The Eighty Dollar Champion

On Monday I started to read The Eighty Dollar Champion. I have only made it half way through the book. When I first saw this book I thought it would be about how a man bought a old jumper and turned him into a new champion. I have heard about Snowman before, he was the horse in the book, I knew he was a champion. But what I did not know was that he was a plough horse before he was a jumper. When I started to read I noticed the things that his owner/trainer saw and did to make him a famous jumper. Harry, his owner, saw his talent when he started jumping out of pastures and running back to the stable after he had sold him. When he started to jump him the things I noticed him do was; when he started him he worked him over trot poles first, he would lay them on the ground six feet apart from one and other. At first Snowman was clumsy and wouldn't pick up his feet, to get him to pick up his feet Harry used a method that he had learnt from an old horse man "If something doesn't work the first time, and you want the result different, change the way you did it." every time he did the poles if it didn't work he tried something new. Every day he worked with him, he soon put his bravest student on Snowman to see if she could get him to jump. Nothing she did could get him to jump, he would just plough through the jump and not pick up his feet. Harry got on him a moved the jump up to 4'6". What I think he was trying to see was that if he made the horse work he would pick up his feet. When he went to jump the jump on the last stride he let go of the reins and let him have his head. I believe that he did that because it is the horses natural frame over the jump. Snowman cleared the jump with about 3 inches to spare. The skills that Harry used to teach Snowman to be quicker with his feet was lots of gymnastics. Another skill he used was when he was entered into a show he made the rider put Snowman into a deep spot in the jump so that he had to work extra hard over the jump so he will be more careful. He jumped a clean fault free round. I have only made it up to this part in the book and will contine later.

 

~ Jaida

Give a horse what he needs and he will give you his heart in return.