The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, The Story of the Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts

lois g: Information and interesting

United States on Aug 17, 2023

Kindle Customer: The story of Harry and Snowman is a story for the ages. It is a story of courage, perseverance but most of all love.

United States on Jul 06, 2023

CEC: Great, inspireing story, written with care and motivation. Moving and yet solid and fact-based, a truly compelling story. It motivates reading more about both the horse and the rider, and also the photographic insert is very useful and completing the overall story.
A great reading for all horse lovers, but also as an inspireing, motivational story in itself.

Italy on Mar 01, 2023

Amazon Customer: Book is in good condition

Canada on Jan 12, 2023

B: Bought “used” and it came in mint condition.
Great read!

Canada on Sep 12, 2022

Victoria: I purchased the Amazon Paperwhite e-reader and love it! I purchased The Eighty Dollar Champion as my first read. I also have the paperback but really wanted to try the Paperwhite.
The Paperwhite worked as promised and even better than I expected. The problem is with the actual download of the novel. Lets start with page 250 on the e-reader. It is missing the last line on paragraph 3 before turning the page. It is also missing the last line on page 251 on the e-reader. The same thing on page 252, its missing the last line. I haven't finished reading the book but will post if anymore missing text shows up. I'm glad I have the paper back to refer to, but am extremely disappointed that I spent a lot of money on an e-book to only have parts of it missing. It would have ruined the whole book for me had I not been able to look it up.
By the way, the book is amazing!!!

Canada on Sep 03, 2021

Jim H. Ainsworth: Saw this sign in a catalog the other day: "I want to be the man my horse thinks I am." A very, very, worthy ambition.

This true story of a horse named Snowman was recommended by friends.I probably would not have read it without their suggestion because I knew nothing about show jumping (I know quite a bit now).

This book, however, is about more than an equestrian event that a lot of us think is the province of the elite. It's about triumph over adversity against all odds. It's about the unique and unusual bond that can be formed between man and animal.

I knew I was in for a treat when author Elizabeth Letts painted a vivid image of a dirty, flea-bitten nag looking through the board slats of a truck bound for the slaughter house at a man with only eighty dollars in his pocket--a man who needed a horse to train students to ride and jump horses at an all-girls school. The horse and man saw something in each other's eyes.

Sound overdone? Romanticized? Too sentimental? By the time I reached the part where Snowman shows up in his former owner's yard dragging an old tire and a piece of board fence, I was hooked on this story and this horse.

Maybe it's...

United States on Sep 18, 2013

Sheila Mcdaniel: The book arrived in super-fast time and in excellent condition.

It was an interesting view of the times and the whole book left you feeling uplifted and glad to be alive.
The first chapter was extremely upsetting with such an eloquent description of the horses travelling on to the slaughterhouse and their awareness of their impending doom.

However, it shows the wasted talent that would have been if this horse had not been taken by someone with the knowledge and sensibility to see further into his character.

We can only hope that in the future their will be no need for such places to exist and that this type of story will become the rule not the exception.

United Kingdom on Aug 29, 2012

Patricia A. Guthrie: First off, i want to say I grew up in Smithtown, Long Island, the town next to St. James where Harry DeLeyer and Smowman lived. Smithtown was still famous for the Smithtown Hunt and Long Island, famous for its A rated horse shows. I was so excited when I moved to Smithtown. When i was in high school, we had a horseback riding program and the instructor was none other than Harry deLeyer. My mother was in a book reading club with Joanna and I met her. A nicer more gracous lady would be hard to find. Harry was kind to us girls from public school. Corrections came swift, but kind and with humor. I rode a horse called Irishman. (just thought I'd throw that in)

I loved the book for its history of Knox School for Girls, a place that had always intrigued a public school girl like me. I loved her sharing riding Snowman down to the Sound and riding by the St. James General Store. All fond memories. And, I loved her account of the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden. My mother took me there for several birthday trips. I loved the story about Harry driving past Nazi lines when he was a little boy in Holland. A history within a history. So, I have a lot to love about this...

United States on Nov 25, 2011