Horse Woman of February
Andrea Eastman
At 80 years old Andrea sure has a lot of life experience behind her, be it as a successful Hollywood agent who hobnobs with stars to her love of life and experiencing it to the fullest sharing her love of horses.......
Riding with close friend, Richard Gere
Her home is filled with wonderful horse works of Art and Sculptures along with precious photos such as this one with Robert Redford in a novelty horse frame.
In business negotiations she was precise, ruthless and never took no for an answer, but the care and dedication she gave each of her clients speaks volumes for itself in the numerous calls a day she receives whilst recuperating from open heart surgery!
Everyone loves her!! Whilst spending this past week with her I have witnessed calls and FaceTime sessions with many famous actors, agents and producers. In Bozeman, her beloved adopted home town, she is surrounded by amazing friends who stop by to visit bringing flowers and dinner!
Dinner with her close friend, Alex from The Lotus Pad in Big Sky
A tiny being of 5foot and maybe 100lbs soaking wet she is spunky, funny and sharp as a whistle as she reminisces on phone calls about her days in Hollywood and talks with me about 20 years ago when we rode on the trails of Bedford, New York.
She is currently writing a book about her life which having been given privy to the first 2 chapters I can attest that it will be a best seller!!
If her clients feel in awe at the highest level of representation that she gave them over the years then let's take a look into her representation for the well being of horses!!
Equine Advocates Equine Savior Award 2020
Her dedication was recognized along side such folks as Willy Nelson.
From bringing awareness to slaughter bound horses to the plight of the Premarin Mares, Andrea has dedicated her life to helping through awareness and fundraising enabling many miracles to happen in many horses' lives.
Shawny and Lucky, 2 of the Premarin foals, whom she rescued at 6 months old now 20 and 21 respectively.
Loving horses has not always been kind to her own well being. As a young woman she became allergic to horses forcing her to end her riding as a teen.
Even so, whilst traveling in Europe she decided to ignore her allergies to participate in a trail ride. Spunky and confident as her young adolescent self, she informed the barn that she was an expert horse rider! Over mounted (as often is the case when one expresses their confident riding skills in Europe), she learned that first critical lesson of life, something we all learn as equestrians- humility!
Taking a serious fall which resulted in breaking her back with a rehabilitation period of 6 months before she could walk again, one could say that horse learned lesson is what truly created the woman she was to become.
Tenacious, dedicated, loyal and certainly best friend to many, I can not help but attribute her love and connection with horses to who she is today fighting back after open heart surgery determined to find her way back to health and strength so she can ride her beloved horse, Lucky again.
Let's think about this for a moment! We have all been there. It's what makes or breaks us as equestrians. We take the falls and we get back up and back on as quickly as possible to prevent fear creeping into our consciousness. We push ourselves to over come the humiliation of the fall, (often times in front of an audience), forcing the pain out of our minds and getting back on to focus on the next jump ahead, the barrel to turn, the cow to rope, the trail ahead, the ball to chase.....
I believe Humiliation and Tenacity are what defines us as equestrian women!
There is a bond and a passion for the horses that we ride that we can never let slip away from us through fear of falling.
Horses and riding enabled her to get through many hard times in her life always finding comfort and her way back to her truth by returning to the saddle.
So here I am with her this week, 2.5 months after open heart surgery and amidst some nasty personal issues that life has thrown her way at age 80, she flew me out to Montana to help her recuperate through the healing energy work that I do.
Upon my arrival, she was weak, nauseous and unstable at the walk. I almost wondered if a nurse would be more suited to her recuperation but Andrea was still the gutsy, tenacious woman that I knew over 20 years ago! She pushed through fear, anxiety, pain and weakness to heal physical and emotional hurt!
I am not only proud to show you this short video of her 7 days after my arrival. but to tell you how proud I am that she is my friend. She is a great and inspiring woman, equestrian and horse advocate whom I respect and only hope I can live up to her example myself one day.