Sam came to my family in November of 2003.  Although Sam is not a NMF his beginnings were equally tragic and ironically his journey home began with Casey Creek orphan foal rescue.  I lost my beloved gelding the summer of 2003 shortly after my colt, Tonka, was born.  Needing to fill a void and have a companion for Tonka I began looking at equine rescues.  I found Casey Creek, joined their Internet group, fell in love with all the pictures of previously adopted foals.  It was late in the season and there was one foal left, so I put in my application.  Unfortunately for me I did not get that foal (but he went to a good home with a companion).  I was heartbroken, but things happen for a reason.  A few months later I found “Sammy”.  This is his story:

By the time Sam was rescued from an auction outside of Gallatin, TN, he had already been dragged through at least one other auction house by a horse trader who makes his living going from auction to auction picking up horses cheap then selling them at the next auction for double the price counting on soft hearted people or meat buyers to purchase the ones that he lets get into horrific shape.  Sam was malnourished, riddled with parasites, injured and had a very bad case of shipping fever.  I saw his picture and read his story on petfinder.com and made arrangements to adopt Sam.  By this time the rescue had seen to his vet care and given Sam lots of TLC, but he was still a sad site a month later when we got there to pick him up.  All that is known of his history before the rescue comes from the Cookeville auctions coggins papers.  He was listed as 5 months old (I don’t believe he was more than 3 months old) quarter horse (my guess is mustang) number 051.  The rescue named him Sammy.  We call him Sam I Am.

Sam finally recovered from shipping fever, we cleared up the parasites and put weight on him.  It took two weeks to touch him without him jumping out of his skin.  Three months later we were able to turn him out with the other horses.  He is going through the terrible twos now, living happy and healthy with his companion Tonka and two grumpy mares.  He has proven to be quite a jumper, full of curiosity and eagerness.  I look forward to our long future together.