It was not just beauty but skill and strength, of both the horses and the men manoeuvring the animal, that thrilled scores of audiences at the 35th All-India Police Equestrian meet that began on Monday.
The nine-day meet, which would see the sportsmanship of 460 riders and the strength of 290 horses, kicked off with a stunning march past of horse mounted officers of different State police departments and paramilitary outfits of the country.
The event’s most thrilling experience was, however, the risky yet nail biting event called the six-bar jump, during which riders manoeuvre horses to jump over six hurdles, each placed 11 meters apart. While the performance of the horse-rider teams from Bihar, Rajasthan, Border Security Force, and Delhi performed went well, it was the horse, Akash, and its rider Radhe Shyam from the Delhi Mounter Police who rose to fame by winning the match in exactly 45 minutes.
Interestingly, the meet was named after Shaktiman, the horse that succumbed to injuries caused during a Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Dehradun last year. Speaking at the event after inaugurating it, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel said, “Shaktiman was the best horse and this national meet is named after him. We are honouring his memory.”
The Minister also alluded Shakiman to epic character Rana Pratap’s horse Chetak, which was considered to be a paramount of vitrue and love for its master. He congratulated the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy here for maintaining high standards, and urged the trainees to work towards making India a better place like the NPA.
The performance of each rider was met with much excitement by the crowd, which included 69 probationers of the National Police Academy. While each successful jump was met with cheer, each fault faced sighs too.
The participants of home terrain, the National Police Academy, were welcomed with applauses and cheers. Teams of Assam police, Assam Rifles, Gujarat police, Madhya Pradesh police, and West Bengal police had attended the event, apart from the Telangana police team.
The meet ended with the four champions of the six bar jump team and the horses they rode having a formal meeting with the Minister, who seemed amused at shaking hands of the mounted officers.
The winners were Radhe Shyam from the Delhi Mounter Police who bagged the first prize, Jitender Kumar from the Rajasthan Mounted Police who rode Sonali the horse to win the second place, and the third prize winners (shared) Sumesh Singh of the BSF on Saloni the horse and Md. Gul Hassan of Bihar police who rode Komal the horse.
