The Perfect Horse: The Daring Rescue of Horses Kidnapped During World War II - Couverture rigide

Letts, Elizabeth

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0525644741 ISBN 13 : 9780525644743

Editeur : Delacorte Press, 2019

Synopsis

In this inspiring young readers adaptation of the New York Times bestseller, one American troop will save the world's most precious horses during the final stretch of World War II.

When American Colonel Hank Reed and his soldiers captures a German spy, they uncover an unexpected secret: Hitler has kidnapped the world's finest purebred horses and hidden them in a secret Czechoslovakian breeding farm. But, starving Russian troops are drawing closer and the horses face the danger of becoming food instead. With little time to spare, the small American troop cross enemy lines to heroically save some of the world's most treasured animals. 

Elizabeth Letts details the terrifying truth of Hitler's eugenics program during World War II and shares the story of the courageous American troop dedicated to stopping it.

Highlighting bravery in the face of incredible odds, this tale will shed light on a little-known piece of our past and speak to history fans and animal lovers of every age.

★ "Spellbinding...a must-read." —Booklist, Starred review

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Elizabeth Letts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of non fiction books The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse as well as two novels, Quality of Care and Family Planning. A competitive equestrian in her youth, Letts rode for California in the North American Junior Three-Day Eventing Championships. She currently lives in Southern California. To learn more about Letts and her books, go to elizabethletts.com and follow @ElizabethLetts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Extrait. © Reproduit sur autorisation. Tous droits réservés.

Berlin, Germany, 1936

Alois Podhajsky looked as if he’d been born to sit astride a horse. His long, straight torso had no awkward angles, no rounded curves, nothing to distract from its elegant lines. But to look at the Austrian officer’s somber expression was to understand that within, he carried a shadow. In 1918, after being severely wounded while serving in World War I, he had suffered from shell shock. If anything had brought him back to life, it was his love for horses.

On June 12, 1936, Alois Podhajsky straddled his mount, Nero, ready to enter the May Field, the site of the Olympic competition in equestrian dressage. Descended from intricate military maneuvers developed in ancient times, dressage asks horse and rider to perform a series of carefully outlined movements. Just as ballroom dancing and pair skating command partners to work together seamlessly, in the sport of dressage, the rider completes an intricate dance with his partner— a twelve-hundred-pound four-footed beast. Great dressage demands the ability to communicate with a mount in the silent language of horsemanship.

The fact that this pair was competing here, in the eleventh Olympic Games, against the top equestrian contenders from around the world, was unlikely indeed. Nero, a gangly brown Thoroughbred, had been bred to race, but having proven slow, he had been cast off for use as an army cavalry mount. The gelding had shown equally little talent as a soldier’s charger, and the army had nearly sold him off before Podhajsky decided that the horse showed potential and saved him from the auction block. Podhajsky too was an almost-reject. He had been kicked out of Austria’s prestigious cavalry officer training school after an injury. He would never forget the day in 1928 when his riding instructor said, “You’re finished.” But Podhajsky had pressed on, wholeheartedly committed to the art of dressage, until even the finest equestrian experts could no longer ignore his skill.

Just three years later, Podhajsky received the Austrian cavalry’s highest honor: In 1931, he was sent to study at the world’s oldest academy of classical riding, the Spanish Riding School. Podhajsky’s love for horses, for riding, for life, had been restored. Now, five years after being expelled from the cavalry school, he was representing his country at the Olympics. While Nero was neither flashy nor handsome, he was eager and cooperative. With several years of training, the two had risen to the top of the sport.

Podhajsky’s own love of Austria’s equestrian traditions had started during his childhood, and at eighteen, he’d joined the cavalry. The ornate uniform—fur-muffed, spike-helmeted, brass-buttoned—made him look like a boy playing dress-up in his father’s clothes. But Austria lost both the Great War and its empire. The traditions to which he had sworn boyhood allegiance were mostly gone. What remained of the great Austrian empire was its tradition of horsemanship, which Podhajsky still believed was the best in the world. Now was his chance to prove it.

Nero’s form was impeccable. Podhajsky looked dazzling in the olive uniform of the Austrian Republic. The failed racehorse and his reject rider were preparing to compete in one of the most difficult equestrian sports. Podhajsky had committed to memory the complex series of movements that he would need to execute perfectly. Timing and placement were everything. If his horse stepped out of the barriers that marked the boundaries of the ring, he would be eliminated.

In the sport of dressage, the rider spends years teaching a horse to perform movements on command. The horse has four ordinary paces: walk, trot, canter, and gallop, each with a different cadence. In an advanced dressage test, a rider may ask a horse to perform a pirouette, a move in which the horse’s hindquarters remain almost in place while his forelegs canter a full circle around them. Movements like this had been taught slowly, in a step-by-step process that took years to complete.

As he awaited his turn, Podhajsky hoped that his own long years of practice would pay off. In a chaotic postwar world, he wanted to embody what his patient training stood for— discipline, tradition, passion, and perfection for its own sake. Winning a medal might be the final outcome of this endeavor, but for Podhajsky, the endeavor itself mattered most.

Riders from twenty-one countries had gathered to compete in the equestrian events at the summer ’36 Games. Podhajsky knew that his stiffest competition came from the Germans, who had a home field advantage. He lifted his eyes to look at the spectators. The arena’s clipped lawn was laid out with geometrical precision. In the distance, the impressive hulk of Olympia Stadium filled the horizon, festooned with the flags of many nations. Evenly spaced scarlet Nazi swastika banners stained its perimeter.

As he looked across the field at the international panel of judges assembled there, he knew that this was more than just a competition. Three years earlier, Hitler had catapulted into power. He was determined that the Berlin Olympics would showcase the Nazi Party’s Aryan ideals, and perhaps even prove their superiority. Hitler was using the Olympics as a piece of nationalistic, pro-Nazi theater. The Nazis, in a clever propaganda move, had camouflaged many of the blatant anti-Jewish policies that were already being enforced in Berlin, removing anti-Semitic signs and removing harsh propaganda from newspapers, but the menace and violence lurked just beneath the whitewashed surface.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Delacorte Press
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0525644741
• ISBN 13: 9780525644743
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 272
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible