De Némethy was born in Hungary, where he father was an influential government official. Following his passion for riding, he enrolled in the military academy of Ludovica, graduating in 1932 as a lieutenant in the cavalry. Four years later he was selected to attend the Hungarian cavalry school.

He graduated in 1937 and became a member of the Hungarian team, training for the 1940 Olympics – which were never held because of the outbreak of war. During the war, de Némethy trained at the German cavalry school learning from the German ‘greats’: Fritz Stecken, Bubbi Günther and Otto Lörke. After the war, he migrated to America lin 1952 and started teaching at a club in New York state, where he met William Steinkraus.

It was Bill Steinkraus who wrote a wonderful forward to the book, The De Némethy Years by Paula Rodenas, here are a few paragraphs, written as only Mr Steinkraus can write:

“When I first met him, Bert had only recently immigrated to the United States; he knew hardly anyone, his command of English was limited, and memories of the cavalry troup he had commanded on the Russian front were still fresh in his mind. Today, in comparison, he is nationally recognized as one of the most influential figures in equestrian sport in the post-war era, a man whose teachings, both directly and through his many pupils, have exerted a profound influence on the success of our international team and the general standard of equitation in the United States, and indeed, Europe as well….

“By the 1950s, the really traditional English seat was rapidly disappearing for the show ring, and the forward seat (which had been the subject of bitter controversy only twenty years earlier) had become dominant, thanks to the teaching and writings of such horsemen as Harry Chamberlin, Piero Santini, Vladimir Littauer and Gordon Wright. Nonetheless, few of us who were showing jumpers at that time knew much about Olympic-type courses or international rules, or how to prepare our horses or ourselves to cope with them… The new civilian U. S. Equestrian Team was just starting to think about the 1956 Olympic Games when young Captain de Némethy, not yet ten years out of the Army, found his way to our shores. A member of the Hungarian squad for the ill-fated 1940 Olympics, Bert knew all about the European horse-show scene, and from what I have learned subsequently, the contrast with what we were doing must have come as quite a shock to him. Be that as it may, there can never had been a doubt in his mind that he had a real contribution to make to us, whether in riding, training or course-building. In place of our random ‘keys’ he could substitute a soundly progressive basic methodology, evolved from the teachings of the Cavalry schools of Hungary and Germany, filtered through Berti’s own keen intelligence and sensitivity, and gradually adapted to the particular needs and temperaments of American riders and their (for the most part) Thoroughbred horses.

And in place of our old-fashioned courses – Pat Smythe termed them ‘pre-historic’ when jumped at New York in 1953 – Bert could invent truly fascinating challenges to horsemanship and intellect, courses that conveyed at the same time some sense of Bert’s own aesthetic and highly imaginative phantasy.”

De Némethy was appointed US jumping coach in 1955 and held that position until 1980.

Publications

Classic Showjumping: The de Némethy Method (1990)