^^^^Featuring a young pony called Sampson who is born late one spring, this particular story tells how Sampson is separated from his parents at an early age and is then passed from one owner to another. Sadly for him, when he lived wild in the New Forest during his early life, some of his fellow young ponies refused to play with him one day and he mistakenly took great offence at their reaction.
^^^^Very foolishly he didn’t ask why they didn’t want to play and he assumed that they didn’t want to play with him personally, when in actual fact they didn’t want to play the games he was proposing because they were much olderthan him and had grown out of playing such games. As a result of this terrible misunderstanding Sampson resolves to stay on his own from then on to avoid further rejection.
^^^^Sampson’s solitary lifestyle soon proves to be a big mistake when he is rounded up and taken from the forest and sold on. As a result of his chosen isolation he becomes very lonely and isolated from then on with no friends to talk to, or to talk things over during difficult times.
^^^^Fortunately for Sampson, his world changes completely when he is taken from the forest by his owner and sold on to a series of other farmers. First he meets a young girl who takes a liking to him;, then he goes and lives with her on her farm. Whilst she is important to him and his life-story, it is the relationship he forms with another influential character which is pivotal in his life. Once he meets this other character, his life changes forever and in a very good way. She becomes the mother he never had and he learns the importance of communication