One February morning my dad flew to Canada on a "business trip." At least that was what my mom told me. Every time my father (who's in the horse racing industry) goes away, I day dream about him coming back with a pony for me. But this time I stopped dreaming and told myself to get real.
I guess I'll always only have my little Shetland pony, Mikey, who I had jumped and out grown. The next day my dad returned I gave him a hug then rode my bike to the barn to visit Mikey. Later when I returned my parents were talking in the kitchen. When I walked in they stopped talking and my dad asked me to go outside to talk.
He told me he went to Canada to look at a horse for me. He was a paint Quater Horse named Sampson. I was so excited and in shock I started to laugh. I couldn't wait to get the tests that the vet gave him back. A week later the results came back and he was mine! I couldn't believe it! All the praying I had done had paid off.
A couple of weeks of anxious waiting and 10:00 P.M. he arrived. At that time a 14 hand horse looked kind of big. Although he was the most handsome horse I had ever seen! He wasn't too fond of my dad though or the cows. My dad told me he was born, broke, and trained by rough cowboys. The next week my dad finally trusted Sampson enough to let me ride him by myself. When I started trotting he got stiff and more pranced than trotted. Then all the sudden he started cantering and bucking. I was a novice rider and didn't know how to get in control again.
I rode him many more times but he didn't seem right for me. So as I tried to find a place nearby to ride so both Sampson and me could improve our riding. On my way back from spring break with my grandparents my dad said he found a place in the newspaper. So the day after I got home we went to check it out. It was great. I got to have a free riding lesson to get the feel of the place. So I rode there for a month and my riding teacher Roger heard about Sampson and said he'd be happy to train him.
Sampson did wonderfully. By the seconded week I got to ride him in a lesson. Although he was better he wasn't perfect. He started throwing little fits when he got tired. But Roger made that better. At the end of the month Roger thought he needed one more month. At the end of that month he was truly perfect. He wasn't so good it was boring but just right. The horse I thought wouldn't be good for jumping and showing was jumping.
Anything you aimed him at he would jump wonderfully. By that time he was a fairly popular horse at the barn. Roger though thought was great. At our first show two women from the barn came up to Sampson patting him and saying how great he was. It took me a minute to figure out who they were at first, but apparently they knew Sampson. Sampson is my best friend and I hope we have many shows and surprises in the future!
Clare O'Dowd, 12
Kentucky, USA
