He took a deep breath before he got onto the track, holding the reins, leading his horse on, as he took a jump, and he was on a high for life. This Ooty-based show jumper, Lt Col Sandeep Dewan was born in Ferozpur, Punjab and grew up in an Army family. Sandeep’s passion for horse riding started as an eager 11-year-old.
Ever since, he has taken to show-jumping as a career after retiring from the Army in 2008. Recently, in the grand finale of the Equestrian Premier League in Bengaluru on November 26, 2017, Lt Col Sandeep Dewan won the first prize in the highest show jump category — 130 cm.
With a Punjabi father and a Goan mother, Sandeep took after his father and joined the Oxford Training Academy in Chennai and then the 61st Cavalry Regiment of the Indian Army in 1985, which is believed to be the largest non-ceremonial horse-mounted cavalry unit remaining in the world. “I have been continuously competing in show-jumping after that. The first championship that I competed in was the Junior Equestrian League in Australia in 1984 while I was doing my Bachelors in St Stephens in New Delhi.” He was also a part of the Asian Show Jumping Championship in 1989.
After serving in the Army for 23 years, Sandeep and his family moved to their farm house in Jaipur where they trained horses. “I wanted to train horses full-time, and pursue my passion so we shifted to Jaipur and then to Ooty in 2016, since it’s closer to Bengaluru where many championships take place.”
If not busy with the Equestrian Calendar and training horses, Sandeep likes to travel long distances with his wife Tara. They have driven across the Himalayas, Ladakh etc. He has two children, a son and daughter.
So what is a normal day for a show jumper? “I wake up pretty early, around 5 am and you will find me at the stables by 6 am prepping the horses, and then I start riding and training. This sport is definitely not a one-man show, and the horse is the actual athlete with his own mindset. It’s like dealing with another living being so training them takes a lot of effort.”
Even though luck might play a role in winning competitions, Sandeep believes hard work helps one’s luck shine through. He does have two lucky horses Almost Heaven who was imported in 2013 and immediately got him a win after a year of no awards, in 2014, and French Man, his favourites.
Those two horses are his favourites through he has about six horses in Ooty. “These horses have taught me a lot over the years, especially how to be compassionate and patient with humans, animals, anyone around me,” he concludes.
