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Home on the ranch

M D Riti in Bangalore

The soft sound of horses whinning and stamping around in their stalls, as they munch green grass, greets you as you enter the farm.

"This boy has been ridden too fast for too long today," says chief riding instructor Ann Halloway, stroking the muzzle of a dark brown pony that she has brought out of its stall for a careful examination. "See that he has a lot of rest tomorrow."

Syces dressed in maroon uniforms rush around in the clean, sweet-smelling yard of Embassy International Riding School, India's first professional training school for jockeys. Now four years old, this school is the brainchild of India's only professional woman jockey Silva Storai. It is situated on 29 acres of the sprawling Embassy Ranch, belonging to Jitendra Virwani of the Embassy Group of builders, about 24 kilometres out of Bangalore.

Now, the school is getting all spruced up in anticipation of a major jumping show that it is hosting for all the riding schools of Bangalore, on Sunday, February 20.

Storai, who is of Italian origin - although she has lived in India for over two decades now, is based in Kodaikanal, where she lives with her husband, artist Edwin Joseph. Over her years of professional riding in India she constantly wished for a good professional riding school which could teach aspiring riders the basics, in the best of European tradition.

She found in Virwani a kindred soul with similar interests. They decided to set up a riding school that was very different from the ones that are found all over India. For starters, they decided that they would hire three British riding instructors, and buy at least a dozen retired race horses of known capability.

They advertised in leading British racing newspapers and received many applications, out of which they finally chose three. All three turned out to be women. Now these instructors live on the riding school campus. They oversee the care of the 30-strong stable of 20 retired racers and 10 ponies, with the help of 17 syces.

What brought these women, who have qualifications on par with the best of their kind in Britain, out to India on salaries lower than they could have commanded back home?

"The spirit of adventure combined with the temptation to enjoy a standard of living that is unthinkable in England," they laugh.

"Here we have cooks, can eat at five star hotels and still put by reasonable savings for our old age."

Storai herself has always enjoyed challenges, and is still doing things for the first time after living in India for 20 years. Just two days before rediff.com visited the riding school, she became the first woman jockey ever to ride on the Hyderabad race course. She now rides races twice or thrice a week, mostly in Bangalore or elsewhere in South India, and tries to devote all her free time to the riding school, of which she is designated the chief instructor.

Group riding lessons at the school cost Rs 300 an hour per person. A private lesson costs Rs 400 an hour with the three instructors, and Rs 450 with Storai herself. Stable management lessons are only available for groups, and are priced at Rs 200 an hour per person. There are all kinds of riding packages available to children and students. Apart from this, cross country riding and hacking are priced at Rs 300 an hour.

The ranch has an international size - 20 metres by 60 metres - dressage arena; a complete set of competition level standard show jumps; a four kilometre cross country course with a variety of fences - ideal for schooling horses; a 1000 metres dirt track, just right for fitness programmes for race horses, and a fully enclosed sand school for novice riders.

The riding school also has the capability to school untrained horses, re-train race horses, livery facilities, and even arrange horse sales on request. It offers stable facilities, temporary or long term for race horses based in Bangalore. However, very few clients have availed of any of these facilities.

The school is even qualified and equipped to conduct progressive riding tests at five different levels, at the highest of which a rider is expected to be able to do stable management at the level of treating minor wounds, gauge the temperature, pulse and respiration of a healthy horse at rest, fit a bridle correctly, know when a horse needs re-shoeing, and know some of the rules of feeding. In the area of equitation, he or she should be able to demonstrate correct jumping over a course of fences approximately 2 feet 6 inches high, be able to hack out in company safely, be able to ride in 'open order' in the sand pit and jumping paddock and even be able to canter without stirrups.

Sadly, although the school has all these capabilities, no serious riders with professional aspirations have come to them as yet for training to become jockeys. Interestingly, Storai says that until now, expatriates living in Bangalore are the main clients of the school. Most of them find the fee of Rs 300 to Rs 450 an hour for instruction from some of Britain's best riding teachers, who would have charged them about Rs 3,000 an hour overseas, very enticing. However, as most of this population is in Bangalore for just a year or two, as they are usually the heads of the Indian branches of MNCs, few stay on long enough to become really good riders or actually reach competition standards.

Thus, they are now targeting the monied Indian businessman and professional, and his or her children. The ranch is situated in a picturesque spot right out of the pollution of Bangalore. It is a well-appointed place with good guest houses, an interesting coffee shop called Ai Cavalli - created by Storai - which offers wholesome home-made genuine Italian pasta, lasagna and salads. This restaurant is managed by Axel Schorlemmer, who runs the popular German restaurant on the rooftop of the Max Mueller Bhavan in Bangalore.

The school conducts children's residential riding camps in which children stay in tents on the riding school lawns, learn the basics of riding and caring for horses, and even go on picnic rides. Now, they offer birthday party packages with six ponies available for riding for an hour by children for a sum of Rs 1800, plus food as ordered, like burgers and ice-cream, from the restaurant.

Even then, it is still barely breaking even. Storai is reluctant to disclose just what the income and maintenance of the school are, and will only say that they either have small losses or just about clear their costs. As we walk around the stables, it is evening-nish time, and the horses whine eagerly, smelling their nutritious meal of cooked barley, oats and bran, which is being ladled steaming into their feeding buckets. They champ on fresh green grass as they wait, looking feisty, well cared for and happy. Gaggles of geese run in their midst, completing the homely picture of a farmyard.