Journey on horseback to Situ Medura :

Horses, saddles and a riding school

by Aditha Dissanayake

"Itzig, wohin reit'st Du?" "Weiss ich, frag das Pferd." ("Itzig, where are you riding to? Don't ask me, ask the horse.") wrote Sigmund Freud in Origins of Psychoanalysis in 1950. Ask the same question from Suranjith Premadasa and he will pat the horse he is riding and probably say "To Nuwara-Eliya". Yes. Because that's where his dreams are turning into reality this April season.

Suranjith Premadasa, the Managing Director of the Premadasa Group is happy that his efforts to revive equestrian sports in our country got off the ground with the Horse Show held on April 17 at the Nuwara-Eliya race course.

The show which included a number of activities and acrobatics performed on horseback brought back to life the days of yore when battles were fought atop a horse and quarrels were sorted with the blade of a sword. "It has been a dead sport till now. But today, the Sri Lanka Equestrian Association is in the forefront of the revival of equestrian sports in the island".

The only son of A.D.D. Premadasa and M. Abeysekara of Matara, Suranjith was educated at Royal College Colombo where he excelled in sports activities. Having inherited the family business of block making which was begun by his father in 1943 Suranjith introduced offset colour separation into the market in 1979.

Today the Premadasa Group has established branches not only in the suburbs of Colombo, Kandy and Galle but also in Dubai and Tansania, with over 450 employees.

A race driver since 1974 and proud of his son Aravinda, who has proven to be a chip of the old block not only in motor racing but in horse riding too, together with wife Sulochana and two daughters, who are all good horsewomen, Suranjith is determined to keep the torches of the traditions and festivals regarding horses, still burning so that they will not become mass scale extinctions.

Observing the activities of his riding school, with its thirty-five horses and lush meadows, situated only a few kilometers away from the busy Nugegoda junction, it is easy to learn a few lessons about life. Watching Suranjith feeding the horses, grooming and riding them from the crack of dawn till about ten in the morning after which he leaves for office, one can learn how independence and self-reliance can be coupled with caring and generosity, how to be dependable yet flexible, how strength and gentleness coexists and ... above all, how to leave gates closed!

In such a setting it is impossible not to think of the saying "If you marry a horseman you'll have a gun on your bedpost and boots under your bed. And you'll have a man who's hard living and hard loving everyday and every night, throughout his life".

Happily married, with three children, Suranjith Premadasa is a knight in shining armour who knows how to win life's battles.

For more revealing details about this entrepreneur turned horseman, watch Situ Medura tonight at 9.05 on ITN.