Riding since he was knee-high, 15-year-old Vikrant Chavan's attraction toward the equine species has guided him in achieving a grand record. ``Since childhood, whenever I saw pictures of horses, I would feel the desire to ride,'' says Chavan, who rode all the way from Nigdi Chowk, Pune, to Raigad on horseback on November 1, 1998, covering 211 km in 15 hours 56 minutes.It was a historic day for young Chavan. ``I was confident I would attain my goal. And I think I was able to do it because I told myself - `You are just going for a ride to Sarasbaug' - then it was not so difficult,'' says a beaming Chavan, on whose slight shoulders the laurel sits well. He broke the earlier record created by two teenagers, who rode 138 km in 11 hours seven minutes. He managed the feat in eight hours 33 minutes.Chavan is a soft-spoken Std. X student of Panchgani's Sanjeevan High School, and his indulgence of his favourite sport was limited to school vacations in Pune and Mahabaleshwar. ``My mother is into real estate and whenever I accompanied her to Mahabaleshwar, I would get bored. So I usually hired a horse and got into the habit of riding for long hours,'' he says, explaining his initial attempts at horse-riding.But he soon backed it up with technical training at the Amateurs Riding Club (ARC), Mumbai, for a few months. And rode regularly whenever he got the opportunity. Like every eager rider, Chavan also suffered his share of highs and lows. ``Once, when I started learning, my foot got stuck in the stirrups and I had a major fall. I told myself I would never ride again. But then it became a compulsion to learn, otherwise I would have felt ashamed,'' he says.Chavan is an only child and his parents, Bharti and Rajan Chavan, supported him fully in this venture, as did his friends who followed in cars and scooters, cheering Vikrant on the marathon ride. ``A few years ago, my mother read in a newspaper that someone had created a record. She showed the article to me. Since then, I kept feeling that I could do it too!'' he says.And life changed drastically for a little while. Chavan started practising seriously, first for an hour and then steadily increasing the time, to strengthen his stamina. A strict diet had to be followed. ``You can't ride on a full stomach, so the only real meal I had was in the evenings. I practised riding to Sinhagad, Katraj Ghat and Khopoli and prepared myself for the tough road,'' relates Chavan. Coach Issac Mulani supervised the training and special katewadi horses were arranged to transport the young man.Chavan started the marathon at 6.47 a.m. on November 1, and changed four horses on the way. ``The horses - Rajasaab, Swabhiman, Majorsaab and Sohan - followed in the horse vans. Majorsaab was my best horse, he rode at 80 km per hour. However, Sohan let me down,'' recalls Chavan. The high-strung steed could not take people's curiosity on the way; once he just bolted. ``He ran wild, started sprinting and after 15 minutes, I pushed him into the bushes. That was when he stopped. Another time, I barely missed running into a huge truck,'' he says. Although Chavan suffered no falls on the way, three days prior to the historic day, he had a bad fall at Golibar Maidan, when he fell along with the horse, and got dragged on the ground holding the reins in his hands.A limp notwithstanding, Chavan rode through Dehu Road, Talegaon, Khopoli, Pali, Penn and Mahad to reach Raigad at 10.41 p.m. At Raigad, he was felicitated by his school principal, B.N. Singh, sports teacher John Dhanraj, and ARC coach Lt. Col. Pandhir. And the horses, who made all this possible, were given a royal treat as well.
