Cleaning stables, wiping bank balance … all for a medal

When she canters out on 20-21 September, looking prim in her smart formal riding attire and setting off with a preen and pout, the youngest member of the Indian Dressage team – also daughter of an athletics coach from Jaipur (very plebeian, not elite at all) – will be aware of the long struggle she undertook where she would put on rubber gloves each morning, pick the shavings-fork, scoop up the droppings and roll the wheelbarrow when cleaning the soiled bedding of the horse in stables in England.

Lessons with Vicki Thompson, one of the best Grand Prix dressage riders in the world, at her Oldencraig Centre, are almost prohibitive for an Indian 17-year-old from a middle-class background, who had dreams of taking off on her white-and-brown beauteous horse in the posh event. “It was coming close to 90 lakh – 1 crore including buying the horse when my family decided I should train at the best centre for a sport I casually started out in Jaipur. Only the very elite and well-off can afford this as the fees are 95 pound per lesson. It was a 3-months programme, and Vicki Thompson told me if I helped working on the yard (cleaning and upkeep of horses) I’d get one lesson free each week,” Shubhsri recalled.

“I did everything on the yard. It was pretty difficult as I wasn’t fit enough for all the hard work at that time. But it became easier with a bit of time and I got that one day’s lesson free,” she said.

Father Rajendra Sharma was a decent sprinter in his time and a national relay coach, but the younger daughter was a self-admitted sloth. “I would wake up till 11 am and that really annoyed my dad. So he packed me off to swimming first. Didn’t work. Then only because there were horse-riding classes at 5.30 am in Jaipur under a jumping coach, I was enrolled there,” she recalls.

Selling property

Sharma though was aware that high-level competition needed a commensurate training stint. “I asked for a one-year holiday, sold all my property, invested all my life’s savings into Shubhsri’s coaching. As a sportsman myself I knew that you can’t cut corners in training,” he adds. While the parents and Shubhsri set off (elder daughter’s pursuing MBBS), Sharma knew the indulgent sport would need a penny wise-pound foolish approach. “We couldn’t compromise on quality of horse or training,” he adds. A mini-sacrifice was going a year without chappati while in England.

A typical training day (while working on the yard) would have Shubhsri waking up early and out on the yard by 7 am, cleaning stables till about half eight. Then, she’d report to Thompson, for the day’s lessons. “I usually have three lessons a day and all this keeps me on my toes till at least 5 pm as I have to tack the horse up then ride and later wash the horse off. After that, I am too tired to do anything else besides going home and just plonking myself on the bed!” she added. Shubhsri’s Dressage training also involved cleaning tack – giving the saddle and bridle a good once over with a sponge.

Some were 12-hour-days for the girl who’s previously never held a spade. All this before she started on the piaffe, passage and pirouette on which Dressage riders get judged.

“Right now my scores are 60 % (all 6s), which is satisfactory but not great. But I’ve come a long way from the time I was an unfit and fat kid,” she says.

Reunion 

The sport itself —though likened to a horse’s fashion show — has invisible challenges. “Controlling a being that’s 3 times your size while looking effortless!” Shubhsri says.

Shubhsri’s horse is called Smoky 249, and after a quarantine in Germany ahead of Incheon, rider and animal were reunited at the Games venue earlier this week.

“My best performance till date has been at the Hickstead CDI3 (an international show). Although I didn’t get a very high score there because I was competing against Olympics and World Championships level riders. But I feel that test was one of the best I’ve ever done with some really good bits that I actually got 7.5-8.0s (from 10) for,” she adds.

Shubhsri got written about in UK’s prestigious Horse & Hound magazine (of Notting Hill movie fame) for her efforts at picking a sport that’s not big in India. While in UK, she has competed with most other Asiad rivals from Thailand, Japan and Taipei. “When Vicki told me to clean the yard and check the horse’s hair, I was like Oh My God, I’ve never worked before. But I was glad I was doing something new. Asian Games will be a new experience too!” she adds.