Sam Powell

Sam Powell looks like a cowboy…with steely eyes, leathered hands and a stance that reveals he’s suffered a number of broken bones. But, when Sam Powell walks into a room, his energy fills it like an empty cup. With the demeanor of a polished gentleman, his presence is magnetic and his spoken word enchanting, captivating and hypnotic. Sam Powell has the power of communication—spoken and unspoken.

Born in Oklahoma, Sam is the all-American cowboy—a pedigreed, full-blooded horseman. “I’ve been around horses all of my life. I’ve worked ranches, toured the rodeo circuit, rode the range to round up herds in the wild, and I’ve broke and trained many a horse,” said the former rodeo cowboy.

As a young man, Sam grew up “rodeo-ing.” “Back then, if you grew up out West, that’s just what you did. It was a way to make money, not to mention get attention.” Admitting that he had a big, big ego, for a little guy, Powell says he used the rodeo as an avenue to attract attention. “I didn’t have a lot of parental guidance, if you will, as a kid. So, I think I was starving for attention. If I rode the bulls and I was a winner, I’d get the applause from the fans. If I was injured, at the very least, I’d get medical attention.” His ego, he says, kept him in trouble and in pain. “I realized ‘I’ wasn’t getting it right--with the horse or in life!”

Having eaten a lot of dirt and dusted himself off more than a hundred times, the 67-year-old cowboy learned that rather than to “work” the horse, it’s better to “work with” the horse.

“Over the years, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and the horse has taught me a lot. The horse saved my life and this is my way of paying the horse back for what he helped me to learn about myself and my relationships with others over the last sixty some-odd years of my life.”

A horse relationship therapist and interpreter, Sam Powell “thinks horse.” His lessons are derived from 50 years’ life experience and observation—all from the horse’s perspective.   “It’s important to understand that human’s attach everything that a horse does from a human standpoint. We are asking him to conform to our standards. A horse knows how to be a horse. He already knows how to run, stop and back up. It’s up to the human to learn how to ‘ask’.”