I’ve always been passionate about learning new things, horse-riding being one of them. It was one of the many dreams in my bucket list. I began learning horse riding in 2008 and trust me, I’d never felt so amazing before. Every time I rode a horse, I felt like a queen. The place where I trained had a lot of greenery and a pond which amplified the feeling even more!
Recently, the horse riding experience came in handy when I played ‘Siddhambe’, a real-life warrior princess in the historical-period film ‘Bichchugathi’. It had been a few years since I rode a horse and I realized that I had to brush-up my skills. I attended a few classes to prepare myself but I noticed something different. I was no longer the free-spirited horse rider and had grown to be apprehensive about riding a horse. I had heard numerous stories about horse riding accidents, from my fellow actors. about them suffering injuries and not being able to exercise for life and on the media about people being left permanently paralyzed after a fall from the horse.
I was still pretty confident about it until this one, almost fatal incident. One day, the horse I was riding on, broke into a furious gallop. God knows what happened, he suddenly tried to throw me down and the reins slipped out of my hand but I held onto his hair tightly. I was facing downwards and I remember half my body hanging from the right side of the horse. I continued to hold onto it and screamed for help. Because I was a trained equestrian, there was nobody standing around me.
The hostler and my driver were standing really far away. When they noticed I was struggling, the came running towards me. The hostler patted the horse and calmed him down. He also explained to me why the horse behaved that way. Apparently, there were small rats roaming around the area and the horse must have spotted one of them. Me feeling the jerk and pulling him hard by the reins must’ve aggravated him even more. Even a tiny rat can scare a horse and it is us who need to pacify them.
When I look back in time, I was this curious kid who was always eager to learn new things. As kids, we would never care about the consequences even if we were told not to do something. All we wanted was to learn and explore whatever the circumstances may be. Our first instinct is to just go for it, unlike adulthood where we carefully reflect on our choices and sometimes, avoid doing it because we’re scared of the outcome. Responsibilities too, can sometimes come in the way of our adventures. Our worldview changes with time and maturity.
-Harprriya