a riding school in Auroville struck Ms. Kapur when she attended a junior national equestrian event in Chennai in 1999.
“That was when it struck me that we should have a riding school to provide people the opportunity to learn English classical riding,” she says.
What started out as a humble school functioning out of a parking lot with just three horses — Habibi, Pancham and Classic Star — the RERS now has about 20 horses and ponies, spacious stables, three dressage arenas and one jumping arena and an adequate number of paddocks for the horses on a 10-hectare expanse of red earth.
The thumb rule here is that horse-riding aspirants must absolutely love horses — great if you love all animal life — before they begin to learn to differentiate horses by gender, age and likely power (from where else did the term horse power come from).
RERS has produced a line of fine riders who have made a mark at the professional equestrian championships across the country.
Cameron, a Standard IX student, is one of the promising prospects at this school. She says she seldom misses an opportunity to ride, “even during examination time”.
“With horse riding, every day can be a learning curve,” is probably what Ms. Kapur tells newcomers walking in with fancy notions about speed riding horses.
And one also has to put in the hard yards before being able to be in complete sync with the horse, where “the slightest pressure of your heel translates into a command.”
It is the dressage that brings out excellence and quality of a rider. “Horse riding is not about sport but leadership,” says Ms. Kapur, who has always been a dressage rider who places character over speed.
And, that could well be the unwritten code in the riding manual at this institution.
