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Premadasa Riding School joins carnival wagon
The Premadasa Riding School will join the Nuwara Eliya festival celebration wagon with a three-event horse programme planned to be held between the flat horse racing events scheduled from April 17.

The three events that have been planned are the Horse Show, Polo on Bikes and Endurance Riding. Apart from the horse show and the Endurance events. Polo on bikes is a new concept being introduced to Sri Lanka for the first time.

Horse Show
This will be the first event to be held in front of the Nuwara Eliya race track on April 17 due to get underway at 4.30 p.m. The horse show will have displays from both Indian and Sri Lanka talents and the evening will commence with a March display by all the participants of the events with their beautiful horses decked and dressed impressively in complete Rajastani outfits.

According to the organizers the horse show in entirety will be a combination of tent pegging, horse dancers, hanky picking, fire arch runs and many other activities and acrobats performed on horseback. Tent pegging originated from a war manoeuvre that uprooted pegs tethering the tents of enemy soldiers in the process trapping them within the folds of their own tents.

Now it has made its way from the battlefield to the sporting arena and the beat of hooves in the battlefield has changed to horse dancing with the Marawari horses who are specially used for these doing the toe tapping to the sound of music and controlled by their trainers to perfection.

Polo on Bikes
This event is known as cycle polo, which almost is in line with Equestrian Polo and Elephant Polo. This is fast becoming popular in many nations worldwide and is being held in Sri Lanka for the first time. Premadasa Riding School will be conducting three exhibitions on April 18, 20 and 20 at the same venue with the intention of introducing cycle polo to the masses.

According to the organizers cycle polo originated from the Irish shores in 1891 it was introduced as a Olympic event in 1897 and 1908 and it almost died a natural death before getting a revival from cycle polo enthusiasts. Cycle polo is being conducted in India in a big way and the sports remains popular among many equestrian polo players in India. Currently the Cycle Polo Federation of India has a membership of 10,000, excluding the thousands that play the sport informally. Cycle polo players from India will travel to the island with the sole aim of participating in these matches.

Endurance Race
Endurance race is another event done on horseback, it is a test of speed and stamina of the horse and rider. The Sri Lanka Equestrian Association (SLEA) will be conducting this event on April 23 at the Nuwara Eliya sand track commencing from 7.00 a.m. onwards.

The event will be participated by 20 riders that will be divided into group of two's and three's. Unlike a flat race, the horse will determine the positioning of the winner and rider that finishes the closest to he pre-determined time with care given to the equines physical ability to complete the course outlined.

The sport introduced in to the armies of France, Norway, Sweden, Austria and Germany in 1860 has now become an internationally recognized sport.

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