Big equestrian question lands in court: Are horses athletes or equipment? | Sport-others News

IT IS “neigh” impossible to know what horses themselves think on the matter but the Delhi High Court was recently tasked with ascertaining if horses ought to be categorised as “athletes” or “equipment”, in the sport of equestrian.The petitioner, Rajasthan Equestrian Association, wants voting rights for states, like every sport. They are locked in a long battle with the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI), which inss that the sport is “peculiar” and cannot have a pyramidal governance framework of drict and state bodies, given the infrastructure is niche, and requirements specific to horses.
The EFI says they are living beings, moody too, hence qualify as athletes. And the upkeep of stable and training infrastructure the current electorate of rider clubs requires crores in investment, so anyone spending that amount deserves a vote.
Neither side mercifully has demanded voting rights for equines.
But the Rajasthan association contends “horses are just horses”, whose hiring / transportation reimbursements get lumped with boats / yachts in the National Sports Code, and hence must be treated as equipment.
The court has been seized of the bigger battle and the matter remains subjudice while submissions have been made. The fraternity is zapped, terming it all “absurd, nonsensical, illogical and bizarre”.
Of course, the horse is a living athlete. But is it really?
Raghuvendra Singh Dundlod, the Rajasthan petitioner, contends that taxes are excused when horses are brought into the country, just like for cycles, yachts, rifles — all sports equipment. “No other country considers it an athlete. They are definitely equipment, but because it’s a live being, you must feed it,” he says.
A keen rider himself and promoter of indigenous horses, Dundlod, whose father was a cavalryman, demands to know why no winning horse has ever been felicitated, if it indeed is an athlete.
“There’s no medal or Arjuna award for a horse and no one saying, ‘let’s bring a horse a rosette, and say you have done well’, like for athletes. I’ve never seen horses being felicitated after medals,” he says. He harks back when a winning horse was draped in a celebratory jhool (horse rug) in Rajasthan.
Dundlod adds that equestrian allows a horse to be replaced once in competition, if it goes lame. “If a human athlete falls ill, they can’t be replaced like equipment is,” he stresses.
“They can say whatever, it is very much an athlete,” says EFI general secretary Col Jaiveer Singh, who inss that Para 16 of the National Sports Code clearly spells out the merits of exemptions granted for being a “peculiar sport”.
“It is a peculiar sport because horses are live beings who need to be fed, given water, massaged, picked after, cleaned, taken for a walk. It’s not an F-1 car that sits waiting in a garage.”
He is dismayed at the suggestion that horses haven’t gotten their due. “There’s a victory lap, but horses need rest! They are taken good care of and pampered. An Arjuna would be taking it too far. But a lot of dog units and mules in service are honoured. Horses are too,” he says.
Advocate Jayant Mehta for the EFI, while stressing that the matter is subjudice, says, “A horse needs a stable, exercising grounds, prompt availability of medical attention at the base. And all this is bare minimum. States can’t say we will make these facilities partly available. You can’t have a vet in Delhi and a horse in Meerut,” he says.
He might have heard more absurd arguments, but his earnest submission was that a horse can’t be called equipment. “A horse needs a passport, undergoes medical checks and gets quarantined. It gets marked in competitions. Nobody gives points to a javelin or a rifle. And a pol doesn’t moodily refuse to fire, nor does a javelin stomp off and refuse to fly,” he says.
If considered an athlete, the classification contravenes the sports code, Dundlod says, since India’s winning horses were foreign-born (foreign human athletes are disallowed). The EFI clarifies that while horses have passports, they don’t have a nationality. They are regered as Indian heading out to international competition.
Also a winning horse can command a large price (like IPL cricketers). A gun or javelin doesn’t start costing millions just because it was used a gold medall, though the memorabilia can have great future value.
A senior former equestrian, not wishing to take sides in this horse-drama, says, “In the early 1900s, Olympic medals were given only to horses for their athletic exploits. Gradually, medals were shared and later only went to the rider. But there’s precedence of horses being the main athletes. It’s true though they don’t live in Athletes village at the Olympics,” he says. “It’s just a play of words. He can be both. No big deal.” All he knows is nothing has been heard from the horse’s mouth.