Armen Aghajanyan: Horses have always attracted me in any form

Armen Aghajanyan/from personal archive

Prokoni: How did you get started in equestrian sports?

Armen Aghajanyan: Horses have always fascinated me in every way. My acquaintance with the world of equestrian sport began very spontaneously. I was driving from a meeting and on the road we passed Bitsa. I asked the driver to turn there. Just like that, for some reason I wanted to. Since then I have stayed there. It turns out that exactly 6 years ago I first sat in the saddle.

Prokoni: What was your first horse? Do you remember him?

AA: Yes, of course I remember! My first horse was Tezan (laughs). And then there were already different horses from the Bitsa rental.

Prokoni: Did you do any kind of sport before that?

AA: Oh sure. I was engaged in swimming for 12 years and received the title of CCM.

Prokoni: Who was your first coach and do you remember your first competitions?

AA: My first coach was Tatyana Abramova, a person with a good sense of humor, we quickly found a common language and still maintain good friendly relations. After several months of regular training, she suggested that I try to jump, I really liked it and we didn’t even have time to notice how we approached our first competition.

Armen Agadzhanyan and Tatyana Abramova / from the personal archive

My first competition was a debut not only for me, but also for the horse on which I jumped – the Belarusian Hannover Aldan. The sight and feeling were unforgettable (laughs) … but I “jumped” to the end of the route.

Prokoni: At that time, were you already thinking about buying your own horse, or did you continue to train with rented horses?

AA: After the first competitions on rolling Bitsa horses, I thought about buying my own horse. The search was long, I reviewed a lot of horses and my choice fell on Lone Wanderer by advice Sandro Chikhladze. Having traveled a bit and jumping a couple of barriers, I realized that this is “my” horse. After long painstaking training, we started to start. We got a good tandem, he taught me a lot, and in general he is a horse with a big soul. Favorite horse.

Armen Aghajanyan and the Lonely Wanderer/from personal archive

Prokoni: You had a period when you didn’t perform for about a year. What happened then?

AA: I had an injury, and, as it turned out, a serious one. Recovery was difficult and very long. I dropped out of sports activities for almost a year.

Prokoni: And who has been working as a Wanderer all this time? What was the horse doing?

AA: All this time he worked under saddle Tatyana Anikeeva. They With Lone Wanderer quickly got along and in six months they “jumped” up to 140 cm. And when I had already recovered, I was sorry to interrupt her work. I thought that the horse was in its prime, he was 10 years old at that time, and in training he showed that 140 см – this is not his maximum height, but he will still have time to jump with me on amateurs.

Prokoni: Now you are the owner of not one horse, but rather a small herd of sports horses. At what point did you decide that one horse is not enough?

AA: Yes, today I have 4 horses. And as you know, in order to achieve results in equestrian sports, having one horse is not enough, so I decided to buy more horses. Thanks to my friends from Belgium, our team was supplemented by 3 more four-legged partners.

Armen Aghajanyan and the Lonely Wanderer/from personal archive

Now all these horses are running Tatyana. On a 9 year old Dollar Van De Kranenburg, we plan to prepare for the Russian championship in group A, at the 7-year Large Van De Kerselar и Lonely Wandererfor group B. I don’t want to rush things. We will make final plans after the Armenian Cup.

Prokoni: Tell us about the association, during the creation of which all your organizational skills were useful – about MALKS.

AA: International Equestrian Association. This is our child. I offered to lead and become the president of MALKS to a professional devoted to equestrian sport, respected by all Alexei Lvovich Ermolaev, I am very glad that he kindly agreed with him, it is comfortable not only in work, but also in friendship! I wanted to create a company that would organize tournaments. Initially, MALKS was called a little differently – MARKS, that is, the Association for the Development of Equestrian Sports. We even held a tournament in 2015 on December 13th. It was an experiment – we took over the entire final day of the three-day tournament. 275 participants came to us then, I still remember how Sergey Petrov jumped at 12 nights Grand Prix! Everything went very well, we were satisfied. And when they began to register the organization, in order to comply with the law on public organizations, they had to be renamed the Association of Amateurs. But lovers in the broadest sense of the word: all those who love horses and equestrianism.

Prokoni: What are the organization’s plans for the near future?

AA: In fact, we are at the stage of determining which vector to move and develop further. The activities of the organization will be aimed at the development and promotion of equestrian sports. And, of course, the organization of tournaments.

In particular, there are plans, together with our partners in the Armenian Cup Mercedes-Belyayevo, to create a big summer tournament.

Prokoni: Who organizes the Armenian Cup tournament?

AA: The Armenian Cup is organized by MALKS и Maxima Equisport with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in the Russian Federation. We are very grateful for the support in organizing the tournament to our partners: ECOGAZ, business club “Cilicia”, MB Belyaevo and AutoSpecCenter.

Prokoni: Tell us about the organization of last year’s cup.

AA: Last year’s tournament was held within the framework of the Days of Armenian Culture in Russia with the support of the RA Embassy in Russia. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Russian Federation Vartan Surenovich Toganyan – was the honorary president of the tournament.

Prokoni: And what will happen this year?

AA: The tournament will now run for two weeks. This was done, among other things, at the request of the invited athletes, so that they could go to Moscow not for one week, but for a longer period.

The first week will be dedicated to the memory of the outstanding world-famous Armenian chansonnier Charles Aznavour. Unfortunately, he left us quite recently, remaining in the hearts and memory of millions of people as a man and an Armenian with a capital letter, who did everything possible and impossible for his homeland.

Not everyone knows that he was a big fan of horses and loved riding, he even has a family stable in France. memory cup Charles Aznavour become a traditional tournament.

Second Tournament – Cup of Memory Kamo Zakariana, an outstanding Armenian triathlete, a participant in the Olympic Games as part of the USSR national team.

Within the framework of the tournament, there will be a route dedicated to the anniversary of the capital of Armenia – “Eravan-2800”, оorganizers are FKSM and FKSE. 2 teams consisting of invited athletes will compete for the main prize at heights of 120 and 130 cm.

The course designer for the first tournament with a maximum height of 140 cm will be Alexey Lvovich Ermolaev. In the second week, the routes will be set by another excellent specialist – Vladimir Platov.

This year on December 14th we will have Veterans Cup. For active athletes, the height will be up to 120 cm, for those who have already completed their sports career – up to a meter.

At the riders party on December 14 we plan to organize friendly football matchto which businessmen from the club “Cilicia” (this is a business club that unites Armenian entrepreneurs around the world) and equestrian athletes.

Prokoni: Many people probably ask why the Armenian Cup is held in Russia?

A.A.: The tournament was created within the framework of the Days of Armenian Culture in Russia, and after a successful start, which brought together a record number of participants, we, together with Maxima Equisport decided to make it traditional.

In fact, in Yerevan there is a grass arena, but then it is necessary to transfer the tournament to the summer. By the way, we have an idea (so far it’s just an idea) to organize a major autumn tournament with stages in Armenia, Georgia, Rostov, Krasnodar and the final in Moscow.

Prokoni: What would you wish the athletes?

A.A. Have an iron willpower, go to your goal with patience, good luck and many bright victories in tandem with your four-legged partners!