Built on Passion and Love of Horses
OUR STORY
Duke Horse Riding Club was established in early 2019 by Dushyant Sharma from South Delhi and Kate O Brien, from Ireland. The club started when the duo met on a plane and shared their lifelong experience and love for horses which, in turn, sparked the idea which soon became Duke’s. Within just six months of this fortunate meeting, the club was open to the public.
Within a short space of time, Duke’s has experienced exponential growth, setting the standard in Gurgaon and surrounding areas for quality of horsemanship, training and facilities.
We strive to incorporate international best practices and local hospitality in our approach to riding and horse-based events. And we’ve invested heavily in ensuring safe, quality facilities from our purpose-built training arena to our garden lawn area. The infrastructure of our club is important to use, the look and feel of the place should reflect our quality and standards. Each day we get closer to becoming one of India’s most reputed riding clubs and a sought after equestrian event experience centre through our hard work and passion.
Student and customer satisfaction is at the core of all we do, and we are committed to listening to you, to become even better and create new standards in India for the Horse Riding community.
OUR CORE VALUES
Duke’s was born out of a lifetime appreciation of horses and in founding the club, it was important for us to establish values that reflect our admiration and respect for these majestic animals while also creating a sustainable business model which puts the customer experience at the core. Our values incorporate the following principles:
Accessibility
Duke’s strives to meet the diverse needs of many by providing a wide range of affordable and flexible equestrian offerings and memberships. In the noisy, and often stressful Indian urban life, we make available the opportunity to experience the healing magic of horses through both riding and spending time with them on the ground.
Responsible Growth
We believe in the planned growth to ensure a reliable experience for our members and an unburdened workload for our horses and staff. We do this through maintaining an infrastructure capable of the growth we want to achieve and adding programs we feel we can deliver with the same level of knowledge and enthusiasm as our current ones. We value our members and customers' opinions and we seek to exceed their listen to their needs and requests as we grow to the next level.
Safety
Horses are a large animal and can be unpredictable at times. At Duke Horse Riding Club, we ensure that our customers are educated in the safety of horses in approach, mounting, horse riding and handling. We use accredited saddles and tack and establish a culture of safety through continued education and learning for both staff and customers in the handling and care of horses.
Horse Community
The horses and ponies are the heart of the Duke family and are all thoroughly schooled, with assorted sizes and temperaments to suit a variety of individuals.
We believe in second chances and are involved in rescuing horses. We take horses out of bad situations, rehabilitate them to physical and mental wellbeing and prepare them to be club horses. The stages of rehabilitation vary per horse, by accessing the horse’s behaviour, strength, injuries and training. Once the horses are fit both in physical health and behavioural attitude, we expose them to work, slowly building their confidence with people and the workload involved in a riding school. Our attention to the care and wellbeing of our horses is paramount to our values. Customers recognise and appreciate these values and this acknowledgement is a major reason for customer loyalty and recommendations.
TAKING CARE OF THE COMMUNITY
At Duke’s we believe that all Indian business have a duty to care for the wider society and that’s why, even though a very young company, Duke’s is working with the local community to provide support and learning opportunities.
Neighbouring our club in Sector 58 is a ragpicker colony. Ragpickers are people who make a living through sorting through other's waste in search of items which can be recycled and sold, such as glass bottles, cardboard, and plastic.
They live among the waste in toxic, rancid conditions without access to clean drinking water or toilets.
During the Corona Crisis, Duke Horse Riding Club collaborated with the NGO, United for Hope to support this community throughout the Lockdown. We provided supporting food rations, sanitary products and vital nutrition to children and pregnant/nursing mothers as well as supporting them logistically with any arising community needs.
Post Lockdown, we continuing to work with the community in areas such as education, hygiene, and vocational training.
We value your support in enabling us to continue supporting local under privileged communities
