Sammy's story starts with a phone call from the wife of a friend. She had a horse that wasn't doing well and her husband had told her that Gemini Farm sometimes takes in sick or debilitated horses. Would we consider taking this horse???

We arranged a day to visit her farm and and meet her horse. A co worker and I went to the farm with me thinking I was going to check out the horse and make a few suggestions and be on my way. When I finally got to meet Sam my heart started making decisions and my head stopped thinking. Of course I would take Sam. His owner had had her veterinarian out three times and nothing seemed to be working for this guy. I decided it was my turn to try and help him and with that decision, we made arrangements to truck him to the farm.

Sam arrived a few days later, so lame he could hardly walk, so skinny that he looked more like a walking skeleton than a horse and suffering from rain rot (a bacterial infection) all over his body. My neighbor Donna, was with me when he arrived and we both could hardly hold back the tears as he hesitantly jumped off the truck and hobbled into the barn and his new home. No one held out much hope of Sam living more than a couple of weeks. It seemed obvious that the most humane thing to do for him was to put him to sleep and stop all his suffering.

Getting Sam to the farm was the first step but calling our veterinarian (Terri Tyson) was the next step. Terri is used to me calling with sad cases and so she wasn't surprised to hear that I had rescued a horse.

When Terri arrived at the farm she took one look at Sam, shook her head and asked if I really wanted to try as Sam looked like there was just no hope. My answer..."OF COURSE I WANT TO TRY!!!"

His previous owner was told by her veterinarian and farrier that Sam had thrush..a fungus infection in the bottom of the foot. Sam did have thrush however he also had a 'gravel' which is a very serious condition where a stone or foriegn body is pushed into the bottom of the hoof and then travels up through the hoof at out the top at the point where the leg and the hoof meet. The condition is extremely painful and because Sam's problem had been very long standing there wasn't much hope of improvement. There was a chance he had Cushings Disease and we did blood work to check for that and to see how his vital organs were functioning. He was put on antibiotics for the skin problem.....called 'rain rot' and Terri left.

The antibiotics quickly cleared up the skin infection however Sam continued to have great difficulty moving anywhere. During those first few weeks Donna would come down to the barn and then slowly walk Sam back to her yard where she turned him loose to eat grass and sleep in the sun. Because of the pain in his foot he didn't try to go anywhere so his days were spent sleeping and eating in Donna's yard...while she and her daughter Marlana cuddled him and told him how handsome he was. They brushed his dead coat and soaked his bad foot. But as the days went by we began to realize that maybe the kindest thing for Sam was humane euthanasia. Maybe this was one fight we were going to lose.

(This picture shows the bad foot. The bloody area is the top end of the hole that went from the bottom of Sam's foot to the top. The whole thing was full of infection and we soaked his foot daily in hopes of clearing it up.)

As the days turned into weeks and Sam didn't seem to be making any progress I finally decided it was time to stop letting my heart make decisions and let common sense take over. Sam wasn't gaining weight and wasn't walking any better. It was clear to me and Donna that he was suffering every time we asked him to walk... even just from his stall to the yard where he could eat grass. Even in the yard he was barely able to get around and spent much of his time lying down to relieve the pain in his foot. (see photo)

I called Terri and made the appointment to put Sam down. I called his previous owner to tell her we had failed ....and then I sat down and had a good cry. Terri couldn't come out for over a week so Donna and I decided that we would continue as usual and make Sam feel special. She would continue to take him to her lawn to eat and sleep in the sun and I would continue to let him graze and sleep in the yard all night long.

For three days we did this and then I noticed a slight improvement. Nah...I was just imagining things. I called Donna and asked her to come down to the barn and watch Sam walk. I told her he looked better and she told me to stop pretending. I knew she was right. But when she got to the barn and watched him walk....he WAS better. Not much but there was a change. He was almost walking like a horse instead of hobbling and stumbling like he was drunk. He wasn't in as much pain. We had hope!

The next day I came home and, as usual, Sam was in Donna's yard munching on grass. When I went to the barn he perked up his ears and whinnied to me. I called his name and told him to come home for supper. AND HE DID...AT A TROT!!! I watched him trot in the driveway and started crying but they were tears of joy...right from the heart!!! He came up to me and we walked together to the barn and he continued into his stall and ate his supper. Finally, I could call Terri and cancel his appointment with death. A miracle had happened and God had answered our prayers. Sam had a chance. Even if he just had a summer in the sun that was ok. He let us know it wasn't time for him to say goodbye.

Of course with this new hope came more procedures. Sam needed to see a dentist and Terri helped us find one from Syracuse, NY. When he arrived I told him that Sam was old. We didn't know how old...but he was very old. I suggested he was 'older than dirt' and the dentist just laughed. I suggested he was probably about 25 years old. When he looked in Sams's mouth he just said "Oh my! He IS older than dirt!" I laughed and asked him to give me an idea. He said somewhere between 35 and 40 and then took pictures of Sam's mouth for his scrap book. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do for Sam so he didn't have any dental work done. We were all surprised to see that he did have teeth at all!

Each day was a tiny bit of improvement. Sam's horrible dead coat was gradually replaced by shiney healthy hair and he gradually started to put on weight. Everyone loved him and when our grandchildren visited Sam was one of the stars.

But Sam still had a long way to go. He still held his bad foot out in front of him and his other front foot was badly deformed from carrying all his weight for so long. It was time for Sam to meet his farrier. Once again I called Terri to ask her to recommend someone. We normally had a young Amish man trim feet on all the horses for the farm but we really needed a specialist and Terri came through with a name of a local farrier (Mario Palombo) who agreed to come out when I told him that Terri Tyson told me to call.

Mario came out the end of June and, from my point of view, performed another miracle. He cleaned up the foot with the gravel and changed the angles and really worked on straightening out the other foot. When he was done all the deformities were gone and Sam was walking just about normal. I couldn't help but be amazed..and once again...I cried. The poor farrier must have thought I was a complete nut case...crying over a nice looking hoof. Like I said...as far as I was concerned...he had performed another miracle! As Mario was gathering up his tools I mentioned that we had considered putting him to sleep and he turned to me and said...."There is too much life left in his eyes...he's not ready yet." Mario is right. There is a spark in Sam's eyes. It wasn't there when he arrived on the farm and stumbled off the truck but somehow that spark started to shine through.

Once Sam's feet were trimmed and he started walking better I started putting him out in the pasture with the mares...Pride and Lucy. He fit right in and he now has a routine. He knows he gets to come in the barn for breakfast and supper so he stands and waits for me to call his name. If I am late he stands at the door waiting for me...and complaining. He is slowly gaining weight and his ribs are gradually becoming less prominant. His hip bones still stick out and his withers too, are very boney....but each day we see progress. That's all we can hope for. Progress.

Sam's story isn't over. For now we take each day and marvel at he has made it this far. We enjoy each moment we have with him and hope that God will allow us to enjoy his company for a long time to come.

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