www.scimitarpress.co.uk

Judra Kasarina was for ten years Lithuania's Dressage Champion, and subsequently became National Coach in that discipline... among the horses in the school were some of her own; and in this she was breaking new ground.

When the horses were all watered and fed, she brought glasses from the house. We sat on benches in the yard, slapping the bugs and watching our shadows creep towards the old cottage; and talking, inevitably, of life in Lithuania since Independence.

In aspiring to own and deal in "private" horses, Judra had attracted covert disapproval and even open enmity from the equestrian circle. The worst hostility came from the Lithuanian Mounted Police, based at the Vilnius Riding Club. They were formed only three years ago, and no-one seemed quite sure of their function, least of all they themselves. Of one thing, however, they were quite certain: as representatives of the State, they were the moral and ideological guardians of the Club's integrity. The idea of privately owned horses was outside their experience, and therefore anathema. Opposed to Judra keeping her horses at the Club, they made things as difficult for her as they could.

...We raised our glasses to the new enterprise. "I think," said Judra with a laugh, "we are a republic of bananas!"

...When I went "up the hill" to take my leave of Judra, she was squeezing in one last lesson, with two bouncing German girls.

"Bouncing" in more ways than one. Both of large girth and enjoying the heatwave in shorts, plimsolls and boob tubes, they clung to the saddles, barely able to manage a slow trot on the lunge. "Everyone rides dressed like this at home!" they gurgled happily.

Strong stuff for a National Coach; but a client is still a client, and must be humoured.

Back | Top of Page | Home

Extract 5 - Lithuania