Review: Lippizaner Rescue Mission
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2014
Most of us do not or did not know that the American troops worked with the Nazis (although under some duress) to rescue these magnificent animals. I did not know about this operation, and apparently most of us had no information about it except that General Patton got one of the prime males as his own private horse, and we got that from the movie "Patton". This well documented story about the mission reads a little too much like a post-university term paper and could use some smoothing, e.g. dialogue in the form of small talk that hits on the need to kill time while they waited or that lets the reader in on an aspect of the operation that isn't official, something more social. It's a bit dry.I wanted more about the horses and finally got it when the troops discussed watching the animals perform some of the maneuvers we thought were difficult for the horses but that they had been trained to perform. I'm certain some of their public performance fits that expectation, but what the troops were describing in the book were actions these horses routinely performed for their own pleasure prior to training. In short, I wanted more on the horses themselves. Where did their bloodline come from? Are they Arabian? They certainly are wondrous.