The Eighty-Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts (Ballantine Books c. 2011)
This is the true story of a horse named Snowman, who was bought off of the "knacker" truck, bound for the slaughter house, by Harry de Leyer, a Dutch immigrant riding instructor in 1956. Some quality in the sad-looking, cast off Amish plow horse catches de Leyer's eye. Rehabilitated the horse vindicates de Leyer's judgement and becomes an unlikely show jumping national champion when de Leyer manages to discover the horse's deeply hidden talent for jumping. It is truly a heart-warming story of the partnership between a great but modest man and a horse with a lot of heart and personality. There are plans by MGM to turn this book into a future movie.
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