COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

Great Horses of the
United States Equestrian Team
by Bill Steinkraus and Sam Savitt
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1977.

Bill Steinkraus and Snowbound competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. They took the individual gold medal at the 1968 games,
the first equestrian individual gold won for the U.S.

In 1977, Bill Steinkraus, a former U.S. Equestrian Team member and a director of the NSL, collaborated with celebrated equestrian artist Sam Savitt (1917-2000) to write Great Horses of the United States Equestrian Team.

The book's 44 original illustrations by Savitt were recently donated to the NSL by Paul L. Davies Jr., of Lafayette, California.

Savitt grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and was fascinated with horses from childhood. He studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., graduating in 1941. After serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, he attended the Art Students League in Manhattan in 1950 and 1951.

At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Tad Coffin rode the great Thoroughbred mare Bally Cor to the individual gold medal in three-day eventing.

In 1956, Savitt was named the official artist for the U.S. Equestrian Team, a post he served for several years. He wrote and illustrated 15 books of his own and illustrated over 150 books for other authors. One of his most popular is Draw Horses with Sam Savitt published in 1981.

With owner/rider Hilda Gurney, Keen, a California-bred Thoroughbred, led the U.S. to the team bronze in dressage
at the 1976 Olympics, the first dressage medal since 1948.

Great Horses is a wonderful overview of these incredible horses and their riders who have made the U.S. a powerful force at the Olympics and other world competitions. Steinkraus reviews each horse's career and then rounds out each story with an interview with the rider who took the horse to the top of its game.