One job was never enough for Dale Zittel, a cowboy at heart who turned a passion for horses into a second career.
After a full morning of meter reading for San Diego Gas & Electric, he would don his cowboy hat and boots to prepare horses, some of them his own, for shows and equestrian competitions. Quitting time often didn't come until 9 p.m.
“He was a man of discipline who believed in hard work,” said Janie Nolan, his companion. “He didn't respect people who were lazy.”
When Mr. Zittel retired from SDG&E in 1982, he added competing in the equestrian sport of team penning to his horse training duties and went on to dominate West Coast events.
“There probably wasn't a better horseman with an eye for horses than Dale Zittel,” said Pat Pinkerton, who joined Mr. Zittel in winning a slew of team penning championships from 1989 to 1990. “If you wanted to find a good horse, you went to Dale.”
Mr. Zittel, known to many of his friends as DZ, died of lung cancer Sunday at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. He was 78.
“Horses made his life complete, through good times and bad,” Nolan said. “At one time he had 30 of them on his ranch.”
Tall and lean, Mr. Zittel personified the cowboy horseman. He never owned a suit, preferring a cowboy hat, pressed shirt and jeans. In his later years, he sometimes substituted tennis shoes for cowboy boots. He called them his “tennie Lamas,” a takeoff on the popular Tony Lama boots, Nolan said.
“Dale had a great wit and was fun to compete with,” Pinkerton said. “He always had something funny to say about anything.”
In the late 1980s, Mr. Zittel helped found a site in Lakeside for the San Diego County Team Penning Association, where he conducted free clinics for horseshow exhibitors and team penners.
Team penning, which became a recognized sport for western horsemen in 1978, begins with a herd of 30 cattle at one end of an arena and a small pen at the other end.
Each animal has a number on its back. The timing begins when the riders are randomly given three numbers for the cattle they are to cut from the herd to move down to the other end and into the pen. When the last animal is in, the timer stops.
“Dale was the only person I know of to pen all 30 cows in an event,” Nolan said.
Mr. Zittel was twice named Professional Horse Trainer of the Year by the Del Mar Exhibitors Horse Show Association. In 1990, he won the World Champion Team Penning Association championship in Las Vegas.
In 1999, he was saluted in “East County's 20th Century Hometown Heroes” by author Gary Marchinke.
Mr. Zittel, who lived on the Chase Ranch in El Cajon in recent years, was born Oct. 7, 1928, in Nampa, Idaho. His father was German and his mother was a Blackfoot Indian.
The youngest of seven children, Mr. Zittel began riding horses on a family farm in Marsing, Idaho. At 19, he joined the Navy and served in Guam aboard the submarine tender Nereus.
He set up a dry-cleaning service on the Nereus and later pitched on a Navy baseball team. While stationed in San Diego, he worked nights as a butcher at a Hillcrest grocery store, Nolan said.
In 1954, Mr. Zittel bought a buckskin quarter horse, which he boarded at the El Cajon ranch of Leo Reed, one of the leading horsemen of the era.
After leaving the military in 1957, Mr. Zittel worked diligently on improving his horsemanship.
He moved to Tyler, Texas, for a while to learn from master cutting horse trainers. When he opened his training business, he became known as the car dealers horse trainer with clients from a variety of dealerships.
As a competitor, Mr. Zittel held his own with many trainers who have been inducted into the National Reined Cow Horse Association Hall of Fame. “More often than not he would leave with a high point buckle at the end of the day,” Nolan said.
In addition to Nolan, survivors include son, Randy Roberts of Nampa, Idaho; sister, Ruth Goiti of Boise, Idaho; two grandchildren; and five grandchildren.
Services are scheduled at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Salli Lynn Chapel, Greenwood Mortuary. A celebration of life will follow at Mr. Zittel's Hilldale Tu Ranch, El Cajon. Donations are suggested to the San Diego County Team Penning Association for the annual Dale Zittel Horsemanship of the Year Award, P.O. Box 2454, Lakeside, CA 92040.
Jack Williams: (619) 542-4587; jack.williams@uniontrib.com
