Excerpt from Unbreakable by Richard Askwith, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Beside her stands a pale horse, inches from her head. It, too, appears to be in a kind of trance. The two lean towards one another in unconscious intimacy.

Both seem euphoric. Both seem proud. Both seem to glow, like victorious warriors, with the joy of survival. Much of Lata's greatness can be sensed from this preserved moment. To win her glory she required fighting spirit and physical and moral courage to a degree more usually associated with warfare than with sport; and she required a loyal comrade—no less indomitable—from another species. both points are central to her story.

Lata Brandisová came of age as one empire was collapsing and died as another was approaching its overdue end. In between came two world wars, depression, occupation, revolution—and world-changing technological upheaval. She and her sporting contemporaries wrestled with forces—sexism, class hatred, nationalism, fascism—whose shadows darken today's world too. Her struggles, to which she brought an unbreakable courage beyond most imaginations, were never just about sport.

Nor were they just about her. In her death-or-glory moments, she rode for her nation, and for her gender; perhaps even for freedom. And she did so—as she never forgot—as one of a partnership, between rider and ridden, in which she was the weaker link. That is perhaps the strangest thing about this strange story: at its heart lies the age-old mystery of collaboration between human being and beast, in which, in the right hands, a dumb, powerful, half-ton brute not only consents to serve the feeble biped on its back but does so sometimes with an enthusiasm that seems indistinguishable from the conscious pursuit of human goals.

There are many reasons for rescuing Lata Brandisová's story from oblivion. Only two really matter. She stood up for what was right. And she was that rarest kind of sporting hero: one who achieved what was generally agreed to be impossible.

Excerpted from the first chapter of Unbreakable by Richard Askwith, published by Pegasus Books. Reprinted with permission. All other rights reserved.