t
film maker Ron Davis, with executive producer Karin Reid Offield. The feature documentary carries viewers through the days when Harry was growing up in World War II Holland, jumping horses and helping his family in the Nazi resistance, to his life in the U.S. as a successful jumper trainer/instructor and an accomplished breeder of show jumpers. The film is “a love story between a man and his horse and family, and the impact of who Harry was, where he came from and where he was able to go because of the relationships,” says documentarian and former hunter rider Ron Davis. Ron and his film crew spent two years with Harry, then 85 years old, as he trav- eled to horse shows, trained horses and taught students. “It is a complex story about a complex man, what he gave up and what he gained.
Y
et Harry’s remarkable story is about more than Snowman, special as he was, and is chronicled in the upcoming film Harry and Snowman, directed by
yBefor By Patti Schofler
Harry deLeyer’s heartwarming story of his 1956 rescue of Snowman, a dirty, skinny Amish plow horse peeking through the slats of a truck bound for the slaughter yard, has been retold in several books and articles. Harry saw something in the horse’s eye, plunked down $80 to buy him, and within three years, the pair won the triple crown titles of show jump- ing at that time: the American Horse Shows Association Horse of the Year, Professional Horseman’s Association Champion and Madison Square Garden’s National Horse Show Champion.
A few celluloid clips of Harry’s life became the foun-
dation for a full-length film after a few starts and stops. “Sometimes by putting things on hold, the right situa- tion comes along and greets you,” Karin says of making the film. She had held onto archival footage for a movie she wrote entitled JUMPERS, which includes an interview with Harry as a younger man. That footage was lost and then found in time for Karin to connect with Ron in 2012 for this new film focus- ing on Harry.
Today, Harry, born in 1927 and now 89, lives on a horse farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia, his home since 1989. His legacy today includes not just his accomplishments with Snowman, but also his excep- tional show jumping training and competition career along with the success of the many generations of riders he taught. He kindly shared with Warmbloods Today insights into his life with horses.
22 September/October 2016
Photos by Bill Ray
M
e
r
e
r
H
a
Harry deLeyer Collection
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68