This post is long overdue (what else is new?)
A few months ago, this gigantic 17hh three year-old chestnut colt moved into the barn. His (terrible) name is Sam's Last Ghasp and we briefly debated calling him Wheezy before settling on the much more obvious Sam as his barn name. He's just too good of a boy to be called Wheezy.
The name comes from his sire, Heavy Breathing. Those of you who are really stalking these things will notice that means he's by the same stallion as my beloved Harry. Well, I don't know if it's the sire line or what, but Sam shares all of Harry's good qualities despite the two of them not looking anything alike.
Sam came to us for rehab and came sound quickly. Juli hopped on him first and after some very minor propping, he was a perfect gentleman under saddle.
I have been riding Sam since! We started off just jogging a mile inside, which is where we got to know each other. Sam is on the lazy side, which I love. His only "bad" habit is that he calls to the other horses sometimes. Other than that and the fact that he's a little mouthy on the ground, you'd never know he wasn't a gelding!
Once we'd worked up to a mile and a half jogging, I took Sam out on the turf course. He did get a little distracted by the other horses, but wasn't the least bit spooky or strong. He did think about running off once when a motorcycle passed behind him, but I never lost brakes and was able to pull him up in just a few strides.
Next, I took Sam out in the orchard field to do our first gallops. He was like a big hunter pony, loping around on a loopy rein, so I took him up on the hill. Sam has been great for my fitness and confidence. He's big enough and takes enough of a hold that I build cardio and muscle by riding him, but he's so saintly that I'm finding myself being really brave on him. I've ridden him the fastest out of all the horses I've gotten on in the last almost-year. In fact, I'd do just about anything with him by ourselves!
Sam has also started going in company again. The first time I took him in company with Juli, I thought my arms were going to get pulled out of their sockets. Sam wasn't running away with me, but he was leaning on me (politely, but with a head that feels like it's three hundred pounds!) I only got through three laps around the Hill before I had to pull up because I was out of breath!
Since then, we've graduated to the alfalfa field, which is a half-mile mowed gallop where we can work in the correct direction and incorporate lead changes like they do at the track. Juli was out the week that we started using the "west gallop", as Doc calls it. I put on my big girl pants and went out with Christine and Bam Bam. This was the first time that we went fast and instead of fighting to maintain control, I let the reins go and got out of Sam's way while he did his job. In fact, we ended up leaving Bam Bam in our dust at one point and Christine actually had to send him to come catch us!!!
The heat is definitely putting a damper on my fitness and riding. I struggle in the heat in general, preferring winter to summer. I get winded and shaky very quickly, and wearing a hot vest doesn't help. Still, I'm trying to keep it up! I did miss two weeks due to my sun poisoning so it'll be interesting to see where I'm at on Monday when I get back on Sam again.
Still, Sam is the type of horse I could see myself actually breezing on. We already went "two minute lick" pace. Christine breezed Sam on Wednesday, for the first time since he's been with us. He did have a few timed works at the track previously, and they were unimpressive at best, so it was no surprise when Sam breezing by himself was best described as uninspired. I'm not sure he actually went any faster than he did when I rode him with Bam Bam!
As always, I half hope Sam will flunk out of racing so he can making someone a very nice riding horse (I'll keep you all posted if he does!) In the mean time, I hope he stays at the farm long enough for me to learn more from him. I suspect he'll be leaving soon since he's doing so well, though.
As you can probably tell from my gigantic grin, I'm really enjoying this big red horse for now:
Photo by Christine (almost all the ones in this post are).
