At the inauguration of the refurbished National Riding School in Budapest on Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “We love Hungary, we love our culture, and therefore we also love our horses”.
Mr. Orbán remarked that an exemplary civic initiative successfully rescued the existing riding school from irretrievable disrepair, enabling the Government to refurbish it within a budget of HUF 3.2 billion. He said that the National Riding School will provide fitting training facilities for competitive riders.
According to the Prime Minister, Hungary’s equestrian community has ensured two things: that as a nation the Hungarian people have retained their equestrian spirit; and that the National Riding School – which was founded 140 years ago this year – was saved from attempts to “bulldoze” it, even though in 2006 it seemed that “not one stone would be left on another”. Mr. Orbán said that the past few years have shown that when the Government and the equestrian community entered into an alliance they “bet on the right horse”.
Download
The Prime Minister also noted that while nowadays horses are less visible in our daily lives, the old rule still applies: one’s honour is measured by how one treats one’s horses.
He pointed out that nobody knows exactly where the Hungarians’ ancestors originally came from before their arrival in the Carpathian Basin, but it is certain that they knew everything about horses, and their horses knew everything about them. “They rode together all around Europe, from top to toe , all the way from what today is Belgium to the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans”, he said, adding that we cannot rule out that “we eventually stayed here, in the Carpathian Basin, because our horses were used to the freedom of the steppes and felt most at home here, in this place”.
Download
Mr. Orbán noted that in horse breeding there is a long list of Hungarian achievements: famous horses such as Kincsem and Imperiál; and famous stud farms, such as Kisbér, Bábolna, Hortobágy and Szilvásvárad.
He recalled, however, that the 20th century “separated the Hungarian from his horse”: Hungarian hussars parted company with their horses to huddle in the trenches of the Great War; Hungarian farmers were later forced to hand their horses over to the collective farms; and socialism declared riding to be upper-class roguery.
Download
Now, however, the Prime Minister said, “we have gathered here so that in a few decades from now, when they look back on this cold February day, people can say that this could have been the moment when the Hungarian people declared themselves to be an equestrian nation once again”.
In closing, he added that now Hungarians can also proudly declare that state stud farms are once again the custodians of the noble traditions of Hungarian horse breeding, where new generations of horses such as Kincsem and Imperiál can be raised.
(MTI)
