There's a common saying rolling around my father's side of the family.
"If it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all."
Such has proved true for many facets of our lives. When I called my father and told him about his newest grand horse, along with a carefully executed explanation of horse pedigrees, he said:
Are you sure you're my kid? 'Cause we don't have good luck.
The story of Alina is pretty funny, somewhat ironic and definitely a Holy Shit, that happened? kinda of ending.
While horse shopping, Aunty Sherri sends me an ad for a horse 2 hours away. Oldenburg/Thoroughbred mare. I say "eh" (no really. I really responded in the wording to her email). I keep the ad in the list of "might see" and keep looking.
A few weeks go by, we try a few more horses, Kerri gets screamed at by some nut with a TB, looks an Arab cross thingie and I get 2 more emails in the interim from Aunty Sherri insisting I go take a look, at least CALL on this Oldenburg/TB mare, cause, well, she's fancy. I drag my feet, email the owner and then call the next day. Get a brief description that she needs mileage, sat for some time, not for a beginner. Blah blah. The price is super lower, I watched it fall over the course of the month. What the fuck, what's another Saturday lost to horse shopping?
Fast forward. Kerri loves the horse. Go figure. Kerri brings horse home, books vet.
Everyone and their mother comes around and sees new horse. Warmblood friend, Hanoverian aficionado actually, notices something in the sun. Aunty Sherri mentions it to me. I mention it to the vet.
Vet confirms, why yes! Yes! That is the "O" and the distinctive crown branded into my new horse's left thigh. Sherri and I clap like a bunch of retards.
I call the seller and tell her Lina has done great with her prepurchase (post?) exam and she will living with me. I also casually mention that she is, in fact, a branded Oldenburg. (and is also part TB, as all warmbloods can be someplace in their lineage). Seller is a bit shocked, probably kicking herself. She said she KNEW that her dad was an Oldenburg, his name started with WEB, but she doesn't remember and its German. I thank her and immediately attack Google and the Oldenburg registry.
(this is how you can tell someone is not a warmblood person. I would have never known about the brand had Warmblood Lady friend saw it first. Obviously the seller was not a Warmblood person).
It took some sleuthing. But I found her through the list of approved stallions. Turns out our little warmblood nugget is the daughter of the #1 American standing Hanoverian stud in the US and her siblings rarely sell for less than 20k. I mean-she even has his FACE (in a different color). I even found photos online of her as a foal, and her with her TWO champion foals.
Lina's name was Elena as I bought her, but Alina through the registry. Lost in translation a bit. All I know is that she had 2 babies, 1 in 07 and 1 in 08. What she did after that could only be speculated. She sat for a bit, the seller said, but apparently it was due to being fat and pregnant and raising a couple kids.
I went through the proper channels to find out about her paperwork, and the Oldenburg registry has been pretty damn easy to deal with. Send pics, money, notarized letter and done.
Aside from being in love with Lina, I got lucky as shit that I ended up with my dream horse. Never in a million years did I think I would ever get to own a warmblood that wasn't some mish-mosh mix of draft and TB, or that I could AFFORD a proper German horse, who is gorgeous, sweet and a BLAST to ride. Every time I see her, I look into her huge brown eyes and ask if she had been waiting someplace for me for the 3 years that I've been looking for her. She nuzzles my hand and sighs. I still can't believe she's real.
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