Sam Morton, a horse trainer for over thirty years,
was raised on a cattle farm in Southern Pines, North Carolina. The youngest of six
children of Mary Virginia and Thomas Edward Morton, Sam graduated from Pinecrest High
School in 1975 and Guilford College in 1981 with a degree in history. During the summers
Sam served as a wilderness guide in the Bighorn Mountains, and he also took a year off
from school to work on the chemical docks during the roaring seventies in Houston.
After graduating college, Sam worked as a horsebreaker for
the NX Bar Ranch north of Sheridan and the WS Ranch in Wyarno, Wyoming. After spending
winters riding in Arizona, Florida, and Texas, Sam was hired during the summer as a polo
horse trainer in Wellington, Florida by Memo Gracida, the
most successful polo player in the
history of the game. Sam also served as a polo manager under Herbie Pennell at Palm Beach
Polo in the winter. Polo manager jobs in New York and Wyoming followed.
In Florida, Morton trained as a horse dentist in
1985 and has been practicing ever since.
In the late eighties, Morton founded a global
philanthropic organization called Full Moon Ltd, which produced two movies; Life in
Florida and Fistfull of Mountain Oysters.
The "Hubcap Open" polo tournament ran for
five years in the fall in south Florida.
Full Moon also produced a youth polo school that ran
for 18 years in Big Horn, Wyoming and an Xtreme rodeo that ran for 8 years in Sheridan.
Morton also started the company
Wondermouth;
an oral liquid solution for horses designed to soften the mouth and relax the horse with a
protective flavorful treat.
Sam has written for several publications, including
American Cowboy, Polo Players Edition, Sidelines, and Pine Straw Magazine.
He resides in Big Horn, Wyoming, during the summer
and Wellington, Florida, during the winter.
