The EightyDollar Champion
Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation

November 1958, New York. Into the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and tradition at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden comes the most unlikely of horsesa drab white former plow horse named Snowmanand his rider, Harry de Leyer. They were the longest of all longshotsand 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 beatenup horse and bought him for eighty dollars. On Harrys 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 showjumping circuitso 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 Harrys 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. Reminiscent of the inspiring, againsttheodds success story that made Seabiscuit a bestseller, The EightyDollar Champion tells of 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 Warera Americaa story of unstoppable hope, inconceivable dreams, and the chance to have it all. Elizabeth Lettss message is simple: Never give up, even when the obstacles seem skyhigh. There is something extraordinary in all of us.