Cowboy Dressage. Jessica Black
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They only used horses for ceremonial occasions; the rest of the time, they preferred camels or donkeys, while the horses remained tied to a stake next to their tents. When they did ride the horses, their horsemanship was basic—woven blankets rather than saddles, equipment that reflected the necessities of a hard life. Eitan remembers trying to organize horse shows—races, mainly. He would get some Arabs to bring their horses, but it was absolute chaos. Eitan almost always won because he could make his horses turn. For most people, horses were for work and status symbols, not competition or pleasure. Eitan’s obsession with them set him apart.
Long afterward, as an adult, Eitan would learn that his family had not lived entirely apart from horses. One grandfather had been a horseman; another had made carriage wheels with an old-fashioned steamer. Those wheels were placed on carts used to carry grapes to the vineyards of Rishon LeZion. Knowing these things, Eitan instantly replied to my question of whether horse persons were born or made: “For me, it was equal parts genes, luck, and dreams.”
People who work with horses and are good at it are artists, and like all artists, they are born with a special talent, but without the right circumstances, that talent will never be apparent. “You’ve got to really want it,” Eitan believes, “and then you’ve got to be lucky—you have to come across the right people at the right time to guide you along the road to true horsemanship.”
It took a long time for Eitan to realize his dream. Like all young men in Israel, he had to fulfill the military service requirement at 18. He spent much of his obligatory military time (approximately 1958–1961) finding excuses to be with horses. His brother—higher up in the military—would get him out of trouble, but finally he ended up with a choice that led him to become a paratrooper. He made dozens of drops before breaking both legs during the extended Arab-Israeli conflict.
When Eitan completed his military service, he applied for a youth exchange program that would take him to the United States for the first time (see sidebar, p. xix). He came back more determined than ever to include horses in his daily life. With the encouragement of his father, he investigated the possibility of studying veterinary medicine. He found two vet schools he thought he could get into, one in Vienna and one in Italy. He decided to go to the one in Vienna because he was more comfortable in German, but first he had to make enough money to get there and pay his way. He chose the fastest way of making money he could find: driving a bus from Tel Aviv to the Red Sea. Because it was dangerous work, it paid well, but it still took him nearly four years to save enough to go to Austria. When he finally made the move in 1965, Eitan went by sea to Genoa, where he purchased a 1961 Opel. He then had to live on a beach while waiting for his paperwork to go through before he could make the drive to Vienna.
Eitan found Vienna disappointing. He had expected a hands-on program, but students at the University of Veterinary Medicine spent the first two years studying from books. To make matters worse, Eitan felt that his social life was limited by the lingering effects of WWII: there was a disproportionate amount of elderly women, and he made few friends. The highpoint of his stay in the city was a part-time job he found thanks to the recommendation of the secretary of the University, one Frau Schmidt who had a contact at the Spanish Riding School. For 25 schillings a day, Eitan cleaned the stalls of the Lipizzaner stallions, but what he really did was watch. It was an eye-opening experience.
Prior to his stay in Vienna, Eitan’s familiarity with classical dressage had been limited to the times he could get away from military service or work in order to spend time with a Hungarian cavalry officer who was director of the Israeli National Stud at the time. His daily observations at the Spanish Riding School introduced Eitan to the reality of classical riding. It could be harsh. They did not start horses until they were around eight years old, but when they did, the training was grueling. On the other hand, for the first time, Eitan saw the importance of balance and the way movements such as lead changes and shoulder-ins contributed to it. Just by watching, Eitan absorbed the Baroque style that would become the foundation of the unique brand of riding he developed years later.
The time Eitan spent observing carefully as he cleaned stalls at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna is reflected in his distinctly Baroque style of riding.
The Spanish Riding School fueled Eitan’s thirst for knowledge about training, but the vet school continued to disappoint him so in 1968 he emigrated to the United States on a student visa. He spent two years studying veterinary medicine at the University of California in Davis before realizing that vet school had been his father’s idea more than it had been his. For the next several years, Eitan wandered between majors: animal science, entomology, engineering. When he was not studying, he was pumping gas or riding horses, but until President Reagan granted amnesty to illegal immigrants in 1986, Eitan’s continued residence in this country depended on his status as a student. Only then could he freely explore alternative career options.
Although Eitan never entirely left horses, he did try to stay away from them for several years. Drawing on the inner artistry that led him to whittle intricate figures while herding sheep, Eitan lived for some time by selling craft items, particularly carved wood, to stores such as Neiman-Marcus. However, for some of us, horses are an addiction: “They are a magnet,” Eitan states. “They always pull you back.” And although when he came to the United States he did not even know there was a job called “horse trainer,” he ended up training horses because he was broke. He opened a training barn in the late 1980s, starting with Quarter Horses. Not long afterward, a lady brought a Morgan horse to him. “A funny little horse,” Eitan thought to himself—he had never seen a Morgan outside the pages of a coloring book. A few months later, he bought his first Morgan. Although Eitan has never discriminated amongst breeds—he has willingly ridden any and all—the Morgan horse has remained a favorite, perhaps because it fits his Baroque style so well. Even more important, Morgans led Eitan to meet his wife: he appeared in the Morgan show world just when Debbie was looking for a trainer for a special colt she had bred.
Debbie Beth-Halachmy and her Morgan gelding, Indigo Go Gold (Indie). Whenever she pauses from the non-stop busyness that goes with organizing the fast-expanding new discipline of Cowboy Dressage, Debbie looks around in appreciation and wonder: Eitan, the horses, Wolf Creek Ranch, and her own hard work have fulfilled so many dreams.
Debbie Beth-Halachmy
“There were certain things I’ve wanted in life since I was a little girl,” Deb told me. She wanted horses, cowboys (“Well, a cowboy”), cats, and otters. She also wanted to be very rich—like most of us who have been horse mad at some point. Now, she says, she has realized that she is rich, not in monetary terms, but in everything else. Her fluffy cuddly cat Pumpkin is the most loved of a long line. She found the cowboy of her dreams when she met Eitan, and she’s got a pasture full of beautiful golden horses. She has even had otters; they have moved on now, but the creek was full of them a few years back.
It is easy to understand why Debbie feels rich. Wolf Creek Ranch in Grass Valley, California, seems like a small paradise when you walk around, visit the horses, and listen to the running water, but as the headquarters of Cowboy Dressage, it is also a busy place. When she is not riding, Deb sits at her computer or on the phone, organizing and promoting Cowboy Dressage. Her role is interpreting the vision, she says. “Eitan only wanted to ride, and I nagged and nagged at him about the rest!” Deb has been in many ways the business partner to Eitan the artist, only recently has he become an enthusiastic participant in the sharing and promotion of Cowboy Dressage. It is hard work, but also the fulfillment of a dream for both, and Deb loves it.
Born in 1987, Holiday Compadre (Carlyle Command x Holiday Temptress) became the first ambassador of Cowboy Dressage, and