Samson’s Band

Samson and Jet are full brothers out of the incredible icon of Pine Nut called Blue. These two brothers are incredibly close and grew up side by side sparring and running the range. Samson is a red roan and Jet is exactly as he sounds - Jet Black and beautiful. In the winter of 2019, Samson was with his family that consisted of his mare, Dumplin’, and their baby son, Sam. Dumplin’s mother, Apple, was also in the band as well as her mother, Old Momma, the 26-year-old matriarch of the band. Samson’s brother, Jet, was also close by with his own family. This was a family of four generations of horses who were a close-knit family with a lot of love and caring for each other. Little Sam had only been born a couple of months earlier and people who followed this band had watched him take his first steps and observed him as he grew into a gangly young colt.

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving weekend was a terrible time for all who loved and followed this beautiful family in the wild. One of their volunteers went out to check on them and to their dismay found Samson and his family, including Jet, imprisoned in a metal corral on somebody’s property. A ranch owner had called the BLM and told them that the horses were trespassing on his property and they had come and built a pen and put food and water inside to trap the horses. Samson and his family wandered in and sadly were caught forever. Jet’s mare was on the outside of the trap and was immediately taken by another wild stallion and Jet called to her as she was taken away up the hill by her new partner. The BLM came and put them into a trailer and that day they lost their freedom forever as they were transported to the nearest BLM holding facility in Palomino Valley where they were separated, processed, and gelded. They were then put on the Internet Adoption for sale to the highest bidder.

at SKydog Sanctuary

We were contacted by the Pine Nut wild horse group of advocates to see if we could possibly give this family sanctuary and keep them together forever. We read the stories of this family and we couldn’t say no. There has been so much debate and discussion about wild horse families and their bonds and many have argued they simply don’t exist. I have a feeling that the reason people like to deny animals, particularly horses, feelings and emotions is that they feel better treating animals the way they do - as livestock without feeling. They don’t want to accept that these incredible horses have deep loving bonds and denial is a powerful force. But we live with these horses, we watch them on the range, we see them grieve profoundly when they lose a friend or family member and we know that they do. So all that being said we wanted very much to keep this family together as they were before the BLM captured them. All six horses will be coming to Skydog very shortly and be reunited to live together again forever.

family photo album