Chennai teenager saddling up for success

Chennai: Horse-riding may be commonly perceived as a hobby, but for 17-year-old Samartha Satyajit, it is his primary pursuit. The Chennai lad won the gold medal in the senior II category at the Fédération Equestre Internationale Dressage World Challenge 2022 (South India) held in Bengaluru in November, and is working towards realizing his dream of becoming a world-class equestrian.
The teenager’s preparations for the Bengaluru event began a year ago, when he imported Galateo (the horse he rode to victory in the competition) from Spain.“Galateo is a hot-headed horse, so it was quite a challenge to control him,” he added.
Samartha travels to Pondicherry four days every week, where he trains at the Red Earth Riding School in Auroville. His trainer Mallika Shankar, who herself rides in the Netherlands, mentors him via online sessions.
Things were not exactly working out with Galateo the way Samartha wanted in the run-up to the event, which was evidenced in the trials held a week prior to the main competition. On the day of the event, Mallika told him to just do his best and forget the rest, and that’s exactly what he did.
Having won the title at the qualifying event, Samartha was planning to compete internationally at the next stage of the FEI competition, but his standard XII board exams are unfortunately clashing with the schedule. Nevertheless, the Chennai boy is training hard and eventually plans to move to the Netherlands, from where he can start competing at big-ticket tournaments.