GURGAON: Tejas Dhingra, 26-year-old show jumper from the city, is among the ranks of the 12-member contingent set to participate in three equestrian events at the Asian Games to be held this year in China.
With his new horse Stan, Dhingra will be competing for India alongside two of his show-jumping teammates at Asia Cup, one of his dream championships after the Olympics. Son of Neeraj and Meenakshi Dhingra, a business couple based in the city, Dhingra found his love for horses at the age of 4 when he was on a family vacation in Australia.
“He was so mesmerized looking at the horse that he would not budge even a centimetre, when he spotted one during our trip. When we returned, we put him in two different horse-riding schools,” his mother reminisced.
Speaking about his qualification process for Asian Games that began towards the end of 2020, Dhingra noted that he had established an emotional connection with his previous German partner (horse), Tiens Keys, who he lovingly called TK.
“Since the event was postponed from 2022 to 2023, we had to go through several qualification matches across two years. My coach Beeya Vohra helped me through it. In 2020, I qualified in the maximum number of trials that any Indian has done so far, which is six, with TK,” the Delhi University alumnus said.
“But in February, we were told that they would not allow us to fly our horses to China due to restrictions. We were advised to get our horses from Europe and train with the new ones. Usually, it takes us years to establish the connection with our partner. But we got only two weeks to do two years’ of work ahead of the qualification rounds in Europe,” he said.
He is currently training in Germany and participating in the Fédération Equestre Internationale tournaments, competing against athletes from across the world. Dhingra aims to compete for Olympics 2028 since he believes he is not yet ready for the Paris Olympics.
With his new horse Stan, Dhingra will be competing for India alongside two of his show-jumping teammates at Asia Cup, one of his dream championships after the Olympics. Son of Neeraj and Meenakshi Dhingra, a business couple based in the city, Dhingra found his love for horses at the age of 4 when he was on a family vacation in Australia.
“He was so mesmerized looking at the horse that he would not budge even a centimetre, when he spotted one during our trip. When we returned, we put him in two different horse-riding schools,” his mother reminisced.
Speaking about his qualification process for Asian Games that began towards the end of 2020, Dhingra noted that he had established an emotional connection with his previous German partner (horse), Tiens Keys, who he lovingly called TK.
“Since the event was postponed from 2022 to 2023, we had to go through several qualification matches across two years. My coach Beeya Vohra helped me through it. In 2020, I qualified in the maximum number of trials that any Indian has done so far, which is six, with TK,” the Delhi University alumnus said.
“But in February, we were told that they would not allow us to fly our horses to China due to restrictions. We were advised to get our horses from Europe and train with the new ones. Usually, it takes us years to establish the connection with our partner. But we got only two weeks to do two years’ of work ahead of the qualification rounds in Europe,” he said.
He is currently training in Germany and participating in the Fédération Equestre Internationale tournaments, competing against athletes from across the world. Dhingra aims to compete for Olympics 2028 since he believes he is not yet ready for the Paris Olympics.
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