Kirkpatrick & Co. Presents In Their Care: An Exercise Rider's Unusual Travel Companion

Kirkpatrick & Co. Presents In Their Care: An Exercise Rider's Unusual Travel Companion originally appeared on Paulick Report.

We’re talking about a pig for a pet.

To be more precise, we are talking about Igby Pigby, the love of exercise rider Samantha Adamo’s life since she purchased him for $100 six years ago and nursed him to good health by bottle feeding and cuddling him.

There is nothing easy about bottle feeding such an animal, but there is almost nothing Adamo would not do for a companion who travels the racing circuit wherever it might lead. He is currently based near Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Obtaining suitable housing for both of them can, of course, be problematic. Cats and dogs are one thing. A 122-pound pig? Even one that is house trained?

Adamo, with her ingratiating personality, finds a way.

“I’m just not ever going to take a place where I can’t take the pig. I’ll just figure it out,” she said. “I’m a pretty good conversationalist. I can talk my way into a lot of situations.”

Adamo, 32, also needs to mention Simkin. He is a playful black kitten she found in some distress while he wandered the Churchill Downs barn area. His coat now gleams, a testament to his doting caretaker.

“Black Beauty” was Adamo’s favorite movie when she was growing up in Johnston, R.I. She cleaned stalls in exchange for riding lessons and quickly gained a reputation for climbing aboard mercurial horses no one else wanted to be near. She always knew what the future held for her.

“It was always horses. There was never a question of what I wanted to do,” she said.

She left her horse, Attika, behind in Kentucky when she joined trainer Tom Amoss’ team at Saratoga Race Course. She looks forward to reuniting with Attika as soon as the Saratoga meet ends.

There is an easy explanation for Adamo’s passion for animals. Her single mother, Marianne, brought to their apartment creatures big and small while she worked for the Southwick Zoo in Mendon, Mass.

Marianne tells of her time with a “loving” warthog and added, “That was just one of many animals I brought home – goats, sheep. The warthog was pretty neat.”

Although Marianne retired from the zoo, her current home has something of a zoo-like atmosphere. She cares for three dogs, three cats, two rabbits and two button quail. The sound of a barking dog could be heard through much of a phone interview until Marianne successfully quieted Hickory.

Marianne cannot explain what leads her to have her mini-menagerie. She said of all animals, “I was just crazy about them, crazy about them since I was a little girl. My mom and dad used to laugh and talk about it because they had no idea.”

Marianne had no idea when her daughter initially made her porcine acquisition. “She never told me, the little devil,” her mother recalled.

Soon, though, Marianne was all-in concerning the newcomer’s proper care. Igby Pigby required a lot of attention.

“I held him all the time like a newborn baby. He was always cold,” Adamo explained. “I would hold him for the longest time until he was really too big to be held.”

She house-trained him by rewarding him with a peanut whenever he cooperated. Raising him was a learning process for both.

“He lives his life like a dog, but he’s not anything like a dog. He’s extremely sensitive,” Adamo said. “When he was younger and he heard me raise my voice, he would actually scream. He would go around the house and scream.”

In time, she learned his language and he learned her ways. “He has a whole repertoire of noises. He oinks but there are many different kinds of oinks,” she said. “He has different tones and different kinds of oinks for different things. You learn the whole pig vocabulary after a while.”

Life is often about doing things on Igby Pigby’s terms. “He’s got a personality. Oh, yeah. He’s kind of ornery at times,” Marianne said. “Samantha can have a difficult time getting him back in the house if he’s not done grazing. He’ll grab a huge mouthful of grass and try to bring it in the house with him.”

Visits to Marianne’s house in Rhode Island must be a bit nerve-wracking for him as he invades a space normally reserved for three dogs, three cats, two rabbits and two button quail. He makes himself right at home.

“The last time I saw the pig, he was very friendly, very loving,” Marianne said of a recent visit. “The hog walked in like a trooper, as if he belonged.”

Igby Pigby and Marianne have come to a better understanding. She once was showing him affection when he abruptly left the room. When he returned, he put his mouth over Marianne’s wrist. While he did not bite, he was intent on showing his displeasure with her for reasons that soon became clear.

“Samantha told me later he didn’t like his cheeks rubbed,” Marianne said, “and I think I was rubbing his big fat cheeks.”

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Aug 18, 2025, where it first appeared.