Samson is one of our big French stallion donkeys and he is by far the biggest donkey. 

       He came to Clovelly in November 2005, with his best friend Pierre, from Toulouse in south-west France.

       At 13.1hh (5'5" or 1.4m at the shoulder) he is one of the biggest donkeys in England. 

We bought him so that we could give rides to bigger children - he is big enough for a smallish adult to ride.        

Here is Sammy standing by the Tack Room door. His rump is level with the "No Smoking" sign !

Beside him is his friend Pierre, who is also a big fellow, and in the background are two of our ordinary-sized English donkeys, Barney and Kiwi.

Here he is in his Summer coat.

You can see his two-piece shoulder stripe and his long forelock. He also has a long mane for a donkey.

.....And in his winter coat. 

Here he is wearing a boot on his back foot because he had an abscess in his hoof which needed a poultice. 

Donkeys often suffer foot problems in our wet climate, particularly in winter, so we have to pick out their feet every day to try to stop it happening.

We had a bit of a struggle to get the poultice on Sammy for the first time. He's a big strong boy! He soon realised it was ok, though, and he is very good now.

 Age......14 in 2013

 Size:13.1hh (53")

  Colour:......
          Light grey, no leg stripes, long forelock

 Born: Toulouse, France

Sammy has BEAUTIFUL ears and they are very big, a bit shaggy and have lovely chocolate-brown markings on the back.

Here's Sam saddled up <<<<<<

and

Going off for a Ride    >>>>>>>>

Oh dear, Sammy and Pierre are up to mischeif again.................

(roll your mouse over the picture)

"Hi Bart, Can I help you play with the tools please?"

Here is Sam in his anti-fly rug.

He suffers a little from "sweet itch" which means he is allergic to midge bites. 

Behind him you can see the strip curtain we put across the shed door to make it dark inside. Flies don't like the dark so it gives Sam somewhere to hide.

Unfortunately, dear Pierre thinks its fun to pull off the strips. Naughty boy !

One day Bart was mending the gutter - so Sammy went to sleep under the ladder.

He looks bigger than the horsebox but he does go in !

There's nothing like a good scratch.

Sammy's Important Visitor

He got very excited because she was in season.

It was lovely to see him prancing around !

Click here for
Sarah's Page

Some other things Sammy likes.

.>>>>
Kissing with Pierre

They are very skillful at rolling their footballs around to get out the pony-nuts.

(Roll your mouse over the picture)

Going for a walk in February

>>>>
Playing with humans. Our helper Natasha riding Sammy.

September.
Playing with the humans' stuff.
' There MUST be something interesting in the van'......
(roll you mouse over the picture)

There are advantages to being tall !

Sammy in August

Lovely silky nose

spotty !

Sammy in February

He's fluffy !

<<<<
there's something surprising over there !

>>>>Aahh,
warmth and sunshine.....

Samson does Natural Horsemanship Parelli Training

Here's Sammy proudly standing on his special pallet. It took him ages to pluck up the courage - and now he's done it he doesn't want to get off. Clever boy !

We have trained both stallions using the principles of natural horsemanship and the Parelli 7 games that horses play on each other.

Click here for our
Parelli Page

Unfortunately, because they are stallions we can't take Sammy and Pierre to Parelli events so in September we joined the

International Horse Agility Club

so that we can take part in horse agility competitions.
It's similar to dog agility but with horse obstacles you can make yourself and, best of all,
we can compete from home using video recordings that we send via Youtube.

Click here for the Horse Agility Club

Click here for our Horse Agility page.

You can see Sammy in action in the real films we have entered for the competition. 
Go to our eeore blog at www.clovellydonkeys.blogspot.co.uk and click the links to the films.

Noah is a star at the see-saw even though it was the first time he had seen one

.

Sammy walks over the jump - he's supposed to jump really!

<<<<
He's good at the U bend

...and not too bad at backing along the pole corridor

<<<<
Sammy can do the wheel of poles

 >>>>
..and doesn't mind the flag

<<<<
Backing over a pole

 >>>>
.knocking over the jump !

That's Charlie at the back and Noah at the front.

See the real film and catch Sammy in action by following the links on our eeore-blog at www.clovellydonkeys.blogspot.co.uk

Sammy's best score so far,with Sue at Starter level,
is 88 out of 100.

Home

Here are the Mules saying "Hallo" to the Big Guys.

Sammy is bigger than the big mule. 

The donkeys are quite naughty if we ride them together so we like to go out with one mule and one donkey.

The Donkeys

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