Riding Blues

 'Blues' normally implies the mood, rather melancholy, but in the Public schools parlance, Blues are sought after as they signify merit in a particular sporting activity, and are proudly worn by the recipients on their Blazers, embroidered under the crest of the institution. The tougher the sport, more coveted the award, Boxing, Cross Country, Swimming, Athletics were higher in the pecking order as compared to Cricket, Tennis or Squash.While I wasn't good enough to earn one, but did manage to represent the Academies in Squash and later the Corps of Signals. Riding 'Blues' is also one of the  aspired qualification and the achievement a singularly exclusive one, this being a regal sport. After all, we have all been brought up on the staple diet of warriors on horseback, be it Maharana Pratap on his ‘Chetak’ or Chhatrapati Shivaji, Rani Laxmi Bai on her ‘Badal’ have been part of our folklore. Cavalry charges as immortalised  by Alfred Tennyson in the 'Charge of the Light Brigade', "Forward the Light Brigade, charge for the guns! he said, Into the valley of death rode the six hundred" have inspired generations of cavalry men into the battlefield against all odds. Equestrian events are amongst the most interesting to watch and so is a chukker of Polo, all glamour and chivalry! 

Riding in the academies is not undertaken in any usual sports gear, this is a special outfit, let me describe it for the uninitiated, riding boots are specially designed and if you have earned them, are fitted with spurs, that is where 'earning one's spurs' phrase originated. Then we have the riding pants, known as breeches, which are drain piped i.e. narrow at the bottom, something akin to a chudidar pyjama, except that it does not descend down to the ankles but stays on your shins. The biggest bugbear of course were the riding puttees( a roll of cloth ), which resemble a crepe bandage and has to be worn similarly wound from knees downwards right down to the ankles, then came the KD(khaki drill) shirt, preferably one which had seen better days when it was the chosen one for drill but now was on the verge of discard and finally rounded off with a pith hat. In this attire we would not get on the horse right away but pedal down to the Equestrian Lines for our rendezvous with the colts. But this attire was not reserved for riding alone, there were other perverse pleasures derived by our worthy corporals and sergeants when they uttered just four  harmless sounding syllables, RRCO while undergoing something called the puttee parade. This was an exercise to improve our dressing up skills in minimum time, so we were asked to change from one attire to another in quick time; the easiest one was PT rig, as it involved just shorts and T shirt with PT shoes, and the toughest one was you guessed it RRCO or to increase the level of difficulty, make it Double pack RRCO, Riding Rig Chindit ( Named after the famous Chindits of Burma Campaign in Second World War) Order, which meant the battle order with haversack, water bottle, pouches in Riding Rig. There were quite a few who were not satisfied with this and preferred a more rustic Bajri order where the haversack was to be filled with bajri(gravel).  It was not unusual to see Cadets indulging in riding not their chargers but their lowly cycles attired in this RRCO/RRBO on their way to reporting to some appointments for a scheduled appointment for the punishment.

As we honed our skills in swimming on the teapoy  in the central lobby of the squadron under the expert guidance of our worthy Corporals and Sergeants, similarly we earned our spurs suitably attired on cycles or even without them. I am sure each one of us ex NDAs is thus a deserving Riding Blue!!