Pam Langrish is a professional equestrian photographer who rode on a horse riding holiday with Dundlod Safari’s on the Jaisalmer Marwari Trail. Pam wrote an article on the ride for many international equestrian publications. You can read her published piece below.
Pam took incredible photos of the Marwari horses and Rajasthan’s epic Thar Desert. You can read Pam’s horse riding adventure Q&A here.
A horse riding adventure in India
India! I canโt believe Iโm here. I have longed to come to this vibrant and colourful and wonderful country, and now it is a reality and I am here at last. The rain was so hard that the landing was what I can only call โinterestingโ and we werenโt even allowed off the plane initially. The flooded roads would be fodder for another story, but that isnโt for now.
I met my fabulous silver fox husband, Bob, 15 years ago on the day that he had just returned from photographing Bonnie, Kanwar Raghuvendra Singh Dundlod (to give him his full name, but he prefers to be known more simply as Bonnie) and the Marwari Horses and that is when I started dreaming that one day Iโd see and hopefully ride these magical beasts.
Now the dream is coming true.
Adrenaline before the ride
My heart is pounding and I am keyed up and with excitement, expectation and nervous apprehension. I have reservations that I am not being strictly sensible. The requirement of riding is that one should be an โintermediate/advancedโ rider. I am a capable and able horsewoman, but I am never overconfident or complacent. I have been on and off horses, literally and figuratively since I was little, sailing over jumps leaving the horse behind, flying straight on when the horse has double-backed and been dumped on the ground backwards with a rear hoof planted in my stomach. Will I be good enough and not annoy my host and fellow adventurers by holding them back?
How can I do justice to this wonderful adventure and experience in a few pages of an article? It is not just the riding and how the days pass that should be described. It is also the wonderful horses and the company of the other riders, the people who wave us off each morning and are there with the camp established each evening, the support of the vehicle throughout the day with Sunayana, Bonnieโs assistant and PA of 42 years, the driver and Dilip and Karn, who are there for the horses and check if there is the slightest problem. They are the forerunners who find the water holes for the horses and are in contact by radio/walkie talkie with Bonnie who issues directives and instructions.
Dundlod Safari’s Horse Riding Holidays
Dundlod Safaris was created by Bonnie 34 years ago in 1985. He is Secretary General of the Indigenous Horse Society of India, so has been in a position to rustle up Marwari and Kathiawari horses for films and TV programmes, found locations for them and advised on the production and costumes. All this while, Sunayana, which means โthe one with beautiful eyesโ, has helped him. No safari is possible without all the preparation and the people behind the scenes, of which there were 15 support staff and we certainly ate royally thanks to Subhash who created the most incredible dishes from behind the curtains of the cook tent.
Beautiful Jaisalmer
Our send off from the gorgeous, Rang Mahal Hotel in Jaisalmer gave us the the feeling that we were celebrities. We all had our own personal reasons for being there, but the fact that there was local and national press coverage and interviews made the fact that it was a special occasion all the more evident.
Nikki had proposed the trail to Bonnie and as he thought it possible, they spent several months researching it and getting the necessary clearances and permissions to cross military and tribal lands.
We toured beautiful Jaisalmer Fort, the golden fort, but truthfully our hearts and heads werenโt in it as we were longing to meet our horses with their intriguing and hugely expressive curly ears. The moment of meeting didnโt disappoint and soon we were mounted and our adventure truly began and I was in action with my cameras.
Photography is not the easiest of activities whilst riding and the situation was further complicated by my horrified discovery that the battery had fallen out of the camera on the first day. With the spare installed and firmly and highly technically kept in place with a plaster, I was still terrified that the same thing would happen again, so I resorted to tucking the camera into the front of my shirt. Unfortunately the time taken to haul it out usually meant that the moment for some pictures passed and the image was mentally, rather than pictorially captured.
Thar Desert Landscapes
The days were spent riding through desert that varied from soft sand to some that was hard packed with stones, along farm tracks bordered by stone posts strung with barbed wire protecting the crops of beans, sesame seed, millet, barley and wheat, ground nut and cotton. The fields were often backed by the beautiful sand dunes, which were absolutely fantastic to ride on and were the best place to see the wild animals. On our second day there were wandering camels, groups of Chinkara deer, a couple of families of wild boar, that ended up running beside us because they hadnโt seen horses before, foxes, sand grouse and partridge, monitor lizards, squirrels and beautiful peacocks and peahens, which call out stridently and piercingly, even through the night.
We also travelled through thorn scrub, which reminded me of the African savannah. Wherever we rode the message was passed along the line to beware of some hazard or other, such as wires, thorny branches, broken glass and holes made by the ground rats, which looked a bit like the Pika, from the briefest of views I had of one little mite as I was brushing my teeth. Iโm not sure who was more surprised!
Discovering Rural Rajasthan
The camp sites were ordinarily a distance away from the villages, but we were visited by children going to school, youths (the girls were more shy and kept their distance) and the local โbig wigsโ who sat and chatted to Bonnie. As it was an exploratory ride and we were an extremely unusual sight, everybody wanted to know what we were doing, where we were travelling to and where we had been.
More importantly though is that the horse and particularly the Marwari Horse is a symbol of royalty and when we ride by, the looks of admiration and pleasure make us feel so proud and honoured and we wave and smile even more, if that is humanly possible. The generosity of the farmers was incredible as they welcomed us to water the horses. This selfless gesture was all the more amazing because they had to pay for it to be delivered and it is such a precious commodity because it hasnโt rained in this region for a year. They wouldnโt accept payment and even offered us chai and shelter in their homes.
Marwari Horses
Bonnie rode at the head of our little cavalcade of women and mares on Geetanjali, which means โofferingโ, Mallyka, his daughter rode Gulbadan, a rescued grey and her name means โbeautiful bodyโ, then there was Nikki, also on a grey, Mahima โhighness/gloryโ, a truly apt name for both of them. Kate rode Sonia, who is also well named, โbeautifulโ because she is, with high head carriage and rounded neck, Joanna rode Koel โnightingaleโ who was very partial to eating whenever possible and is often the flag bearers mount when the ride is bigger. Finally there was me on little โhappy/happinessโ Sukhi, who is a favourite for tent pegging competitions because she is fast, accurate, nimble and sweet natured.
Adventures on Horseback
Dear little Sukhi was so tolerant of me and my antics, happy to leave the group, so I could ride out at the side or in front to take pictures.
She didnโt even bat and eyelid when I rode backwards a couple of times, so that her ears werenโt in the pictures!
On one occasion she wasnโt going to miss out on the fun, because we were going up a massive sand dune to take pictures on the top. Iโd taken my feet out of the stirrups to dismount so that I could run, when she broke into a canter up after the others. The camera was in one hand, reins loose in the other and I was desperately leaning forward to help with her impulsion and must have looked so ungainly, but gosh it was fun. She is an old hand at the safaris, so much so that she recognises the signs of Bonnie turning in his saddle to check his charges, this movement is then followed by his deep-voiced call of โTrrrrooottttingโฆ..โ He usually only managed the โTrrโ part, before she was already in action. In the last couple of days, though, he neither turned nor called out, but just broke into a fast trot. He had either assumed that we were all paying attention, or thought that if we werenโt, we should have been and so it was up to us to keep up, which Nikki and I found very amusing, racing after him.
Horse Riding Pace
Geetanjali kept a constant and fast walking pace, but the other mares, unless you were up beside Bonnie or right behind him, lagged from time to time, so weโd have to trot to catch up. When she trotted, it was again fast and constant, so we mostly ended up in a slow canter, which was more comfortable than jogging along in a faster and faster trot.
The times of riding beside Bonnie were a real pleasure with the companionable discussions interesting and wide ranging on subjects such as geography, history, religion, sociology and ethnicity. It was also a chance to hear about his adventures with other riders including stars, his involvement with the film industry, going to Windsor for the Queenโs Diamond Jubilee as well as the plants, birds and animals. He imparted his huge wealth of knowledge and it would be true to say that each of us rode a little taller in our saddle when we were beside him.
Camp Life on a horse riding holiday
I thought I was the first awake in the mornings (other than the cooking staff), but no, Sunayana was already up and had rustled up freshly made chai for Bonnie, who was never slow in waking. She would then busy herself talking to Subhash, to get breakfast ready and prepare the lunch meal so that it was ready for later. Then sheโd organise the camp team, to get water for the showers, and preparing them to dismantle the tents and furniture, pack the lorry, to say nothing of keeping us to time and chivvied along. From about the third morning there would be a new call in her itinerary of โPam, have you had your breakfast?โ Or, โPam, have you had some chai?โ Because she had noticed that I was invariably somewhere with my camera and risked not having any. Then Iโd see her working with her phone, sorting out itineraries, flights, hotels, transfers and supplies. As riders we drank 300 litres of bottled water during the safari, and that isnโt rustled up out of nowhere.
Hers was also the task of heating the pots of different dishes for lunch. Sheโd sit on a folded mat behind the mounting block, with the stove in the recess and the steps doubling as shelves and before weโd fully relaxed, sheโd call โLunch is readyโ. With our food came the chat about the morningโs ride, which was the same in the evenings when we were relaxing after weโd showered and had a drink of gin and tonic or whatever in hand.
Midnight Escapades!
Iโll never forget her look of incredulity one morning, when I retrieved an old cardboard box from my tent.
At around 3.00 am I had been wakened by a very odd noise, so looked out of the gauze window to see a massive black Brahman bull right outside and he risked catching his huge horns in the guy ropes.ย It was a bright, moonlit night and the poor beast must have had the fright of his life as I ran out in my grey pyjamas and confiscated what was probably his supper.ย He trotted off a little way and then looked grumpy as I wandered off with the box, trying to be conscientious about litter!ย Another night I chased a pack of dogs who risked waking everybody with their barking and there was one in particular who howled its head off.ย I ran after them in the moonlight, straight out from the camp.ย
Unfortunately in the night, straight isnโt necessarily so and I realised that I had no idea where I was.ย Did I cross that sand track?ย Was the moon shining this way or that?ย I wandered around for a while, trying to get my bearings and was on the point of thinking that Iโd have to call out and wake somebody, which I really didnโt want, when thankfully two things happened.ย Somebody snored (Bunkit, who was sleeping on the top of the Maruti Gypsy vehicle) and literally at the same time one of the horses kicked its metal food bucket, so I knew exactly which direction to go and blessed them both wholeheartedly.
India, a country that never sleeps
They say that New York is the city that never sleeps, but I have the distinct impression that India is the country that can claim that accolade.
As the moon was so bright the pilgrims made the most of the cool nights to walk to Ramdevra to pay homage to Ramdev Baba, a king and good man, who helped the menial, lower caste Shudra people, so he has been made a deity and every year devotees make the pilgrimage to honour him. They take offerings, usually of flags on poles bearing his image riding a Marwari horse as well as a sun and moon, or others bore the symbol of red foot prints on a white flag, symbolising luck and prosperity. These pilgrims walk hundreds and hundreds of kilometres and to show extra devotion they discard their footwear, basically anywhere, but often about 25 kilometres away, so there are piles and piles of shoes dumped by the roadside.
The drawback is that they are also accompanied by mobile DJ trucks, which play music to keep them inspired and motivated, at insanely high decibel levels, so much so, that you can feel the beat in your bones. The music makes you want to dance, but not at 3.00 am when there were four different groups within earshot. I would have cheerfully used one of the lances to spear the loudspeakers in order to get some sleep.
On that same night the camp was invaded by a herd of cows and calves, which I lay watching because by now we were all sleeping under the stars, so the nights were as active as the days. The night skies were absolutely incredible. With no light pollution the stars tried to outshine each other with their brilliance and then I really wished that I was more of an astrologer than I am. I did find the Milky Way, Orion, the Great Bear, Cassiopeia, Pleiades and I think Scorpio, but Iโm not certain, but there were also shooting stars, so of course I made wishes.
One of the most beautiful lunch stops was by a pond surrounded by gorgeous trees and on the bank behind our lunch encampment there were beautiful mausoleums. The horses were taken in to be soaked and as the others went in barefoot, there were squeals because of the hundreds of frogs which hopped and scuttled away from under their toes. A pair of Red-wattled Lapwings were furious by our invasion of their territory and made it very evident, but they calmed down when we were peaceful. The horses loved it too, because there was welcome shade, a breeze, the water and lots of food and attention. A big monitor lizard decided to drop into the water to cool off, then there were flocks of bee eaters that came and dunked in the water for their baths and a couple of sunbirds sat in the trees above where the others were sleeping.
Pokhran Fort
Another of our โindoorโ stops was in the deep burgundy-coloured Fort Pokharan Heritage Hotel, with its amazing architecture, like all the historic buildings of Rajasthan and a lovely, pale blue, high ceilinged dining hall complete with images of past maharajas, ornate mirrors and sparkling chandeliers. I wandered around photographing its beauty, while the others slept, rested or worked in the cool rooms. We were in the private hotel part, whilst the rest of the fort is opened to the pilgrims and they visit in their throngs. The doors are opened at 6.00 am and I have no idea when the evening visit ended, because I fell asleep to their voices around 11.00 pm.
Reggie’s Camel Camp
Our final night was at Reggieโs Camel Camp in Osian. It is a newly constructed fort from which they run camel safaris and also has an arena for camel racing. Walking through and climbing up the corridors lead you to the highest point, were there is a fabulous hill-top pool and bar, overlooking the town.
We camped within the walls, which are interspersed with towers and finally had the flame torches lit, sadly the wind blew them out again after a short time. There are thatched rooms, which have tents slung under them and the most luxurious of furniture, amenities and ensuite bathrooms. Bonnie mentioned that Sting and his family had stayed in them during a horse safari that he had organised for him.
Last day of the horse riding adventure
There is the saying that time flies when you are enjoying yourself and it is such a truism.
Bonnie set the cat amongst the pigeons, by suggesting that we all dress in shirts, skirts or something different, so many discussions ensued re what could be worn with what! We rode in the dunes outside the walls and then made the most of the arena for Bonnie to display his tent pegging skills and Dilip to gallop as the flag bearer and I finally managed to capture Kate and Soniaโs reval. I hadnโt managed it before, because she ordinarily paced when I was beside her and it is impossible to photograph when you are in a fast trot or canter and pictures of feet, the sky or anything in-between donโt do anything justice. I had dismounted to take the photographs, but requested that I could remount Sukhi, so that I didnโt lose a single moment and could ride her for one last time into the inner fort area.
I had a sad ache because we have had the last canter, trot, walk and now it is time for the final dismount from our beautiful, regal, tolerant and wonderful horses and soon we will be returning to โnormalโ life away from this dream.
But, dreams can come true. This one did, every brilliant, wonderful, exciting, eventful and completely unforgettable moment of nearly 200 kms.
Soon I will dream again, because you never know where dreams can lead youโฆ
