Jairaj Rajaram can trace his love of horses back to a single, unlikely source: the legendary film Sholay.
He says while he was watching the film as a toddler, his mother noticed something odd.
“I was quiet when there was a horse on screen, and the moment the horse left the screen, I would start crying,” Rajaram recounts.
It was the first clue to a life that would eventually be centred around horses. Spanning four countries, Rajaram has built a career in equine dentistry, and widespread recognition as the only Indian-origin player of Australia’s native equine sport, polocrosse.
A life in the company of four legged friends
For as long as he can remember, Jairaj Rajaram preferred being around horses. His journey into polocrosse started with more conventional equine pursuits when he was growing up in India. Rajaram’s first rides started when he was about seven; visiting his uncle in Kodaikanal, a hill station in Southern India, he would ride horses around the lake every year.
“After a while, I didn’t even need supervision,” he recalls.
By the age of ten, in the early 1980s, he’d enrolled at a riding school in Chennai. Within a few years he was competing in show jumping, dressage and gymkhana races, and representing his Indian state in all forms of equine sports including polo.
“When I was not doing these, I would spend my time with people that worked with horses, from the vets to the caretakers. I wished to know everything about taking care of them,” says Rajaram.
Now, he is living that wish. Jairaj Rajaram currently owns seven horses on his expansive outer-Melbourne property, three of which are home-bred. His early polocrosse companion, Ashwem (named after the Hindu ritual of Ashwamedha Yajna), gave him a filly (young female horse), Tulip, who, in turn, has birthed Polo and Sage. He dotes on the three generations of horses, and currently plays polocrosse on the two-and-a-half years old horse Sage. Jairaj Rajaram also has three retired thoroughbreds – Kate, Morgan and Keljay.
“The horses have made me what I am today. It’s shaped my behaviour. You have to be calm and composite with them, you can’t be rough or they won’t respond to you,” Rajaram says.
Dentistry during the week, polocrosse on weekends
Polocrosse was invented in Australia in 1938 and is popular in Queensland, NSW, WA and Victoria. The sport is a cross between polo and lacrosse, with elements of rugby and netball thrown in. Like polo, it’s played on horseback, and like lacrosse, players wield a stick with a net at its end. Unlike polo, where one has to hit the ball all the way to the goalpost, a polocrosse goal is scored by throwing the ball between two goalposts from behind a marked semi-circle. Each team comprises six players, with three at a time taking turns to play three chukkas (periods) of six minutes each.
Polocrosse currently holds national competitions and an International World Cup every two years, with eight countries participating. Australia often leads the charge in these competitions, although it is also a popular sport in South Africa.
Since 2011, Jairaj Rajaram has been playing at the club level in Mornington on weekends. His early years of playing polo in Chennai has helped him pick the game easily, but he says there was a steep learning curve. He also coaches young players at the local pony club and those with a disability.
During the week, Rajaram is never far away from his favourite animal. Ranked among Australia’s best equine dentists, he now treats close to 3,000 horses a year across Victoria, Northern Territory and Tasmania. He studied dentistry in New Zealand and upskilled in Tamworth, NSW, a few years ago.
For decades, Rajaram held conventional jobs to fuel and fund his love for horses. As a young man in India, he worked in port operations while training with an Indian cavalry unit to sharpen his horsemanship. He spent time in Oman in the Middle East, the highlight of which, he says, was riding the majestic Arabian horses of the Sultan’s royal stables.
In 2002, he immigrated to New Zealand, working as a banker but earning his first equine coaching qualifications in his own time. In 2008, he moved with his wife and daughter to Melbourne, and built his dream home on a farm.
“The three of us do everything for the horses and our other pets, from feeding them to brushing their coats,” says Rajaram. “It is a lot of work, but it’s a labour of love.”
Three years ago, he committed to dentistry as a full-time career. He is the only equine dentist of Indian origin in Australia.
“[My work] extends to diagnosing decay, extracting retained baby teeth, and correcting bite alignment so horses can carry a bit comfortably,” he explains.
Whether playing polocrosse or solving dental problems, Jairaj Rajaram’s life will continue to be dedicated to all things equine.
“Horses will always be with me,” he says, “till the end of my breath.”
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