Shruti Vora First Indian to Win 3 Star GP in Dressage, Closes in on Paris Dream

Shruti Vora, astride Magnanimous, has become the first Indian rider to win a three-star Grand Prix event- a historic achievement for the Indian equestrian. Shruti scored 67.761 points in the CDI-3 event in Lipica, Slovenia from June 7-9. The Indian finished ahead of Moldova’s Tatiana Antonenco (Aachen), who scored 66.522. Austria’s Juliane Jerich (Quarter Girl) completed the top 3 with a score of 66.087.

Who is Shruti Vora?

Shruti Vora (born 6 January 1971 in Kolkata) is an Indian equestrienne. Vora’s mother rode horses and imparted her love of horses to Vora as well. Her brother Chandra Sekhar too was riding horses till his Class 12. Vora completed her primary and secondary schooling at Loreto House, received a Bachelor of Commerce from Shri Shikshayatan College in Kolkata and an Master of Business Administration from European University in Geneva, Switzerland. She married Mitul Vora in 1997 and has two sons, Varun and Aryan. Vora took a 14-year break from riding after marriage; in 2009, she returned to competitive sport again.

Achievement of Shruti Vora :

• Shruti Vora represented India at the 2022 FEI World Championships (Equestrian Games) held at Herning, Denmark. Vora and Anush Agarwalla were the first Indians to compete in an individual dressage event at the Dressage World Championships, where Vora scored scored 64.53% astride 16-year Indian-bred Denightron.
• Vora qualified for the World Championship at Hagen in June 2022 and represented India (finishing 8th) at the 2014 Asian Games at Incheon.

What is Dressage event?

The rider-horse combo performs in an arena of 20m x 60m, bordered by a low rail which the horse must stay within. The arena has 12 lettered markers placed symmetrically indicating where the movements are to start and where the changes to pace are to occur and where the movements will end. There are seven stages- preliminary, elementary, medium, advanced medium, advanced, Prix St George and Intermediate -I. The scoring is done on scale of 1 to 10 where 1 indicates very bad and 10 excellent.