Dutch immigrant Harry de Leyer first saw the horse he would name Snowman on a truck bound for the slaughterhouse; he was a beaten-up nag but there was a spark in his eye, and Harry bought him for $80 and took him back to his modest Long Island farm. Elizabeth Letts, herself an equestrian from childhood, gives us the dramatic and inspiring rise to stardom of this unlikely duo, as Snowman and Harry climbed to the very top level of competitive show jumping in 1958.
"Letts's taut, detailed writing vividly recounts the excitement of the shows; the heights these underdogs climbed; the world of the Eisenhower fifties; and what Snowman and Harry meant to the everyday people they inspired."—Shelf Awareness