Marwari Horse Dancing

मनोज अदिति के साथ पुष्कर मेले में

Colour, mood on last day of Puskhar

Pushkar: Horse trading may be a familiar jargon in politics but politicians on the last day of the Pushkar Fair, are trying out the more literal version of it. They are literally trading in horses.


Manohar Singh Ladnu, an MLA from Ladnu in Nagaur district has been living out of a tent for a week to sell his two baby horses for a neat Rs 87,000.


And after six visits to the fair with his Marwari horses, Singh now knows just what it takes to be a good horse trader.


“To see a good horse you have to see its height, the length of its neck, its ears and its mouth,” Ladnu says.


Meanwhile, camels still outnumber the horses at the world's largest camel fair that is bustling with traders, tourists and of course those who fetch great prices.


“There are thousands of camels here, that's amazing,” a tourist, Brian Baker said.


Rajasthani men display their long moustache at a moustache competition held at the Pushkar Fair.


Talking business, the traders say that telling a young camel from an old one takes a lot of homegrown desert expertise.


“You first see its teeth, the teeth tell the age of the camels and then the breed, whether its Jaisamleri or Barmeri something you can tell by the shape of the ears,” a camel buyer, Gulab Singh said.


So while the blond beauty Baliya (camel) is catching the fancy of all, the older and wiser camel traders say he's a bad idea because he's a fully-grown camel with eight teeth.


(With Inputs from Shweta Ganesh Kumar)

CNN-IBN

Horse breeding biz cashing in to banks

GONDAL (SAURASHTRA): Wishes need not be horses. Those in the business of breeding and selling purebred horses are bucking their way to the bank, thanks to a stirred up demand from a growing breed of rich Indians.

With horse lovers not averse to shelling out lakhs, breeders can’t ask for more. An MLA from Punjab recently bought a horse from a Dhandhuka-based breeder for Rs 3.75 lakh. Just a few days ago, a Rajkot-based industrialist bought a Kathiawadi breed for Rs 2.25 lakh from Gondal. The prices have doubled in a year.

In recent times, Saurashtra, home to the world-renowned Kathiawadi horses, has seen demand soaring on the back of horse riding, ceremonies, institutes as well as personal and corporate collections. There are around 18,000 horses in Gujarat, of which 10,000 are in Saurashtra alone.

“One time breeding of female and male horse costs anything between Rs 2,500 and Rs 4,000 depending on factors such as atmosphere, place, category of horse and of course, the customer’s requirement,” says Abdul Qasam Multani, who has eight male horses and one female horse.

On an average, he does about 15-50 cross-breedings in a month. A few days ago, he sold a female horse to an MLA in Punjab for Rs 3.75 lakh. The price of a new-born horse ranges between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh, depending on colour, height, age and overall looks.

Those in the business say demand for mares has increased due to reproduction factors. More players have joined the race. The number of members at the Kathiawadi Marwari Horse Breeders Association (KMHBA), for instance, has jumped from just around 500 a few years back to over 1,500, coming from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Ghanshyam Acharya, a Gondal-based horse-lover and a KMHBA founder, says the demand for cross-breeding has increased significantly in the past two years. Acharya, considered one of the finest horse riders, runs an ayurvedic medicine lab and has dedicated his life towards horse preservation.

Kathiawadi horses, with Arabian ancestry, are known for their endurance, power and stamina and are identified by their foreheads, eye placement, nose, long hair and long tail. In order to boost the breed in the state, the Gujarat government has also set up a few horse-breeding centres.

Bhupathbhai Dodhiya, a Panvi (Bhavnagar)-based horseman says people from Rajasthan and Maharashtra come in search of the original Kathiawadi breed. Dodhiya has been preserving the Kathiawadi breed for the past 40 years. “Demand has surged significantly in the past two years. The reasons vary from the boost in tourism and a growing corporate interest,” says Dodhiya, who owns nine female horses which he leases to marriage ceremonies, and four male horses he uses for cross-breeding.



Gondal-based Sarvanbhai has received many enquiries from institutions. “The prices of horses have increased due to the demand,” he says, hinting that he may get Rs 1 lakh per animal. Sarvanbhai takes his four male horses to many parts of the country for cross-breeding and charges between Rs 3,500 and Rs 10,000.

“Mostly, people demand white horses with long tails. Three months back I sold a female horse to a Rajkot-based industrialist for Rs 2.25 lakh,” he adds. Nanubapu Sathre, another Rajkot-based horse lover who has been preserving the animal for the past 40 years, says there are agents who approach him for taking his horse for breeding. Apart from breeding, Sathre leases out his horse for weddings and other social functions.

On the other hand, a few die-hard admirers like Digvijaysinh Zhala, the current head of the Wankaner royal clan, is lobbying hard in the US to get a separate recognition for the Kathiawadi breed there. Zhala has four horses.
TAPASH TALUKDAR

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2007