Snowman…the Eighty Dollar Horse

 

Being into horse most of my life I love reading a good true horse story, I just finished this book….

Snowman was rescued from a slaughterhouse truck at an auction when he was only 8 years old.  He had been a plow horse and the owner  thought he was used up.   Harry de Leyer, a poor immigrant horse trainer who worked at a school for girls in Long Island  thought differently and purchased him off the truck for $80.00  A LOT of money back then for someone like Harry.  He saw something special in that horses eyes the first time they looked at each other.  Snowman earned his keep at the  girls school giving riding lessons. Not the prettiest, or the flashiest or the fastest,  but destined to have a wondrous jumping career you  only see in the movies…

It felt good to read about a true horseman who had a real bond with this gentle giant….he went on to have a jumping career of five years and beat some of the best of the best in a higher echelon equestrian society.  Harry also knew when enough was enough and retired him at the age of 13.

 

He sure doesn’t look like a plow horse here, does he?????? 

He lived to the ripe old age of 26 when kidney failure ended his life with a humane euthanasia…people still can see his grave under the tree in his favorite pasture on the farm Harry and his wife owned in Long Island.   What a wonderful story of the life and times of the early 1950’s and the people who had the money to have champion show jumpers and how the new  Middle Class working man in America had his horse to cheer for also!  If you like horses and history, this is a great read.