Snowman, an Amish plow horse, was bound for the meat market when Harry deLeyer, a Long Island riding instructor, spotted him at auction. After making eye contact with the gentle giant, deLeyer decided to purchase him for $80.At first, Snowman was just a horse that children rode during lessons, but when deLeyer sold him to a neighbor, the horse had other ideas. He would jump the high fences so he could return "home." Harry began training Snowman as a show jumper, and less than two years out of the plow fields, Snowman won the 1958 horse-jumping Triple Crown—the American Horse Shows Association Horse of the Year, Professional Horseman's Association Champion, and Champion of Madison Square Garden's Diamond Jubilee—earning him a place in the Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 1992.