|
A Hidden,
Untapped Potential Lies
Within Each Of Us
Harry de
Leyer was late to the auction on that snowy day
in 1956, and all of the good horses had already been
sold. The few that remained were old and spent and had been
bought by a company that would salvage them.
Harry, the riding master at a girls’ school in Pennsylvania, was about
to leave when one of these horses — an uncared for, gray gelding with
ugly looking wounds on its legs — caught his eye. The animal
still bore the marks that had been made by a heavy work harness,
evidence to
the hard life it had led. But something about him captured
Harry’s attention and so he offered $80 for him.
It was snowing when Harry’s children saw the horse for the first time
and, because of the coat of snow on the horse’s back, the children
named him “Snowman."
Harry took good care of the horse who turned out to be a gentle and
reliable friend — a horse the girls liked to ride because he was steady
and didn’t startle like some of the others. In fact, Snowman made
such rapid improvement that a neighbor purchased him for twice what
Harry had originally paid.
But Snowman kept disappearing from the neighbor’s pasture — sometimes
ending up in adjoining potato fields, other times back at
Harry’s. It appeared that the horse must have jumped over the
fences between the properties, but that seemed impossible — Harry had
never seen Snowman jump over anything much higher than a fallen
log. Eventually, the neighbor’s patience came to an end and he
insisted
Harry take back the horse.
For years, Harry’s great dream had been to produce a champion jumping
horse. He had moderate success in the past, but in order to compete at
the highest levels, he knew he would have to buy a pedigreed horse that
had been specifically bred to jump. And that kind of
pedigree would cost far more than what he could afford.
Snowman was already getting old — he was 8 when Harry had purchased
him — and he had been badly treated. But, apparently, Snowman
wanted to jump and so Harry decided to see what the horse could
do. What Harry saw made him think that maybe his horse had a
chance to compete.
In 1958, Harry entered Snowman in his first competition. Snowman
stood among the beautifully bred, champion horses, looking very much
out of place. Other horse breeders called Snowman a “flea-bitten
gray."
But a wonderful, unbelievable thing happened that day ... Snowman won!
Harry continued to enter Snowman in other competitions and Snowman
continued to win. Audiences cheered every time Snowman won an
event. He became a symbol of how extraordinary an ordinary horse
could be. He appeared on television. Stories and books were
written about him.
As Snowman continued to win, one buyer offered $100,000 for the old
plow horse, but Harry would not sell. In 1958 and 1959 Snowman
was named “Horse of the Year.” Eventually the gray gelding — who
had once been marked for sale to the lowest bidder — was inducted into
the
Show Jumping Horse Hall of Fame.
For many, Snowman was much more than a horse. He became an
example of the hidden, untapped potential that lies within each of us.
Contributed
by
Dorian Bell
Defining
Moments
Archives
Copyright
© 2006, Jace Carlton. All International Rights Reserved.
|
|
