Born in the Holy Land

Eitan was born and grew up in a land known throughout history (and unto the present day) for people intensely familiar with what tough determination is all about. Israel is not and never has been a place for sissies.

“In the 1950s, Eitan rode native Arabian horses for pleasure and like many Israelis boys (David for example), he was a shepherd tending sheep in a land of sand, scorpions and Bedouins.
As a boy in Israel, Eitan knew his dreams lived in a place faraway, a land of heroes in strange hats, a place of romance, wilderness and freedom…The Wild West. Over the years, the call to go west strengthened like a wind at his back. Early on he knew what horses were to him and those soul-deep stirrings within didn’t subside nor did he grow out of them.

The distant dream that Eitan held dear, and the ‘Who’ he wanted to become in his boyhood fantasies had a long way to go and a hard ride to get there. The journey to the American West, the home of his Cowboy heroes, would not be made a’horseback … but rather as a stowaway passenger in the belly of a cargo ship crossing the Atlantic”.

Machmude was a pure Arabian stallion from the stable of King Abdullah of Jordan.
At the Government breeding farm In Akko, a city that dates back over 4,000 years.

The Shepherd Boy

Eitan is like many of his ancient ancestors, he learned the work of 
the Shepherd when he was a lad. Our generation wouldn’t think about leaving
a child out in a wilderness setting in the desert to care for a flock of sheep but in other places… ‘normal’ is whatever the custom is that you are used to.

Eitan spent months of his young life tending the flocks in the hills of Jerusalem. 
He and a Arab boy were an unlikely pair to herd sheep together but they did.
The hungry Arab boy hired on to work for food not because of a prior friendship.
The boys had provisions for their weeks out with the sheep -primarily pasta to be eaten with sugar & cinnamon on it, as well as nuts, figs, eggs when they could be had and coffee.

Although they worked together there was tension between them – cultural differences. One fateful day, their tentative friendship put to the test. At a precious water well, a ewe had fallen into the well (rain water hole) about 30 feet deep. She had to be removed whether she was still living or not. Eitan used a rope to shinny down the dark ‘tube’ that was about 3 feet in 
diameter. The sheep obviously had to come out first and it was accomplished with much
effort on the part of both boys. Eitan can still remember the sheep blocking out the light from above. It was a place entirely without light and the water was cold. Eitan’s doubts about his Arab friend really worried him at this point.

The Arab boy could have left him there. But that was not to be and soon the rope fell to Eitan and he shinnied back out to the warm world of light.  He smiles as he recalls how blue-gray his skin was when he got out. The friendship was not a close one but the Arab boy needed to do the right thing for his own welfare and that might well have been his motive.
Courage is a fine and noble virtue but there are times when it can get you into trouble. “Discretion is the better part of valor”, so the old saying goes but there are times in life when you simply have to do the right thing and hope it all works out in the end. If you’re lucky you won’t get left in the bottom of a well!

“8” Story

A good cowboy leaves the place behind him in as good or better shape as he found it. It’s the ‘Cowboy Way’ to be a caretaker, to be your brother’s keeper, to put into practical application a sense of honor in all that you do no matter how small the detail. Eitan is in that sense a real cowboy. Simple ethics, a few tools of the trade and hard work made the cowboy a hero and a role model to countless children and adults. Eitan is like so many others that share a love of the cowboy but whose personal profiles may differ radically one from another. Eitan’s ‘whole person make-up’ is as unique as is his approach to training horses and teaching people. To quote Frank Sinatra’s song, ”I Did It MyWay” fits Eitan to a ‘T’. To quote the Willy Nelson song, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” also fits like a glove, but the music softly heard in Eitan’s historic background isn’t jazz or country. It would have to be classical, a Strauss waltz.

Eitan’s early mentors rode not in a western saddle on the plains of the American west, but in black leather and on Lippizan horses in Vienna, Austria at the legendary Spanish Riding School. Eitan’s teachers and mentors came from various backgrounds and places but they all played a part in pointing him in one direction: West… and to a destiny and style all his own.

The Maverick
“Eitan carved out a place for himself within the show world of the Morgan Horse breed and he did so as a ‘Maverick’. A maverick by definition in the old west was an orphaned range calf that survived living alone on the range – unbranded and ‘lost’. The word took on a different meaning and became a handy label for a nonconformist type of person doing their own thing, an independent loner, a loner with ‘attitude’. No one in the horse show world (in or out of ‘Morgandom’) had done things like Eitan. With impressive prowess in classical training, riding horses that ‘were all alone out there’ in their carriage and presence…. and with a bold dash of charismatic swagger and class in the saddle, Eitan redefined what Western Pleasure classes would look like in the Morgan breed. He rose swiftly to the top and has stayed there as ‘the guy to beat’ for 20+ years. The blend of eclectic ethnic influences and a unique recipe for success proved to be a winning and unstoppable combination in competition and as a performer.

For a performing artist a’horseback to be able to make people abruptly rise to their feet (aka a standing ovation) – some with tears in their eyes – clapping and cheering etc-etc is unheard of in our day. And yet, for Eitan, it is a standard response to one of his breath-taking performances. In the teaching arena, Eitan’s knack for adapting to any given situation, his training skills, his ‘way with people’ and his salty sense of humor made the transition from competitor to teacher/mentor a seamless one. Be it known though that the many things that Eitan can make look effortless were wrought by grueling work and years of experience. The confidence and finesse you see is the end result of a life spent working with and devoted to One thing – the Horse”.

 

The True horseman

“True horseman are born and then shaped and educated by life and the horses that pass through their hands. We all have 5 senses. It is a 6th sense that blesses a few – the horsemen. It is the sense of the horse. There are many great horsemen that never enter an arena. Like their horses, these people are content with their ‘pardner’. There is no need for recognition, approval of others or applause. Their ‘competition’ is private – it is won but and the reward is a personal sense of accomplishment. For them, success with their horse is enough. I tip my hat to those that choose the quiet path of horsemanship.”

 

Shery Jesperson 2006
Upton, Wyoming