Sam I Am (Sam)

Sam was 6 when he came to Cedar Lodge. He was traded to us for a couple of yearlings we had that hadn't worked out. His previous work experience was not much. He had gone walk, trot down trail and that was about it. He was unique with his chestnut color and blond flaxen mane, big bodied, even tempered and tall enough for most of the campers to ride. He seemed like a good investment.

Through the years Sam has served us well. Primarily his years at Cedar Lodge have been on Show team. Sam has won in classes from cross rails to 3'0 division. Many old campers from show team can tell you stories of riding Sam to their first horse show, but the road hasn't been easy. Sam, we discovered had too major quirks that, once discovered, demanded to be respected: One- Sam hates horse coming at him. Any gait, if Sam is in the ring, all riding has to be done in the same direction. This can be very challenging in the warm up ring at a horse show. Two-Sam gets a bit excited after a big oxer (a fact, I was among many to have first hand experience finding out.) So much so, that he is known to take off at an extended canter afterwards and maybe stick in a buck or two, just to see if you are paying attention.

Sam on Sam

Sam has another fact along with his name that is unique to him and only one other horse at Cedar Lodge: He is one of two horses that live here that were sold and given back free! Here is the story. Chris and I have a good friend that lives in Detroit (sorry, no names. He may be your riding instructor!) who teaches, judges and shows from a very nice hunter barn. At one horse show that he happened to be judging, I was riding Sam in several classes. This friend was quite taken with Sam and asked if he could buy him, as he had the perfect client looking for just such a horse as him. I said "sure," "everything is for sale" and shortly after, a price was agreed upon and Sam (along with some warnings about his "unique facts" was loaded into a trailer pointed towards Detroit. With in a month, a check came in the mail for Sam's entire purchase price attached to a letter thanking us for our cooperation and how happy the new owners were with Sam. And that was all we heard for several months. Then one day we received a distressing phone call, from this same friend in Detroit. "Listen," he said. "I am sending Sam back. I don't care about the money, but he is just not going to work out."

With in a week Sam was once more on our door step and papers were in our hands transferring ownership back to us. Evidently, Sam had shown on several occasions just how much he objected to horses come at him in warm arenas. Our friend, still impressed with Sam's way of going and jump, changed his riding routine just for Sam. He woke up early in the morning and started schooling him for classes at the break of dawn before anyone else was around. With this warm up, Sam only needed a trot fence or two before entering the ring for his round. Such it was just a day before we received the call sending Sam home. Our friend woke up early. Schooled Sam, and put him away. Later that day our friend brought Sam out 15 or 20 minutes before his class. He trotted him around a couple times to loosen him up, trotted a few cross rails and proceeded to the in gate to wait his turn in the ring. Unfortunately, what he did not pay attention to, was that the horse exited the ring just before Sam's round came trotting directly at them as he went to exit the ring. Sam took one look at this horse trotting straight at him, spun 180 degrees and took off galloping, promptly bucking our friend off in the biggest mud puddle of the warm arena! I think maybe Sam would have had a chance to redeem himself if our friend had not been wearing a brand new expensive hunt coat that he had just purchased the day before. When telling the story, he explained that this indeed was the straw that broke the camels back. So Sam came back to Cedar Lodge, and has never left since.

This story, of course pertains to Sam's younger days. Sam's need to be traveling with traffic is always respected and his chance of an occasional buck is gone. He now stays home most days. and is happily assigned to the beginner, intermediate jump classes, where he teaches many novice riders the ropes of the game and everyone goes the same direction ;)

CEDAR LODGE

Sam I Am (Sam)