NEW YORK Instances BESTSELLER • From the writer from the Eighty-Dollar Champ, the remarkable story of the heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War II

WINNER OF THE PEN AWARD FOR RESEARCH NONFICTION

In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American military catches a German spy and makes an astonishing find-his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been taken and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines..LEARNING MUCH MORE about AN IDEAL Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Precious Stallions Kidnapped from the Nazis Hitler provides stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds to be able to breed an ideal military services machine-an equine get better at race. But with the starving Russian military closing in, the pets are in imminent danger of getting slaughtered for meals.

With only hours to spare, among the U.S. Army’s last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a striking decision-with General George Patton’s blessing-to support a covert save operation. Race against period, Reed’s little but determined force of troops, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines in a last-ditch work to save the horses.

Pulling jointly this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts presents us for an unforgettable cast of characters: Alois Podhajsky, director from the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a previous Olympic medalist who is compelled to flee the bomb-ravaged Austrian capital with his entire stable in tow; Gustav Rau, Hitler’s imperious key of horse breeding, a proponent of eugenics who dreams of genetically executive an ideal warhorse for Germany; and Tom Stewart, a senator’s boy who makes a daring moonlight trip on a white stallion to secure the farm’s surrender.

A compelling take into account animal enthusiasts and World War II buffs alike, The Perfect Equine tells for the very first time the full story of these occasions. Elizabeth Letts’s exhilarating story of behind-enemy-lines adventure, courage, and sacrifice brings to life perhaps one of the most motivating chapters in the history of individual valor.

Praise for The Perfect Horse

“Winningly readable . . . Letts captures both the personalities as well as the stakes of the daring mission with such a sharpened ear for episode that the complete second half from the book reads like a WWII thriller dreamed up by Alan Furst or Len Deighton. . . . The proper director could make a Hollywood classic out of the fairy tale.”-The Christian Research Monitor

“Letts, a lifelong equestrienne, eloquently brings together the many facets of this improbable, poignant tale underscoring the like and respect of man for horses.”-Kirkus Reviews