Police equestrian meet begins at ITBP centre tomorrow

Chandigarh, March 29

The 40th All-India Police Equestrian Meet and Police Mounted Duty Meet 2021-22 is set to start on March 31 at Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force’s (ITBP) Basic Training Centre, Bhanu, near Chandigarh, with 275 horses and 17 teams from Central Armed Police Forces and state police forces participating in the event.

The riders, including women, will be competing in 16 events over a period of 12 days, which include dressage, tent pegging, show jumping, hacks, mental hazard, police horse test, quadrille and farrier tests.

“The event has been christened ‘Thunderstorm’ in memory of the first ITBP horse to win a medal in equestrian competition,” Inspector-General Ishwar Singh Duhan said. Thunderstorm, who had won several golds at the national level, had served the ITBP for eight years before succumbing to illness in October 2021.

With 33 horses, Punjab Police has the largest contingent at the meet, followed by ITBP with 30 horses and Assam Rifles with 21 horses. This is for the second time that the ITBP is hosting the police equestrian meet which first began in 1969 as the Police Horse Show and later came under the aegis of the All-India Police Sports Control Board.