three of the above have been achieved. I am especially pleased that Eitan, belatedly, has achieved well deserved recognition. And, I am very happy that the discipline of Cowboy Dressage, his creation, is growing so rapidly in popularity.
It emphasizes kindness and gentleness, not mastery. It discourages excessive drilling and rigidity. Its aim is a mutually satisfying partnership between human and horse. It is a moderate discipline, not extreme in its goals.
Importantly, as a veterinarian, I see a competitive event that is not damaging to the horse, mentally or physically. Having spent a lifetime seeing the damage, often irreversible, that so many horses suffer in more traumatic disciplines, it is gratifying to see Cowboy Dressage, which benefits the horse mentally and physically, yet gives the rider the opportunity to compete in a complex and challenging event.
Moreover, older and less athletic riders can effectively compete in Cowboy Dressage. My wife, Debby, for example, in her eighties, has won in Cowboy Dressage shows.
So, I enthusiastically support the sport of Cowboy Dressage. I know that it will contribute greatly to Western horsemanship with its already long history, originating in North Africa and then spreading over the centuries to Iberia and, eventually, to the Americas. This book, written about and with the man who created Cowboy Dressage, should help.
Dr. Robert Miller
Thousand Oaks, California
NOTE TO THE READER
AND PHOTO CREDITS
To avoid pronoun confusion, it is the publisher’s policy to refer to all horses as “he” and all riders as “she.” This choice is made in the name of clarity of prose only, and no offence—on the part of horse or human—should be taken.
Most of the photographs in this book were taken by Lesley Deutsch; however, a number of other photographers also generously contributed their work. A special thank you to all the photographers who were willing to be part of this project.
Primo Morales (p. v)
Courtesy of Eitan & Debbie Beth-Halachmy (pp. xvii, xxiii, 23 top, 49, 131)
Howard Schatzberg (pp. xxiv, xxv, xxvi, 9, 11, 124, 125, 176)
Lee Folino/Inner Vision Images (p. 4)
Debby Zarate (p. 22)
Jessica Black (p. 33 left)
Dayton Photography/Dora Grund (p. 44 left)
Avalon Equine (p. 50)
Gerardo Martin Martinez (p. 117)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (p. 141)
Pepe Martin p. 146
Don Moats (p. 161 top left)
Lisbeth Poppel (p. 161 bottom left and right)
Tessa Baumann (p. 162 top left and right)
Mark Bruin (p. 162 bottom left and right)
PREFACE
1945, Rishon LeZion, British Mandate of Palestine
The story of Cowboy Dressage® began at the side of a grave, as five-year-old Eitan Beth-Halachmy stood solemnly at his mother’s funeral, the youngest mourner, trying hard to look anywhere but at the coffin. Everything was dry, dusty, and bleak, the graveyard a sandy expanse between the orange groves, the people formal and grieving. Out of the corner of his eye, the boy spotted a tall, bearded sheriff, standing under a eucalyptus tree beside his horse, a small chestnut Arabian.
Or perhaps it was that the sheriff was large—to a small five-year old, he seemed huge. Eitan watched the sheriff—and the sheriff watched him—throughout the ceremony. As soon as the funeral ended, the sheriff came straight up to him, lifted him, and put him in the saddle. Even though Eitan had never so much as touched a horse, the sheriff let him ride by himself, guiding the little horse between the rows of trees. That was it; addiction took over his soul.
Eitan Beth-Halachmy spent his childhood dreaming of horses and his adult life connecting with them.
“It felt like flying,” Eitan remembers. For the first time, something else, a live being, was carrying him over the ground, with no effort on his part. Before that moment, he had never known a horse, and had not imagined what riding one would be like. After that first ride, young Eitan did a lot of imagining, if little riding. He spent every spare moment dreaming of horses, wrapped in an imaginary world that was born out of American cinema: the Old West, with its cowboys and cow horses, gunfighters, and Indians. It was a world impossibly far away from his own—it was a fantasy.
Eitan and Santa Fe Renegade perform at the Cowboy Dressage World Finals Show and Gathering on November, 15, 2014. In his journey from a small dusty town in the Middle East to California and then all over the United States and even abroad, Eitan Beth-Halachmy, riding many horses but in particular Santa Fe and Holiday Compadre, has shown an ever-increasing audience that you can have a passion, dream
