Plain Sailing

Plain Sailing's international career spanned almost a decade and several top riders.  With Mike Plumb he won team gold at the 1967 Pan American Games and team silver in the 1968 Olympic Games.  With Bruce Davidson he took home team silver from the 1972 Games, and then he and Don Sachey won team gold at the 1974 World Championships at Burghley.

"Sammy" was his nickname.   He was a bay gelding, about 16.2 hands, by an Irish stallion named Walter Serpent and thought to be out of an Irish mare.  Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Firestone when he was competing, Sammy was a strong individual, a very powerful, forward going horse, and as Don Sachey said, "as honest as the day is long about jumping, and had a very clear opinion about how things should be done.  He was a tough ride and strong, but you could really trust him to jump.  Given his competitive record, obviously he was tough as nails to have had such a vast international career, and it speaks highly of his soundness and mental toughness."

On the ground, Sammy had a special relationship with his groom and facility manager, Patrick Lynch.  As Don puts it, "One never got the impression he was overjoyed to be brushed, tacked up, handled. It was more that he tolerated it.  He was much more experienced and much smarter than me during our time together, and I am certain he was fully aware of the advantage that he had!  There were a handful of horses like Sammy from the mid 50s thru the mid 70s that possessed the ability to do a number of international competitive cycles, and truly enabled the U.S. to develop the momentum to actually hire a great coach and move us on to the success at the '74 World Championships.  Sammy was a big part of that."

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