A student rides a horse at the Narengi military station on Monday. Telegraph picture

Dec. 3: Students of Army School and Kendriya Vidyalaya can now take up horse-riding as a hobby.

The Narengi military station today formally opened its riding school where school students will be taught basic equestrian skills.

The general-officer-commanding of the army’s Gajraj Corps — Lt Gen. C.A. Krishnan — opened the school christened Rhino riding school inside the station.

The school has already brought seven in-house trained horses and three trainers will provide basic lessons to students. Five horses have been brought from the army’s Calcutta Riding Club and two from its mule battalion based at Misamari in Sonitpur district.

Defence spokesperson Lt Col S.S. Phogat said the riding school would soon begin a preparatory course and gradually chalk out a proper course.

“The basic objective of starting the horse-riding school is to give our children exposure on how to handle a horse and take it up as a hobby. Those who are eager to take up equestrian professionally can learn the basic skills here and master their skills gradually,” Phogat said.

“The facility is primarily meant for children of defence personnel and officers who are studying at Army School at Narengi and the Kendriya Vidyalayas. But children from outside are also studying in these schools and they, too, can learn horse-riding. The horses we brought are well-trained and our trainers will help the children acquire the basic skills,” he said.

Narengi station is one of the largest military stations in the Northeast with a large numbers of troops, families and children residing there. Apart from all the basic facilities, it has the Rhino Sainik Institute, Rhino Swimming Pool and Rhino Library.

“Apart from being a hobby, horse-riding helps in personality development of a child. If a person can handle an animal, he or she can tackle difficult situations in life too. We have a big area where the students will be provided training to know the horse and how to handle it, get into them, ride them and handle different situations and behaviours of the horse. It is part of our training and welfare activities and the training will be provided free of cost. The opening of the riding school has added another feather to our cap as all the big military stations have a riding school,” Phogat said.