The Eighty-Dollar Champion - Elizabeth Letts [127]
22
The Wind of Change
St. James, Long Island, 1960
In January 1960, the British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, gave his famous “Wind of Change” speech, in which he signaled that the long era of British colonialism was coming to an end. In July 1960, when John F. Kennedy won the U.S. Democratic Party’s nomination for president, he and his beautiful young wife seemed to embody youth and change.
Busy with his duties at Knox, Harry gave little thought to world affairs. Even so, as the 1960 spring season started to roll into high gear, there could be no mistaking that the pressure was on. While not much had changed in the routine at the Knox School, with the film contract signed now, sealed and delivered to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, there were men in suits in far-off offices who cared how the horse performed.
The girls at Knox noticed no difference in their beloved Mr. D, and Snowman still happily obliged whenever the de Leyer children wanted to take him for a ride to the beach. Harriet loved to jump on the horse with her brothers and ride bareback triple-seated down to Long Beach, St. James’s sheltered harbor. Here, on the shores of the Porpoise Channel, ringed on all sides by wooded countryside that hid the big estates, gulls swooped by, and the children could alternate between digging in the sand and riding Snowman into the bay. Harriet, a daring rider of eight years old, could keep up with her brothers in all things, but when Snowman took off into the bay and started swimming, she worried that she would not be able to haul him back. The horse just loved the water.
Harry was careful not to overjump Snowman. He was allowed to school over fences only once a week. Harry was also convinced that seawater was therapeutic for horses. Snowman was sound, but at thirteen-odd years old, his legs might not bear up well to the stress of repetitive jumping. Harry carefully watched his horse for any signs of lameness. Riviera Wonder, the great horse who had won the jumper championship in ’55 and ’56, had been sitting out for two years due to a sore back. Jumping put a lot of wear and tear on a horse, and Snowman had already faced more hard labor than the average horse before he’d even started his career as a jumper.
In the spring and summer, Snowman and Harry went to the familiar round of shows: Fairfield and Lakeville, and the seashore circuit of Sands Point, North Shore, and Piping Rock. Only three years had passed since Snowman had entered his first show as a junior jumper, with the timid Louie Jongacker aboard. But already, it was a new world in the show ring—more horses, more money, more competition. Show jumping was rapidly changing—from an insider affair to a big-time sport. There was a lot at stake when horses were swapping owners for astronomical sums. A valuable horse like Windsor Castle had to put up with the additional challenge of being ridden by a number of different riders over a short period of time.
Harry planned to keep going with Snowman as long as the horse still seemed to enjoy it, but not a day longer. Already, the gray had brought him blessings in the form of new business. Scarcely a day passed without another nervous mother in furs or a fat-cat dad showing up at Hollandia, wanting to know if the desirable young trainer could take his daughter or son in hand as a private student.
New students with money to spend on lessons and horses were good for business, but a kid did not need money to be able to ride at Hollandia Farms. When a new teenager showed up shyly offering to work in exchange for lessons, Harry always found a way to take him in. In the snooty environs that surrounded St. James and neighboring Smithtown, the de Leyer household was a place where everyone felt equally valued. All a young man or woman needed to survive there was a capacity for uncomplaining hard work. For a number of them, experiencing the force of Harry’s personality and Johanna’s gentle dignity were key formative experiences in their young lives.
School let out in June, and as usual, the