The Pondicherry Equestrian Challenge 2018 will begin on the Republic Day weekend.
The 18th show hosted by Red Earth Riding School (RERS)., Auroville, and Equestrian Promotion Private Limited (EPP) is scheduled to be held from January 25 to 28.
“The competition will be held between 6 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. every day,” said Jacqueline, founder of RERS.
Addressing a press conference, she informed that nearly 75 horses will be participating in the Pondicherry Equestrian Challenge. “The horses will be coming from Bengaluru, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Chennai, Udhagamandalam and Puducherry,” she said, adding that the youngest participant this year is six year old.
This year, the event will also include Regional Equestrian League (REL) rounds. The successful completion of three REL qualifiers in a given year allows a horse and rider pair to participate in the National Equestrian Championships, according to Ms. Jacqueline and Anna Legoff from RERS.
The competition will be a combination of dressage and show jumping events. The riders will demonstrate their precision and finesse by executing complicated dressage moves – accurately dimensioned circles, leg yielding, counter canter – or jumping complex courses with heights ranging from 60 cm up to 130 and 140 cm courses for advanced horses and riders. The four-day weekend will culminate with two levels of grand prix jumping events, technical courses which require greater skill and accuracy to complete, as well as a fun costume jumping relay to entertain the crowd and an impressive 130-140 cm finale show jumping event.
Ms. Jacqueline said that Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi was expected to come on Sunday. “Eva-Maria Vint-Warmington, a three-star Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) judge from Estonia will judge the dressage events while Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) Representative Kishore Futnani and Venkatachalam Muthiah, an equestrian veteran and active supporter of the sport, will be overseeing the jumping events,” she said.
