Sam now has a new pasture mate - Alf was moved to another pasture so Sammy can help an orphan foal. Ollie is about 5 months old now, his mother died when he was 12 hours old of a ruptured uterine artery. Ollie has become very shy and the owner thinks Sam can teach Ollie how to be a "real" horse. Ollie has been brought up by humans and has had little contact with other horses. He has a half brother Houston but Houston's Mom is protective and aggressive so the owner is afraid she might hurt Ollie. The two brothers have not had much time together. We are hoping Sam's mustang mentality will rub off on Ollie. The first day Ollie walked into Sam's pasture, Sam was inside the run-in shed. He poked his head out at Ollie and just waited for Ollie to come to him. I was very proud of Sam because he did not come charging after Ollie and try to assert dominance. Sam seemed to know that Ollie was fragile and needed time to adjust.

Kelly with Houston, Ollie and Sammy

Every morning for two weeks I would go to the ranch early to feed Sam - and now Ollie so I could walk Ollie out into the pasture. Ollie was afraid to venture very far from the shelter. I would walk him out to Sammy and we would follow Sam around so Ollie would start to get the idea that it was safe to hang out with Sam. After about 2 weeks there was a remarkable improvement in Ollie's demeanor. He started grazing more and staying out in the pasture for longer and longer periods of time. Finally Sam felt that Ollie was comfortable enough to start playing with him so slowly he started herding Ollie out to the pasture and gently prodded him into more playful situations. One day, the Arab mare in the next pasture started asking to come into Sam's pasture because her buddies weren't letting her in the shelter. Well, she started doing this to Ollie so Sam pushed Ollie into the corner of the shelter and put his entire body in front of Ollie to keep him safe from the mare. Little Ollie just stuck his head over Sam's back and rested it there. You could see from his expression that he was so grateful for the protection.

The next month Ollies brother Houston was weaned and put in the pasture with Sam along with another Mare (the Arab mare was returned to her original pasture that evening). Houston bonded with this new mare and followed her everywhere so Ollie still did not have anyone to play with. By the time the mare left for a new home Ollie and Houston were about 6 months old. Houston started picking on Ollie so Sam had to get a little tough with him, Sam actually had to give Houston a little kick to keep him from stealing food. I was a bit shocked because up until that point I had never seen Sammy kick anyone or anything. I think he knew that Houston's behavior needed to be nipped in the bud! Sam kept those two in line until the day we moved him to another barn (Yes, we had to move Sam to a new home - more about that later).

A Private Moment

Ryan and I loaded Sammy on his trailer for his first trailer ride and went to a nearby park for walks in the woods. Oops, I guess I never wrote anything about teaching Sam to trailer load. I think we started the trailer lessons back in early June. I led him over to the trailer door, walked in and he followed! Gee, that was hard. Well, actually the hard part was loading him the second time because Ryan is a stickler about teaching a horse to unload by backing out - no turning around. Well, Sam didn't think backing out was as much fun as loading on so we had a few stubborn moments where he just stood there and refused. We used the butt tapping, John Lyons irritation method because Sammy was not afraid of the trailer, just being stubborn. He would load and unload if we turned him around and he could walk out, but since that isn't always an option, we needed to work on the backing out. The first lesson we backed him out 3 times and quit for the day. The nest time we tried, about 2 weeks later, he was so much better. We used a stock trailer step up. By the third lesson we used a 2-horse ramp and Sammy was great! He hesitated for about 10 seconds and walked up.

Check out Buddy in the background

Sammy's first outing: Once loaded on Ryan's trailer, I wanted to take him somewhere fun and memorable so he associated the trailer ride with something positive and worth the effort. We drove about 5 miles to Nockamixon State Park because there are equestrian trails there. The park is very wooded and we picked a private spot to unload and go for a walk. We were out for about an hour and Sam was very preoccupied for the first 10 minutes with eating everything in sight, including the leaves. Then he settled in and thoroughly enjoyed the walk in the woods. I was very proud of him - he was just excellent, well behaved, calm - what else can I say - I just love this guy!

Mom, When do we Eat?

August - September 2001: Since Sam did so well on his first "trail walk", I decided to see if he would let another horse pony him so I hopped on a 16 year old Arab mare in the corral and started ponying Samson. The mare is so well trained that every time Sam stopped she stopped and patiently waited until he finally got the hang of it. We worked on this while two other riders were working with their horses in the corral at the same time and he did not become distracted at all. Now, it was time to try Samson out on the trail being ponied. Ryan brought his quarter horse Jigger over and we loaded Sammy up (no problem) and went back to Lake Nockamixon. We went on another trail walk, this time I was walking and Ryan was riding Jigger and ponying Sammy. At first Sam was a little stubborn and didn't want to move but by the time the hour walk/ride was over he was so soft and willing! It didn't hurt that Sam and Jigger bonded immediately!

       
Two pics of Ryan and his 3 yr. old stud colt Jigger - and so well behaved!

That one hour of ponying helped me so much with my ground work - I was astounded. Sammy had developed a few little stubborn streaks. I could not get him to lunge because all he wants to do is turn in and "join up" with me. He is very smart and really "thinks". In his mind there is just no good reason to lunge - OK fine - lets not lunge - lets just jog together. "Sammy, trot, come on lets go, trot". No way, I just wind up jogging in place. Well now that he has been ponied - it's entirely another story! We can now go for walks together and trots together - I trot and he follows. NOW I can teach him voice commands. Another little annoying habit of his was deciding not to move when I would take him out of the barn and back to his pasture. He would plant his feet and look at me like a mule! Cute but annoying and disrespectful. I always bring him in the barn to feed him so he can eat alone - no fighting for grain with the other horses. Also, Sam eats so little grain - he is a very easy keeper so if I fed him in the pasture with the other horses he would steal their grain. After the ponying he stopped the planting of the feet and followed me out to the pasture. Sammy is excellent at leading, I have a very slack lead rope and he just follows beautifully. The quirky little foot-planting thing at the barn was because he likes visiting with the barn horses and he KNOWS where the grain is. Sam loves his hay and grain!

Heather sits on Sam for about a minute

I took Sammy on a walk down the road but this time we went in another direction. About 1/4 mile down the road there is another small farm with horses and beyond that there is a Llama farm. I was surprised at how cautious Sam was when he first caught sight of the other horses but what really floored me was his reaction to the Llamas. He saw the first Llama (unfortunately it was the head Llama dude!)...Sam stopped dead in his tracks, whinnied a tentative hello to "Mr. Big Bad Llama Dude" and at this point he was open for a dialogue. Apparently not so with the Llama - he did not reply, he just moved closer towards us and stared poor Sammy down! Well, that was just too much for my little 16-month-old colt. He turned around and headed for home with me hanging onto the lead rope. As soon as he was about 20 feet back he settled down and I tried to turn him around and face his fear. Well he was having none of that - feet planting time, so back to the ranch we went. He has still never overcome the "Llama-phobia" because we were never back down that road again - maybe someday soon...

Our next adventure took us down the country roads. Ryan and I took turns riding Jigger so I finally was able to pony Samson on my own. Thank you Ryan for trusting me to ride your horse! We then went to my friend Maria's down the road and took Sam into her pasture and into her woods. she has 10 acres and her horses have open pasture and wood to live in. Ryan ponied Sam into the woods and through some yucky dark muddy water - Sam was not exactly thrilled and did not want to go through the black water so it was a good training ground. I rode Maria's horse Black and tried to get Sam to follow my voice and he eventually did tip toe through a little muck (after jumping a few hurdles). I am sure if I were walking Sam through he would have been fine - Sam trusts me so much that when he sees me do something, such as go over a jump, he follows. Which brings me to the jumps...there are some jumps set up in the corral and I set some at about a foot off the ground to see what Sam would do - should have known, if Mom thinks it's OK, then I'll follow. So I jogged and jumped a few (very low - I'm no hurdle jumping athlete) and he trotted with me and jumped over. He's so willing and trusting and unafraid.

Side view of Sam - Short back, low set tail - Spanish body type

September - December 2001: The last quarter of 2001 was very hectic and grueling for me. There was Sept. 11th, a lot of very hectic volunteering at the rescue, 3 serious (flu) colds for me and the stress of possibly loosing my job (which I eventually did - I was laid off in Feb. 2002). Things started falling apart for me at the rescue and I decided it was time to look for a new home for Samson. It was becoming increasingly difficult to spend any quality time with Sammy and there were too many horses at the rescue to even find a quiet spot to work with Sammy. After my third and last bout with the flu, which kept me away from Sam for 3 days - a first for me, (Sam was mad at me when I returned - he was a little naughty ;-) and it took him 2 days to settle down and forgive me) I decided to look for another place to board Sammy.

December 21, 2001: I found an ad in a local paper for a wonderful 50 acre farm that was offering self care horse boarding. This was exactly what I was looking for and as luck would have it, the farm was only 2 miles from my house. Now all I needed to do was check it out and see if the person boarding her 5 horses would allow me to move my mustang there. The farm turned out to be perfect, there is a 1.5-acre paddock for the winter and a 4-acre pasture for spring summer and fall. The paddock has a huge run-in shed and there is a wonderful old bank barn to feed the horses in. I have always believed that horses should be outside, not hanging out in a stall all day so this place suited my needs perfectly.

I spoke with the other boarder and she agreed to give it a shot so we move Sammy to the new place at the end of the month - a few days away.

   
              Sam's New Bank Barn          Heather's 3 yr. old Warmblood, Darby

December 28, 2001 Moving Day: Ryan came by around 4 pm to move Sammy to his new home. With Coggins in hand, we loaded Sam up - he's now a "pro" of course, and hopped right up. It was a cold winter day and when we arrived (a mere 3 mile trip) my 3 friends were there to greet me and cheer Sammy on. My one friend brought Champagne to celebrate and the Cloud book as a Christmas gift. I am very luck to have such supportive friends. We gave Sam a tour of the new paddock, I was a little nervous because he had never been in a pasture with electric wire before (hot wire above the fence). Ryan walked him around the perimeter, let him get zapped twice and we introduced him to his new herd leaders, two Appaloosa mares - one definitely pregnant and one maybe pregnant, the 2 year old App filly and 2 yearling App colts.

I kept Sam in a stall that night and for the next 4 nights as well. I didn't want the mares bullying him at night and stressing him out - I was still concerned about the electric wire. Every day for about 5 days Sam seemed very withdrawn - whenever I brought him in to eat, he was so focused on his hay, he wouldn't even look at me or even look out the stall door. Finally on about the 4th or 5th day I noticed a big change in Sammy's attitude - he was anxious to get back outside after eating so I finally let him stay out all night. He was now starting to bond with the herd and especially the sweetly annoying App filly. Lucy is a very "in your face" kind or horse and was always nudging the other horses to play and never taking no for an answer. Well, by the end of the month Lucy and Sam were pretty tight. Unfortunately Sammy's new move wasn't quite smooth - the other boarder decided to move all her horses at the end of January because she needed larger mare and foal stalls for her soon to foal mares.