Hriday Chedda’s journey to gold in dressage team at Asian Games

“We just happened to get this horse riding camp, because my father’s friend had booked it for his son, but he couldn’t go, so they gave me the place instead,” said Chheda.

At the age of six, it was his first formal training at the Japalouppe Equestrian Centre, Old Mumbai – Pune Highway.

Chheda, who grew-up near Juhu, remembers sitting on a horse in one of the streets, and somebody keeping an eye on him and walking along.

This was at the age of one or two when he was first put on a horse as a fun pastime. But after his camp at Japalouppe, between ages six to 11, he started participating in more such camps and became more passionate about it.

Hriday Chheda was part of the team that won India gold for the first time in equestrian dressage team event at the Asian Games.

“I knew at a very young age that I wanted to pursue riding. I was totally horse crazy by seven or eight years-old,” said Chheda.

When he knew he wanted to compete, he moved to different centers like the Amateur Riders’ Club (ARC) at Mahalaxmi racecourse in Mumbai, then moved to Bangalore and Europe.

Chheda says ARC Mumbai, is home-based. “That’s where I am from. Through Covid also I had a lot of support from them. I couldn’t take two years off, when the city was shut, I needed to stay fit and ARC served best at the time.”

Chheda’s first experience of a big competition was in Delhi 2009 at the Junior National Equestrian Championship (JNEC).

The preparations

“I have dreamed about this for the last 10 years. I was close to achieving it last time in 2018,” said Chheda. In 2018, Chheda was in the UK, in a similar situation, with a horse on a lease but unfortunately he couldn’t participate. He had to return the horse to the owner before the games.

“That hurt at that point. We were close, we could have made it.” he said. Chheda has been going to Europe since 2011 on a regular basis for better training. “They are far ahead of us at the moment, the way we are in cricket,” said Chheda.

For this year’s Asian Games preparation, Chheda moved there last year in June full-time.“I managed to find Emerald at the right time, manage the finances, and it worked out this time,” said Chheda.

Chheda got Chemxpro Emerald, his horse, in October. “When I took emerald on, I had Asian Games in mind… He is a special horse, with his talent, as well as his mind. He was a good fit.”

Chheda had emerald on a lease and now he is back with its owner. “It will be tough, we spent so much time together everyday for the last one year, it will play its part, but have to find the next partner,” said Chheda.

𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 – 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧

📹 | Here’s the moment when India’s Equestrian Dressage team created history by clinching a🥇after a long wait of 41 years 🥹🏇#SonySportsNetwork #Cheer4India #Hangzhou2022 #IssBaar100Paar #Equestrian | @Media_SAI pic.twitter.com/MjvO5bAYq2

— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) September 26, 2023

It was reported that China was allowing horses to be transported only from five countries — Germany, Japan, South Korea, UAE and New Zealand.

The news came as a distress to a lot of athletes who would then have to lease a foreign horse, get a visa to train and compete in Europe, and go through the qualification process all over again. Chheda said it didn’t affect him as he was always based in Europe.

Financially, Chheda was partly sponsored by Nanoli Stud Farm, between Mumbai and Pune. “We are working with them for the first dressage horse breeding programme in the country. Then maybe in ten years, we can take Nanoli horses to the Asian Games.”