Crosswinds Equine Rescue

Summary: Meet Sammie Jo, a registered appaloosa mare who is sweet, amazingly gentle, and a joy to be around. Sammie has shown herself a joy to work, from beginners still on a longeline, leadline classes at local shows, to an intermediate rider working with her to be more forward and have a more hunter carriage, Sammie is nothing short of sheer pleasure under saddle. Sammie has previously jumped up to 2'9", has shown with a teenage rider for several years, and also does western pleasure and neck reins on a very soft 'bump' rein. Sammy is a joy at shows, and much slower and more gentle for an early intermediate, yet responsive and a pleasure to ride for a more experienced rider as well. Please see details below on Sammie's mild hip problems. Sammie went home on June 19, 2006 to her new family in Ohio. Congrats, Sammi!

History: Sammie's last mom owned her for about 5 years. She and her daughter have had fabulous times with Sammie, showing, and doing pleasure and trail riding. Sammie's mom donated Magicman to us a few years ago, when she saved him from going to a slaughter sale, and found he was more than she could handle. So, when life sadly got in the way and she could no longer afford to keep Sammie, instead of putting her in the paper, and not knowing where Sammie might end up, she donated her to us here at CWER, knowing we would do our very best to find her a wonderful forever home. She is hoping we'll decide to keep Sammie at CWER permanently, as she would be a great ambassador, but at least while we are on this small farm, we just cannot keep her here with us permanently.

"When I first rode Sammie," writes AnnMarie Cross, trainer and president for CWER, "I was expecting to ride a beginner's lesson pony. I expected her to be sleepy and lazy and require a lot of work to keep her moving. That's not the Sammie she showed me. She is quiet and well mannered, but not lazy when I ride her. Yet, put a late beginner on her, and she IS docile, gentle and careful, and requires a lot of work to get her to trot. For me, she outwalks Tess (the Clydesdale) on trail rides, and is eager to pick up a trot and without a lot of prodding will canter. Yet, with an early intermediate rider, a crop is needed to get a solid trot, and a canter is nearly impossible.

She neck reins with ease, and is a pleasure to ride. She tries to snitch bites of grass without permission, and has a little more energy FOR ME than I would've expected from a teenager's show mount, but she is really quite easy to handle and all in all a joy to have around. I was very comfortable putting Tory (12) up on Sammie the first day I rode her, and having Tory trot her in the front yard and ride her out down the road. I would trust Sammie for Tory to ride her to town or anywhere else we wanted to go. I had Tory show her at the local Winter series, and we confirmed she is just as wonderful in a show barn as she is here. We hope to find her a home with another child, family, or young teen rider to spend the next several years doing local and perhaps 4H or Appaloosa breed shows. Or she'd be an awesome trail mount or around the house ride for a less experienced rider of ANY age."

Sammie needed to have her hooves retrimmed when she arrived. Her last trim was not ideal and left her right hind hoof too long on the inside, making her carry that leg wrong. Sammie is currently doing walk/trot only, as she has a mildly stuck hip which chiropractic has been able to make her comfortable, and she is 100% sound at walk and trot, but she is uncomfortable to ride at the canter.

January 06: Sammy has had both hips adjusted once by our chiropractic vet, and she is moving more fluidly. He indicates she will need another adjustment before she should be asked to canter again, and will likely need 1-2 more adjustments after that to get the hip back to full motion. Given her age, a 'maintenance' adjustment may be needed periodically.

March 06: Sammie has had several chiros so far, and the hip still is not 100%, but is doing better. We are not cantering under saddle, but Sammie is muscling up and gaining weight nicely with our walk/trot work. We showed Sammie at the Rockin A shows this winter and Sammie did great! Her western pleasure classes and her English classes all went well. She's an old trooper for this kind of thing, and also did superb in leadline with her young student.

April/May06: Sammie continues to do FANTASTIC at local shows riding walk/trot. This time she & Gerry took 3rd in an adult walk/trot class, beating 6 other horses, including AnnMarie! At this time, we've chosen to keep her as a walk/trot mount only, unless a significant change is seen in spring with additional chiropractic. she is SUPERB as a walk/trot only horse, and we feel that's an ideal home for her.

June 06: Sammie is adopted! she is going to Ohio to be with the Ricks family, who had originally adopted Jep/Zip. Jep is returning to CWER in hopes that we can resolve some severe issues that arose while at his trainer. This is a GREAT home for Sammie and we couldn't be happier!

Just wanted to put in an update about Sami and her new herd. She is doing wonderfully. I had a high school reunion picnic at my house on Sunday afternoon. There were several children, and even some adults, that wanted a "pony ride". We saddled Sami and one of my geldings. Sami was great. Although there was a crowd of about 50 standing around watching and/or waiting their turn, all the excitement didn't seem to bother her at all. My daughter led her around (claiming ownership of Sami) and Sami seemed to love the attention.

She is eating well and seems to love being out to graze with the rest of the herd. After only 2 weeks, she has settled right in and knows which stall to stand outside of to be let in for dinner. (she still wants to get into the stall with Duby and is so stubborn about that but she will relent when we close his stall door) I plan to take a few pictures, if the rain ever stops, and will send them on when I do.

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