Divine Horses of - Friends of Marwari / Kathiawari Horse UK

The Marwari Horse 

Divine Horses of 

Words and 

Images by 

Mark 

Eveleigh 

Raghuvendra Singh Dundlod, known 

simply as ‘Bonnie’ and Francesca Kelly 

of the Indigenous Horse Society of India – known 

in Rajasthan simply as Ghorawalli (The Horsewoman) 

The Marwari warhorses of rajasThan 

were once considered of a casTe ThaT 

was higher even Than Their noble 

rajpuT riders. Mark eveleigh reporTs 

froM forT dundlod, hoMe of The 

Marwari. 

Kanwar Raghuvendra ‘Bonnie’ 

Singh, Lord of Dundlod, 

trotted out of his castle at 

the head of the procession. He was 

crowned with the saffron-coloured 

turban of the Rajput warrior and his 

ancestral sword hung at his side. 

He was mounted on his trumpeting 

Marwari stallion Gajraj and at his 

right hand rode the English ‘warrior 

princess,’ known in Rajasthan simply 

as Ghorawalli (The Horsewoman). 

It was like a scene from The Man 

Who Would Be King and, watching 

from the battlements, I allowed myself 

a moment to fantasise that I was an 

English cavalry officer destined also 

to ride to glory under the Dundlod 

standard: ‘Victory Follows Virtue.’ 

“How did you enjoy the canter this 

morning?” 

A voice at my shoulder brought 

me back to reality and I turned to see 

Bonnie’s father, known to his friends 

simply as Rags. 

“Breathtaking,” I hedged. I was quite 

sure that this veteran horseman, once 

captain of The Rajasthan Wanderers 

polo team, was already well aware of my 

lack of potential as officer material for 

26 ❘ NagMag June 2009 Tel: 01273 491 550 www.nagmagmedia.com

As the sun begins to set into the dust of the maidan, richly clothed 

dancing camels and horses are led out to display talents that still 

survive from the Natchni – a now extinct dancing 

strain of the Marwari 

his household cavalry. 

“Riding a Marwari is like 

looking at the world through 

the sights of a rifle,” my riding 

companion had said earlier that 

morning as we rode out onto 

the Sheikhawati Plains. As an 

instructor in the Indian army 

Colonel Sarpartap Singh was no 

stranger to either horses or rifles. 

Sitting astride a side-winding, 

snorting black mare by the name 

of Raat ki Rani (Queen of the 

Night) I, however, had uneasy the 

feeling that I had somehow placed 

myself at the wrong end of the 

barrel. 

Raat ki Rani’s wonderful 

scimitar-shaped ears, curving 

inwards so that they almost met 

at the points, did indeed give 

an unusual perspective to the 

Indian acacia. But so too did 

her stomping hooves and the 

acceleration of an instinctive 

warhorse that threatened to make 

me a permanent feature of the 

desert acacia should I relax my 

hold on the reins. 

The warriors of the Rajput 

caste were renowned for their 

courage, their lust for conquest 

and their nobility…and they refined 

these qualities in their horses. 

There are many stories of entire 

Rajput clans who rode to certain 

death in battle rather than retreat. 

And there are tales of noble 

Marwaris who leapt fearlessly 

onto the spear-studded howdahs 

of battle elephants or threw 

themselves into the fray from high 

battlements. 

Since I was mounted upon 

a creature that would once have 

been considered of a loftier caste 

even than her Rajput riders it was 

fitting that Raat ki Rani should be 

out to teach me some respect. 


During the days of the 

British Raj the Marwari was 

shunned in favour of imported 

polo ponies and European 

thoroughbreds. A victim of colonial 

bigotry, this princely and perfectlyadapted 

desert breed quickly 

slid into disrepute until even their 

wonderful ears were derided as 

the ‘mark of a native horse.’ Even 

today the descendents of once 

proud warhorses can often be 

seen hauling hardware carts in the 

streets of Jaipur. 

Despite their statuesque 

beauty, Marwaris have all the 

toughness and desert guile of 

the hardiest Outback brumby 

and Bonnie quickly realised that 

with good training they would 

be ideally suited to horseback 

tours across the Sheikhawati 

plains. Their fine, silky coats keep 

them cool and their small, tough 

hooves travel unflinchingly over the 

stony land. Their long eyelashes 

and their wonderful ears (which 

can flick through 180 degrees) 

have evolved to protect them 

from sandstorms. Bred for long, 

arduous desert campaigns, the 

Marwaris could travel for great 

distances on scant water and little 

grazing; even today the horsetraders 

of the Marasi tribe still 

www.nagmagmedia.com email: info@nagmagmedia.com June 2009 NagMag ❘ 27 

❝ How can I 

compare 

as a lover 

to the mare 

when she 

is close to 

thee? ❞


Sheikhawati Horse (and camel) Fair takes 

place during the festival of Gangaur 

❝ Riding a 

Marwari is 

like looking 

at the world 

through the 

sights of a 

rifle ❞ 

measure distance by the 

ground that a good horse can 

cover in a day. 

In 1982 when the producers 

of The Far Pavilions came to 

Dundlod they hired Bonnie Singh 

as coordinator. Afterwards he 

bought a dozen of the best 

horses that were used in the film 

and turned the family fort into 

a Heritage Hotel as a base for 

Sheikhawati’s first horse safaris. 

Later he established Marwari 

Bloodlines with his partner 

Francesca Kelly (aka the English 

‘warrior princess’ Ghorawalli) 

to promote a breed that he has 

described as nothing less than an 

endangered species. 

“The Marwari is capable 

of adapting almost anywhere,” 

says Francesca. As the society’s 

overseas representative, she 

eventually won a lengthy battle 

against bureaucratic US import 

restrictions to ship the first 

Marwaris to her Martha’s Vineyard 

ranch. 

Today the magnificent Gajraj 

is busy siring the next generation 

of Dundlod foals and the society 

has produced the first ‘Breed 

Standards’ book to outline the 

desired characteristics for a prime 

Marwari. 

Yet the Marwari can never be 

classified as a ‘thoroughbred.’ 

European owners might talk with 

pride about thoroughbred whose 

bloodlines are certified back to 

their great-great-grandparents… 

the Marasi horse experts can 

recite poems that record the 

ancestry of horses like Raat 

ki Rani and Gajraj back to ten 

generations! 

‘To know and love the Marwari 

is to re-enter a magical realm of 

our childhood’ – Francesca wrote 

in Marwari: Legend of the Indian 

Horse ‘– a world of castles and 

heroes, intrigues and passion, 

grand exploits and dark deeds, 

and extraordinary mythical 

horses.’ She could just as easily 

have been writing of the desert 

outpost of Dundlod itself. 

The fort is accessed through 

two imposing gateways, 

overlooked by soaring 

battlements. In the central 

courtyard you are greeted by 

a row of brass cannon and, 

invariably, a refreshing welcome 

in the form of the first of countless 

cups of cardamom-scented Indian 

tea. The maze of narrow corridors, 



regal meeting rooms and disused watchtowers, allowing 

arrow-slit views towards the shimmering desert, 

transport the imagination back to more uncertain times. 

I had been fortunate enough to coincide my week’s 

riding at Dundlod with the Gangaur festival, the main 

event in the Rajasthani calendar. At the Sheikhawati 

Horse Show I would have a chance to see the 

Marwaris in action. Horses play a major part in the 

Gangaur processions and have always held a special 

place in the hearts of Rajasthani men. A local folksong 

has a wife lamenting: 

“How can I compare as a lover to the mare when 

she is close to thee? 

“I’m sure that when she’s between your thighs you 

lose all thought for me.” 

Gangaur is essentially the Hindu celebration of the 

marriage of Gan (Lord Shiva) and Gauri (the goddess 

Parvati). Bejewelled effigies of the divine couple are 

put on display in the great diwan-khana reception 

rooms of the castles, and the shrouded women 

of the Dholak caste gather to chant their endless 

litanies. The villagers dress in their finest clothes and 

the bright saris gleam like neon against the sunbleached 

Rajasthani stonework and the desiccated 

landscape. Young women beg the goddess Gauri 

to find them a good and loving husband…while 

The Gangaur procession trooping out of Fort Dundlod 

married women content themselves with asking 

The women of Rajasthan make offerings to effigies of Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati 

www.nagmagmedia.com email: info@nagmagmedia.com June 2009 NagMag ❘ 29


❝ To know 

and love the 

Marwari is 

to re-enter 

a magical 

realm of our 

childhood ❞ 

for a general improvement in the 

behaviour of the current one. 

The horse show has become 

a marketplace for the nomadic 

horse-traders of the Marasi tribe, 

and the Raika communities whose 

great camel-drawn wagon trains 

are still a fixture of Rajasthani 

highways. Though far smaller than 

the world famous Pushkar Camel 

Fair, Sheikhawati is yet to be overrun 

by tour groups. 

The afternoon was filled with 

show jumping, tent-pegging and 

‘hanky-picking’ – where the rider 

swings down below his galloping 

A Marwari displays its unique 

lyre-shaped ears, during guard 

duty at Fort Dundlod 

horse to grab a shred of cloth 

from the ground – tournaments 

between the Indian Police and 

the (victorious) Dundlod team. As 

the sun began to set into the dust 

of the polo field, richly decorated 

dancing camels and horses were 

led out to display talents that 

still survive from the Natchni – a 

now extinct dancing strain of the 

Marwari. Just as tent-pegging 

dates back to dawn attacks by 

lancers who flicked the pegs from 

enemy tents, dancing to wild drum 

beats was a way of teaching these 

agile horses evasive footwork and 

of habituating them to the clamour 

of battle. 

“If horses don’t run during 

Gangaur,” say the Rajasthanis, 

“when will they run?” Over 

the course of a week Raat ki 

Rani took me on many long 

runs through the Sheikhawati 

countryside. We trotted through 

villages where young men paused 

in their endless games of cricket 

to wave. Kohl-eyed girls looked 

up from their laundry to smile 

bashfully. We cantered through 

flocks of posturing peacocks and 

herds of haughty camels and, 

one unforgettable morning, we 

galloped with a herd of wild nilgai 

antelope. 

Despite my soldierly 

delusions I never did get to ride 

into battle with the Dundlod 

Cavalry or get to prove my worth 

as a mounted striker for the 

Rajasthani Wanderers (or even the 

Sheikhawati bicycle polo team). 

I still look back with a feeling 

of gratitude, however, that 

throughout all those breathtaking 

morning gallops Queen of the 

Night had the simple decency and 

noble-breeding to allow me to 

retain my rather insecure seat on 

her back. NM

Divine Horses of - Friends of Marwari / Kathiawari Horse UK

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