THE PERFECT HORSE:
The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the
Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis
$28.00, hardcover (our price $22.40)
$28.00, hardcover (our price $22.40)
To the Third Reich, perfection meant being in line with
Germany’s ultimate global rule. The perfect horse, therefore, had to be a
warhorse of supreme physical strength, compliant temperament, and low
maintenance. Gustav Rau, Olympic organizer and chief horse breeder of the Third
Reich, was fascinated by the study of eugenics, and determined to apply those
principles to the “enhancement” of the horse. To his twisted way of thinking,
inbreeding to accentuate certain traits would lead to the perfect horse. Arabians
were considered to be pure blooded, and were eyed by Rau for his breeding
studies.
Rau took over an Arabian stud farm in Poland after the
director and the staff had tried, unsuccessfully, to flee the double onslaught
of German and Russians. When Austria was overtaken by the Germans in World War
II, Rau had the opportunity he’d longed for to empty the famed Spanish Riding
School of its Lipizzaner stallions and begin his Frankensteinian creation of
the perfect horse.
The strange dichotomy of the Nazi mentality is never more
prevalent than in their love and care for horses, as opposed to the Russian’s slaughter
of the animals they overtook. When a former U. S. cavalryman and horse lover,
Col. Hank Reed, learns of the imminent attack on a stud farm in Czechoslovakia,
where the Arabian and Lippizaner were taken by the Nazis, he mounts an
incredible rescue effort, in conjunction with the farm’s veterinarian, and with
the blessing of General George Patton. The action is as thrilling a read as any
war story.
What is most moving is the common goal of men who were made
enemies by their countries to save the horses. American, Polish, German,
Austrian—these men and their families were intensely dedicated to their
mission, with complete disregard for their own wellbeing. Surrounded as they
were by horrific casualties, they never felt for a moment that their mission
was anything less than noble:
Against the backdrop of all this wreckage, the saving of the horses was a small thing; and yet as Hank Reed’s men instinctively knew, it was only through individual acts of compassion that the world was able to climb out of the trough it had dug for itself and attempt to find its way into a more peaceful future. Later, when people asked why he had decided to save the horses, Colonel Reed’s answer was simple: “We were so tired of death and destruction. We wanted to do something beautiful.”
Elizabeth Letts, author of THE EIGHTY DOLLAR CHAMPION, again
has written a compelling, page-turning, true tale of heroism, courage, and the
intense relationship between man and horse.
