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NEW DELHI: The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for 19-year-old rider Niharika Singhani. Securing a Merit 4 with her horse, First to Cash Out, booked her ticket to Japan for 2026. Asian games. And, as recently confirmed by the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI), Niharika will compete at this year’s Asia as the only woman in the Indian show jumping team.The selection for the Asian Games was not a surprise for the teenager. Daughter of a businessman Gautam Singhania and Nawaz Modi Singhania, Niharika has put together a string of strong international performances, including winning the gold medal at the Azelhof CSI Lier in Belgium in April 2025.Yet despite her international pedigree, her journey to Aichi-Nagoya was anything but a smooth ride.
Road to the Asian Games
Choosing a place at the Asian Games was as much a logistical challenge as it was a sporting one. Especially for Indian drivers, the road to qualification is complicated by international regulations.Since India-based horses cannot be transported directly to Japan under existing export protocols, athletes had to station their horses in Europe, compete in qualifying events between November 2025 and June 2026 and prepare for the Games from there.“It was definitely very bad and bad,” Niharika told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interaction. “There were a lot of balls thrown at us. I think our criteria was also updated very, very close to the deadline. So we were all trying to run around, trying to figure out how to adapt to this new framework.”
Niharika Singhania is only 19 years old (special arrangements)
The ultimate test of resilience came when her main horse, Iron Lady, who had taught her the ropes of Europe, fell ill just weeks before the crucial deadline.“A few weeks before the due date, she started not feeling so well,” Niharika said. “Coincidentally, a week or two before, the horse that I qualified with, Cash (First to Cash Out), came into the barn. He was actually supposed to be a horse for next year, to build up for the higher levels… And then we got going and I was like, ‘Wow, this horse is unreal.’ During the very first weekend, we decided, ‘Okay, I think this could be the Asian Games trial horse.“Then we tried it and it really worked.”
It all started from a school trip
Niharika’s romance with sports began completely by accident at the age of 12 during a school trip. – Honestly, it wasn’t planned for me at all – she revealed with a smile.“Along with the school, we went to this camp in Pune, and it happened to be there, I fell completely in love with it. I thought, ‘I love horses.’ All about it. I came back and I was just pestering my parents… ‘Please let me ride!'”Her parents took her to the local racetrack. She spent four years training under Asian Games veteran Yashaan Khambatta, who is now her teammate for the 2026 Games.
As for me personally, I really like to spend a lot of time with them in the barn
Niharika Singhania
Wanting to push her limits even further, Niharika moved to Europe two years ago to train under the guidance of veteran Belgian rider Vincent Lambrecht.
A stable of eight
Today, Niharika has eight horses, six of which are stationed in Europe and two in Mumbai. But in show jumping, a rider is only as strong as the partnership they build with their horse.“There are 100 different ways to approach a horse,” she explained.“I personally like to spend a lot of time with them in the barn. I think that’s how you get to know them. If I have to read my book, I’ll go sit in the barn and read it. Only they get used to you and your energy, and you have to get used to theirs.“What’s really hard for me to get over is when the horses are sick… It hurts you more than something that hurts you would if you saw the horse hurt.”
Finding balance out of the saddle
Balancing an elite European education with rigorous academics was a daily tightrope walk.While completing her International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma, Niharika seamlessly combined a tough study session with a full day of round-the-clock duties, from cleaning water buckets to tending to her nails.“I wasn’t a perfect student at all, but I did my best,” she laughed. Fortunately, she had the support of her parents, who understood the spiritual refuge that riding provided.
Niharika Singhania riding one of her six horses (special arrangements)
“I was lucky the conversation never got to, ‘Please stop riding until your boards are done.’ “Not at all. Especially for my mom, her thing was that if you study for exams for eight or nine hours a day, you deserve that one hour a day,” the teenager added. “She said, ‘Don’t sit there for five, six hours, but go for two hours, go for one hour, enjoy yourself and come back, and I think that will help.'”With qualification officially secured, Niharika is now in the final stages of preparations for the Games in September 2026.“The most important thing is just to keep the horses in good shape and also still love what they’re doing,” she says. “Enough time for them to relax and then enough time that they work on to keep them in better shape. We have to work a bit backwards from the Asian Games to make sure that they are peaking at that time.”Looking beyond Aichi-Nagoya, Niharika refuses to limit her ambitions. “My idea with sports and horses is always from the beginning: let me go as far as I can and see what’s possible,” she smiled. “We’re going one step at a time and we’ll see how far I can go.”
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