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Riding In India
Ride into History
From an article published in Worldwide Riding Vacations, written by Inder-Jit Singh.
Did you know, that it was in ancient India that the riding stirrup was first invented? (Desmond Morris in his book, Horse Watch). Or that on one of our rides you can actually visit a temple that pays homage to the horse?
Or, that polo was, and still is, being played in its original form in the Indian Himalaya and the mountains of Central Asia, a form going back hundreds of years, before it was "exported to England"? And, that you can travel to witness the ancient equestrian skill of Tent Pegging in India, performed by the Nihang Sikhs in the Punjab, or the Rajputs of Rajasthan, in the same style that the Arabs and the Moors first introduced the skill when they came across the Arabian Ocean in the 12th Century?
In the desert state of Rajasthan you can visit the cattle fairs where people from hundreds of kilometers away annually converge at a holy pool or site, where because of the cost of travel, these pilgrimages have become a cattle exchange in order to pay for the journey.
The sites seen at Fairs like Pushkar, Naugaur and Baneshwar are unchanged since well before the times of Colonel James Todd, who made his horseback journeys here to complete his epic 19th century journal, The Annals and Antiquities of Rajputana.
Riding in all of these regions brings you together with ancient cultures in a fascinating manner. Local villagers, of course, wonder why the visitor is going through the mundane activity of riding through the open country that for them is usually fraught with daily challenges and deficiencies in resource. They wonder at the women riders even though Indian lore has had its share of famous women generals dying on the battlefield. But whatever be their head shaking at the ways of the "tourist", their hospitality is immeasurable.
One American visitor could not forget how a small and very modest optometrists shop refused to charge, because she was a foreign visitor! Another insisted we have "chai". This is the open and hospitable India that you can ride through.
For pure pomp, pageantry and ceremony, India's military has amongst the most colorful and historically-rich horse regiments, like the 61st Cavalry which won renown for defeating the Turks when fighting under Field Marshal Viscount Lord Allenby during World War1, in Palestine. The "61st" still commemorates each 23rd of September as "Haifa Day" in honor of what is considered one of the last great victorious cavalry charges witnessed in recent history. You can see these mounted columns every 26th of January on India's Republic Day Parade.
This then is a glimpse of the places and experiences that are within your grasp while on a horseback ride in India, where it is affordable and realistic to ride into a mountain Fortress or Palace for the night, and to places where such epic movies as James Bond's Octopussy, The Jewel in The Crown and The Far Pavilions were actually shot. Or equally, stay at a jungle or desert camp where sloth bear, leopard and desert cat can be sighted from your Imperial Raj Tent, facets immortalized by Kipling and Corbett.
I would look forward to the opportunity to lead you into an epic horseback journey, A Ride Into History, which promises to touch you like no other!
Inder-Jit Singh
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