Indian Parents Are Moving to Bengaluru For Their Children's Equestrian Dreams: EIRS Director Silva Storai

Bengaluru, Sep 7: The Embassy International Riding School sits a little away from the noise of the city, and on most mornings, it is a place where a handful of young riders patiently work through their lessons under instruction.

It is an unremarkable scene on the surface. But for Silva Storai, who has spent more than three decades watching Indian equestrian sport evolve from the margins into something families are now willing to reorganise their lives around, it is also one of the clearest signs of how much the sport has changed.

Storai, the Director of EIRS and one of India's pioneering women jockeys, has seen that change from close quarters. And perhaps the most striking shift she has witnessed is not in the arena, but at home.

Families are now making decisions that would have been difficult to imagine a couple of decades ago - including moving their bases from different parts of the country to Bengaluru so their children can train regularly, stay close to quality facilities and, importantly, grow alongside their horses.

"This is remarkable, the way the mindset of Indian family is now compared to last 20 years or whatever," Storai tells myKhel.

The change, she believes, reflects a broader shift in how Indian parents perceive equestrian sport. What was once difficult to justify as a serious sporting pursuit is increasingly being treated as a long-term commitment, with families prepared to invest time, money and, in some cases, an entire change of lifestyle to give their children a chance to progress.

"Today, you have to give unbelievable credit to these parents. They are making enormous sacrifices to have their kids follow their career and to have a career, or to have a passion in a sport," Storai says.

For a sport as demanding and expensive as equestrian, that commitment can make all the difference.

From an occasional competition to a way of life

Storai has watched the change unfold over years rather than months. When the Equestrian Premier League began in 2010, there were only two clubs involved. Sixteen editions later, the competition has grown to around 24-25 clubs, with approximately 300 riders and 120 horses turning out on a normal EPL day.

She does not even remember all the editions herself. "I remember when we did the 9th edition, we all had 9 here, then 10 here. I cannot go like 11, 12," the Italian national says with a laugh.

But the growth of EPL was itself a response to a problem Storai had identified in the development pathway. For junior riders between 10 and 21, the Junior National Championship in December was once the only major competition that many had to look forward to. That meant an entire year could pass without a meaningful competitive target.

"You cannot have a sport that you challenge yourself once a year. It has to be a constant challenge like any other sport if you want to become better," Storai says.

The EPL was created to provide that regular competitive environment between June and November, giving young riders an opportunity to train, compete, identify weaknesses and return to training before the national championships.

But regular competition alone was not enough to change the sport. The economics of owning a horse had to change too.

Why parents are now willing to make the sacrifice

Storai recalls a time when it made little sense for an ordinary family to own and maintain a horse simply for one major competition. Instead, many riders would wait until around October and then look for horses they could lease for the December national championships.

"It was this kind of sport: who has more money gets the better horse," she says. "Impossible to grow a sport in this way."

The gradual shift towards year-round participation changed that equation. Parents began investing in horses, training and regular competition rather than trying to assemble a partnership for a single event.

That commitment has now gone a step further.

Storai has seen families from outside Bengaluru move their bases to the city so their children can train consistently and remain close to their horses.

For a young rider, that means far more than simply getting additional hours in the saddle. It means developing familiarity with the horse's temperament, understanding its behaviour and learning how to work with it over time.

That relationship is central to Storai's philosophy. She believes the growing willingness of families to make such sacrifices is one of the most important changes in Indian equestrian sport. "It is a very expensive sport. There's no way to go around," she says.

But the willingness to make that investment is increasingly being supported by the belief that there can be a sporting pathway at the end of it. And Storai believes one Indian athlete played an important role in creating that belief.

How Fouaad Mirza helped open a new window

For years, equestrian sport struggled for visibility in a country where cricket dominates the sporting imagination.

Then came Fouaad Mirza. His breakthrough at the 2018 Asian Games, where he won individual and team silver in eventing, gave Indian equestrian sport one of its most visible moments in decades. His individual silver also ended a 36-year wait for India for an individual Asian Games equestrian medal.

For Storai, however, Mirza's importance goes beyond the medals.

His performances, supported by sponsorship that enabled him to compete abroad with top-class horses, showed Indian families that an equestrian athlete could reach the Asian Games and the Olympics.

"Through Fouaad Mirza's sponsorship, sending him out there with top class horses, delivering in the Asian Games, doing a fantastic performance at the Olympic, opened up a complete different window," Storai says.

Suddenly, equestrian sport could be seen through a different lens. "It became also an aspirational ideal that can be achieved. The guy was from Bangalore, was a kid like your kid."

That visibility matters in a sport where parents are being asked to make years of financial and logistical commitments.

Cricket, Storai points out, has millions of youngsters playing despite the tiny number who eventually reach the highest level. The existence of a visible pathway is enough to make families believe the journey is worth pursuing.

She sees the same process beginning in equestrian sport.

The rider she is currently sponsoring, Ashish Limaye, represents another part of that emerging pathway.

Storai sees considerable potential in him, particularly because of the combination of talent and temperament she believes elite equestrian sport requires.

"He's actually better than me," she says with a laugh. "I'm very reactive, he has a very cool head, which I think it's necessary."

"Lot of fire in the stomach, but very cool head," she adds.

The relationship cannot stop at the saddle

As more families commit themselves to equestrian sport, Storai believes one aspect of development deserves far greater attention: the relationship between rider and horse.

"The horse is the real athlete," she says.

Unlike most sports, where equipment remains an inanimate object, equestrian sport involves a second athlete with its own instincts, temperament and reactions.

That makes horsemanship crucial. Sorai believes young riders need to spend much more time actually looking after their horses rather than simply arriving at the stable when it is time to ride.

"Most of the kids don't even groom their horses, don't even put the equipment on their horse. It just comes to you, you sit, you ride, you give back," she says.

She contrasts that with the experience of riders at many established centres abroad, where taking care of the horse is an integral part of the sporting routine.

"You muck out, you take out the shit and all that, you brush your horse, you ride your horse, you come back, you wash your horse, you put the horse... It's a full-day job!"

For Storai, that is not simply stable work. It is education.

The more time a rider spends with a horse, the better they understand its moods, physical condition and behaviour. The bond also becomes stronger, allowing the rider to communicate more effectively once they are in the arena.

"Horsemanship should be looked at as the basic of any equestrian sport," she says.

It is perhaps why, when asked whether she finds riders or horses easier to handle, Storai immediately chooses the latter.

"The horse, any time!" she says, laughing. "My specialty is understand and be one with the horses."

The next generation needs patience

The influx of young riders and the increasing commitment from families has created a promising base for the sport. But Storai believes India now has to ensure that participation translates into proper development.

Her biggest concern is not a shortage of talent. It is the quality of the fundamentals being taught to that talent. "I think our biggest problem is that we do not have strong foundation," she says.

She believes India needs more qualified instructors capable of giving young riders the kind of technical grounding that cannot be acquired simply by competing more often.

According to Storai, there is sometimes a tendency to move youngsters too quickly towards bigger jumps and higher categories.

"They don't let you do D till A, B, C, E is perfect," she says of the approach she has seen internationally. "Here from A, you go to C, you go to D, because it's fun, it's good, 'Oh, I want to jump higher.' No, you don't jump higher till your little jump is perfect."

Her concern is that mistakes learned early can become difficult habits to correct later. She compares it to tennis, where technical flaws that may go unnoticed at junior level can become major obstacles when an athlete reaches the highest level.

"You develop mistakes that when you want to go to Wimbledon, that mistake is there," she says.

The growth in parental commitment, therefore, needs to be matched by growth in the quality of coaching and education available to young riders.

Learning to understand the horse

Storai also believes young riders need to learn how to recognise what their horse is telling them. When a horse has a bad day, the immediate response should not be anger.

"He should try to always, always, always understand," she says of the rider. "Maybe today is not your good day, maybe there's something going wrong."

That understanding becomes particularly important because horses respond to the emotional state of the person riding them. Storai says the first thing she looks for when a child gets on a horse for the first time is not whether they have perfect technique.

It is whether they are afraid. "If you are scared, it might take you much, much, much longer, if you ever get to that excellent level," she says.

A relaxed rider, she believes, gives the horse confidence as well. "The moment you sit more relax, it's just about giving him the basics... But everything flows really quick and the horse does not object so much."

It is another reason why she wants young riders to spend more time around their horses. The move by some families to Bengaluru, in that sense, is about more than convenience. It allows a child to build the kind of daily familiarity with a horse that cannot be created through occasional lessons or competitions.

More families, more ambition - now the system has to keep up

Storai's journey through Indian sport has given her a front-row seat to the country's changing relationship with equestrianism.

She was among India's pioneering women jockeys and spent 17 years in professional racing before moving deeper into training and horse development. Today, as Director of EIRS, she is watching a generation enter the sport with considerably greater access and ambition than many young riders had in the past.

The difference is visible not only in the number of clubs and competitions, but in the choices families are making.

Parents are moving cities. They are investing in horses. They are committing years rather than a few weeks. And increasingly, they are allowing their children to build genuine partnerships with the animals at the centre of the sport.

For Storai, that is an encouraging development.

But she also believes India cannot afford to confuse increased participation with complete development.

The next challenge is to ensure that the riders entering the sport today receive the right instruction from the beginning, learn proper horsemanship and are given enough regular competition to develop without being rushed.

Talent, she believes, will take care of itself if the system around it is built correctly.

"If your foundation is good, then you decide if you want one floor, two floor, three, four, five, six," she says.

For a sport that has spent years trying to convince Indian families that an equestrian dream is worth pursuing, the fact that some parents are now willing to move cities for that dream is perhaps the clearest sign yet that the conversation has changed.

The opportunity is no longer simply to get more children onto horses. It is to give those children the time, coaching and relationship with their horses needed to find out just how far they can go.