Sampson the destructor

Sampson before a wedding.

Sampson tearing up the yard.

Wedding at Calabasas Inn, Calabasas California.

Although Tux was a great horse I was constantly getting requests for a white horse. I met a lady who had a Grey Percheron and she was willing to trade for my buckboard and that is how I ended up with Sampson. I personally feel she got the better end of that deal. Sampson was a pretty gelding but as I soon learned he had NO Patience for standing still very long. No matter how hard I worked with him when he was done that was it. He also liked to destroy anything in the yard. He was a one wave horse destructor. I came home one day to find he had drug the husbands 16 foot Hobie Cat sailboat completely across the yard. He drug things dumped things ate things you name it. We finally got some metal horse stalls in the back and would keep him in a stall. Every morning 6:00 AM sharp he would take that big old pie plate hoof of his and bang on the bottom rail of that horse stall until I got up and fed him. He literally had me at his mercy since he was waking up the entire neighborhood as well.

I ended up using Sampson for ceremony to reception carriage rides. That way I could wear him out enough so he would stand still at the end and let people take pictures of him. If it was super hot as well I found I could give him a work out first and then he might stand still for a ceremony. Needless to say although he looked great with the carriage I had to finally sell him. He was just to unreliable and unpredictable. Besides the fact he was very expensive to get shoes every six to eight weeks and very few horseshoers did horses that big. I will say that he was a fun horse to ride and he was good around people and children.