November 1958: the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Into the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and tradition comes the most unlikely of horses—a drab white former plow horse named Snowman—and his rider Harry de Leyer. They were the longest of all longshots—and their win was the stuff of legend.
Harry de Leyer first saw the horse he would name Snowman on a bleak winter afternoon between the slats of a rickety truck bound for the slaughterhouse. He recognized the spark in the eye of the beaten-up horse and bought him for eighty dollars. On Harry’s modest farm on Long Island the horse thrived. But the recent Dutch immigrant and his growing family needed money and Harry was always on the lookout for the perfect thoroughbred to train for the show-jumping circuit—so he reluctantly sold Snowman to a farm a few miles down the road.
But Snowman had other ideas about what Harry needed. When he turned up back at Harry’s barn dragging an old tire and a broken fence board Harry knew that he had misjudged the horse. And so he set about teaching this shaggy easygoing horse how to fly. One show at a time against extraordinary odds and some of the most expensive thoroughbreds alive the pair climbed to the very top of the sport of show jumping.
Here is the dramatic and inspiring rise to stardom of an unlikely duo based on the insight and recollections of “the Flying Dutchman” himself. Their story captured the heart of Cold War–era America—a story of unstoppable hope inconceivable dreams and the chance to have it all. Elizabeth Letts’s message is simple: Never give up even when the obstacles seem sky-high. There is something extraordinary in all of us.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman the Horse That Inspired a Nation
The Dangerous Book for Boys
The bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses learning how to fish finding true north and even answering the age old question of what the big deal with girls is.
In this digital age there is still a place for knots skimming stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons stimulates curiosity and makes for great father-son activities. The brothers Conn and Hal have put together a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun—building go-carts and electromagnets identifying insects and spiders and flying the world's best paper airplanes.
The completely revised American Edition includes:
The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Five Knots Every Boy Should Know
Stickball
Slingshots
Fossils
Building a Treehouse
Making a Bow and Arrow
Fishing (revised with US Fish)
Timers and Tripwires
Baseball's "Most Valuable Players"
Famous Battles-Including Lexington and Concord The Alamo and Gettysburg
Spies-Codes and Ciphers
Making a Go-Cart
Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
Girls
Cloud Formations
The States of the U.S.
Mountains of the U.S.
Navigation
The Declaration of Independence
Skimming Stones
Making a Periscope
The Ten Commandments
Common US Trees
Timeline of American History