Читать книгу Cowboy Dressage - Jessica Black - Страница 24

Riders and trainers as artists, Soft Feel, partnership with the horse, the Handshake, and the words Eitan, Debbie, and their colleagues at the forefront of Cowboy Dressage choose so carefully, are all just part of what has become a lifestyle. There may be few rules, but there is community, fashion, new habits, and a dedication to way of life that is fast becoming a tradition. When I pointed this out to Debbie, she replied, “Not quite, but we’re getting there. Tradition starts out as an idea, becomes an entity, then a norm that creates the tradition: people look to it as a standard.” Not rules written in a codebook, but social customs emphasizing a kind approach to training horses. A tradition doesn’t just happen, it evolves. Cowboy Dressage, born of the conscious melding of two traditions, classical dressage and the Western style, and taking the best of both, is still in its beginning. Every day it evolves as it responds to the needs of its practitioners.

Increasingly, Cowboy Dressage is about community. The first shows were organized as competitions, carefully gauged to avoid hurrying through the foundational levels, but still competitions. Over the past few years, however, the shows have tended to become gatherings, with the “competitors” themselves placing more emphasis on sharing knowledge and helping each other progress than on competing. The court is still a stage to show off your progress, and receive a score and comments on your strengths and weaknesses, but what people really want is support and a friendly, welcoming environment in which to learn.

2.9 – Indie helps drag a Christmas tree up to the barn: for Eitan, everything is a teaching moment, and it all helps build the relationship between horse and rider. Fostering the partnership between horses and riders has been the focal point of the Beth-Halachmy’s life for many years now, culminating in the creation of Cowboy Dressage. Its growing community has embraced a lifestyle that places the collaboration of horse and rider at the center of the new discipline’s philosophy.

This is a sign that it is working, Debbie and Eitan believe. It is a mark of success that community is just as important as competition, and they are striving to keep it that way. “We are a cup that is always half full, and we are always looking for ‘the try’ in both horse and rider,” Debbie explains. “We encourage judges to always look for a way to mark up, and to never critique in a way that will take ‘the try’ out of the horse or rider.”

Teaching the movements and the rules is only a small part of Cowboy Dressage. The real reason the Beth-Halachmys started on their journey was to inspire people with the same fire that had moved Eitan across two continents and an ocean. People are inspired by the beauty of the partnership between horse and rider, but also by the sense of camaraderie they are finding at Cowboy Dressage events (fig. 2.10).

2.10 – Eitan chats with students about their riding experience in a session of the Cowboy Dressage School of Horsemanship at Wolf Creek Ranch. Cowboy Dressage emphasizes communication and partnership. Its purpose is to help people progress toward their riding goals by providing method and structure, along with an emphasis on Soft Feel and kindness. “You cannot teach people or horses with punishment. We tell people what to do, not what not to do.” (Eitan Beth-Halachmy)