Sam's Story 3

Part 3, Family Man
Go to Part 1

Before I got Sam, he had been a breeding stallion for about ten years and had 30 registered offspring. We didn't start breeding until 1994. That year we bred him to a dun Quarterhorse mare and a sorrel Appendix Quarterhorse mare (QH/TB cross). He produced a sorrel filly and a dun colt that first year. The following year (1995) we bred him to a Palomino mare and got a cremello filly.

In 1996 we bred him again to the appendix QH mare and got another sorrel filly, and also to a Tennessee Walker mare.

That year I bought a Belgian filly to breed to Sam. Rural Retreat's Heidi Lynn was a beautifully bred filly that had won Grand Champion Mare in Michigan as a yearling. We bred her in the spring of 1997. That year we also bred him to a beautiful dark bay thoroughbred mare, Sweet Suprano. Sweets was a Native Dancer bred mare. We also did our first AI breeding that year to a maiden TB mare. Heidi gave me Annie, a beautiful filly; Sweets produced Sweet Sam, a colt; and the TB produced another filly.


Annie, Heidi and Sam
In 1998 I bought a second Belgian mare. Milkwood Farms Erika was a European bred belgian mare. She was 17 years old, and had been a broodmare all her life. We bred Erika, rebred Heidi, and bred another imported mare in Oklahoma with AI. That year we also bred Obviously Bright, an appaloosa mare in Flagstaff. Unfortunately Erika's filly was born prematurely and only lived a few hours. Heidi produced another filly, Kate, and the imported mare had a beautiful bay roan colt, Dandy. Obviously Bright produced a filly, Obviously Sam's Glory.




Obviously Sam's Glory, Belgian/Appy cross

Kate was very attached to Erika (whose nickname was "Granny"). Even before she was weaned, she spent most of her time with Granny. They were inseparable.


Kate and Granny

In 1999 we bred Sweets again, and got another colt, Sam's High Note (AKA "Junior") . Sam was getting up in years, so we only bred him once in '99. We bred him one last time in 2000, again to Heidi, and got a third filly, Samantha.

Here are Glory, Kate, Annie, and Samantha



Here is Kate in her first horse show



and Junior in his first jumping class.




Sam lives on in his progeny. Junior doesn't look much like his daddy, but he is sure Sam "between the ears". He has a sweet and gentle nature that just gets better every day.

Go to Part 4, Retirement