For Cristobal Scarpati, horses have never simply been animals to train. They have been teachers, companions, family, and a way of understanding life.

Born in San Luis, Argentina, in 1977, Cristobal was raised in a family where horses were woven into everyday life. His father was a horseman who practised an ancestral approach to working with horses, a tradition passed down through generations and deeply connected to the Indigenous heritage of Argentina.

Growing up alongside his father and their horses, Cristobal learned from an early age that true connection with a horse does not begin with force. It begins with sensitivity, patience, love, and respect.

His childhood, however, was also shaped by a series of difficult accidents involving his father and sister. At a young age, these experiences affected Cristobal's confidence and sense of security. In an unexpected way, it was the horses that became an important part of his healing.

Through them, he gradually rediscovered confidence, resilience, and the inner strength needed to overcome the challenges life had placed in his path. The lessons he learned during those formative years would eventually become central to both his horsemanship and his understanding of the relationship between horses and people.

After finishing school, Cristobal moved from rural San Luis to Buenos Aires to pursue a university degree. At the time, making a living with horses did not seem like a realistic career, and so he initially followed a more conventional path.

But life in Buenos Aires introduced him to an entirely different side of the horse world.

Coming from a province where horses were part of family, culture, work, and everyday life, the city revealed the enormous equine industry that existed beyond his upbringing. Racetracks, polo clubs, equestrian centres, and vast rural estates formed a sophisticated ecosystem supported by thousands of horses.

Then, in 1996, everything changed.

Horses returned to the first place on Cristobal's list of priorities.

Although he had intended to complete his university studies, his growing involvement with Doma India, together with an ever-expanding list of people seeking his help, soon demanded his full attention.

What began as a personal journey became a lifelong vocation.

Doma India

Doma India is at the heart of Cristobal's horsemanship.

Passed down through his family, its philosophy centres around understanding the horse through sensitivity, communication, trust, and respect rather than force or domination.

For Cristobal, it is much more than a method or collection of training techniques. It is an approach to the horse that asks the human to listen, observe, feel, and develop an awareness of themselves as well as the animal standing before them.

Cristobal and his father began travelling throughout the Americas and across much of Europe, sharing their knowledge of Doma India with horse people from many different cultures and backgrounds.

For nearly three decades, horses have carried Cristobal across borders, while his philosophy has continued to evolve through every horse, every student, and every place he has visited.

Throughout that journey, Cristobal has remained deeply curious and open to learning.

He believes that teaching and learning are inseparable, and has continually sought opportunities to exchange knowledge and ideas with horsemen and women from different disciplines and traditions. His journey has included international clinics, conferences, demonstrations, and competitions, all while remaining grounded in the principles he first learned at home in Argentina.

In 2014, Cristobal privately published Give Your Soul to the Horse, a book created as an introduction to the philosophy and principles of Doma India.

That same year, another important opportunity arrived when he was invited to participate in The Horsemen's Re-Union in Paso Robles, California.

The experience opened another door for Cristobal. He realised that if he wanted to share his work with a wider international audience, there was another frontier he needed to cross: language.

From that point, he committed himself to learning English and expanding his work throughout the English-speaking horse world.

Representing Argentina on the World Stage

Years of international teaching and horsemanship eventually led to another significant milestone.

In 2025, Cristobal had the honour of representing Argentina at Road to the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the world's most recognised colt starting championships.

It provided an opportunity to bring the philosophy and traditions that had shaped his life onto an international competitive stage, sharing his approach with an audience of horse people from around the world.

Yet despite decades of international travel, the horses ultimately brought Cristobal back to the place where his story began.

San Luis, Argentina.

Today, Cristobal welcomes people from around the world into his home, where together with his family and horses he offers something that extends far beyond a traditional horsemanship clinic.

It is an experience of life.

Visitors are welcomed into the world of the Scarpati family—to share traditional Argentine food, experience their customs and culture, enjoy the countryside, rest, laugh, connect, and spend time with horses in a different way.

It brings together the things that have shaped Cristobal throughout his life: family, culture, horses, nature, learning, and connection.

At the centre of it all is a simple but powerful idea:

"The connection with a horse begins when we learn to connect with ourselves."

For Cristobal, horsemanship is not simply about teaching a horse to perform a task.

It is about listening.

Feeling.

Understanding.

Building trust.

He believes the qualities we so often seek in our horses—confidence, balance, softness, relaxation, and freedom—are frequently the very same qualities we need to cultivate within ourselves.

Every horse is an individual, and every interaction provides an opportunity to learn. Rather than overpowering the horse, Cristobal's approach seeks to create an environment in which communication can develop and confidence can grow.

It is a philosophy shaped by generations of tradition, almost three decades of international experience, and a lifetime spent learning from horses.

Legacy of the Horse 2027

In April 2027, Cristobal will make the journey from Argentina to Australia to compete as one of our invited Championship Trainers at Legacy of the Horse.

He will bring with him not only decades of experience, but a horsemanship tradition deeply connected to his family, his culture, and the land where his journey began.

His presence at Legacy of the Horse represents exactly what the event was created to celebrate—the opportunity to bring together respected horsemen and horsewomen from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds and allow audiences to experience the many ways great horsemanship can be expressed.

From the young boy learning beside his father in San Luis, to travelling throughout the Americas and Europe, representing Argentina at Road to the Horse, and now preparing to bring Doma India to the Legacy of the Horse arena in Australia, Cristobal's journey has always returned to one fundamental belief:

Great horsemanship begins with connection.

And after a lifetime of travelling the world with horses, Cristobal continues to share that knowledge from the place where it all began—home, surrounded by his family, his horses, and the land of San Luis, Argentina.