The Eighty-Dollar Champion - Elizabeth Letts [81]
Back at Hollandia, Harry readied Snowman for Fairfield, along with Night Arrest, his student’s flighty thoroughbred, and the pretty chestnut Wayward Wind. Harry had never left Long Island for a show before. Here he would be facing a whole new set of competitors, like Adolph Mogavero from Ox Ridge Hunt Club—one of the biggest and most competitive operations on the East Coast. Ox Ridge’s young thoroughbred mare, First Chance, had cleaned up at Devon last spring while Snowman was leading the May Day procession. Andante, the tough old warrior, would also be there, looking to avenge her loss at Sands Point to the upstart plow horse.
On June 18 the weather threatened rain, but Harry loaded up Snowman, Windy, and Night Arrest, the two grooms climbed into the van, and off they went to Connecticut. The de Leyers wouldn’t consider leaving the family behind, and so Johanna readied the children, including baby William, for the drive to Westport, Connecticut. The Fairfield Horse Show was held on the grounds of the Fairfield County Hunt Club as a benefit for the Children’s Services Hospital. With Night Arrest and Snowman, Harry would be competing against himself in the open jumpers. The horses had different skills. Night Arrest was a flashy and talented dark dapple gray whose thoroughbred breeding and high-strung temperament gave her terrific speed, an advantage whenever time was a factor. Anyone would think her the most likely candidate of the three to win jumper classes, but she was a handful.
Harry knew that most people considered Snowman’s victory at Sands Point a fluke. It had been a novelty when the eighty-dollar wonder horse won the stakes, but horse showing, like horse racing, has always featured its fair share of upsets. Sometimes a bad horse had an unusually good day on the same day that some good horses had a bad one. Snowman was the classic long-odds horse. In spite of his Sands Point win, the odds would still be against him to win this time.
But in the de Leyer household, Snowman was the odds-on favorite. The whole family believed he could do it again. For his part, the gelding seemed nonchalant. It was always nice to have him along because he calmed the other horses.
The first open jumper class was held early on Friday morning, June 20, the show’s opening day. This would be Snowman’s initial test against the young mare First Chance, who a lot of people were predicting would be a strong contender for the national championship. Harry had entered Wayward Wind and Night Arrest in the green jumpers, and Night Arrest was also entered in the open jumpers, since he thought the promising young mare needed more experience. Riding more than one horse in a class was tricky. Harry had to rely on Jim and Joe’s help. As he hopped off one horse, Harry handed the reins over to his grooms and jumped on another one.
By the time the first class started, the rain had begun to come down, but the footing was still fairly solid. After the first round, Andante had knocked down a pole. Out of the entire field, only Snowman and First Chance had had clean rounds. There weren’t many people on the grounds that morning; the rain had kept away most of the spectators, so there were just the riders, trainers, owners, and their families. The jump crew, their white uniforms already splashed and muddy, raised the bars.
Johanna and the children huddled together under an umbrella, watching intently. The grooms had cleaned up Snowman between the rounds, rubbing down his legs with