National Equestrian Championship: Ariana, Gaurav and Raju advance to next stage

Mumbai, Feb 27 (IANS) Ariana Dhond, Gaurav Pundir and Raju Singh advanced to the next stage of the National Equestrian Championship in the Dressage discipline, being held at Amateur Riders' Club, here on Monday.

The riders competed in the different levels -- Advance Freestyle to music, Intermediate - 1 Normal Dressage & Advance Medium Freestyle to music. 

Riding the horse Freixenet 81, the 21-year-old Ariana qualified for NEC Advance Freestyle to music with a 56 percent score.

Raju Singh, riding his pony Rocketerer and DFR Girdhari Singh with his horse Chetak scored 60 and 54 percent scores, respectively to advance in the Advance Medium Freestyle to music category.

Meanwhile, Gaurav Pundir scored 64 percent to qualify for Intermediate - 1 Normal Dressage. 

"I did the Advance category with my horse Freixenet 81. We have a fairly new partnership and are still trying to figure each other out so these shows really helped me to build on us together. The freestyle was a very new experience for all the horses as well. The event was fabulously run, and efficient, and the judging was top-notch. I hope there are more shows like this hosted at our home ground in the coming future," Ariana said.

In national dressage competitions, there are five basic levels of dressage tests: Preliminary, Introductory, Novice, Elementary, Medium, and Advanced.

Notably, Dressage is a form of horse riding performed in exhibitions and competitions, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery.

Dressage 'Freestyle to music' is a form of dressage competition where the horse's paces are set to music to create a competitive "dance".