What do you do when you can't afford to buy the fantastic horses you are being allowed to ride? I pondered this for almost a year.
The solution? Start from scratch. The thought of starting with a weanling has appealed to me for some time. But what if I were to back up a little bit from a weanling... buy a broodmare and breed for my own baby? My maternal instincts kicked in and this started sounding like a Great Idea, despite everyone telling me it was insane.
His video and information packet arrived a few days later. I swear the music playing in the background was the theme from The Black Stallion, which was only just about my most favorite movie when I was a kid. So of course I was moved. Deeply. Shame on them for toying with my childhood fantasies. Inbegriff is a dream stallion; jet black with a long full forelock and tail and big, kind, intelligent eyes... sigh.
So now I needed a mare. I started shopping for one, with Inbegriff in mind. Don't most people do it the other way around and select the perfect stallion for their mare? In any event, I contacted Linda Schklar (who owns the jumper stallion Odin and Woodmont Farm in Washington) to see if she might have the right mare. I was looking for a quality thoroughbred mare at least 16.1 hands and preferably dark bay. Ta-da, Linda has Miss Dolphin. She is 16.2 hands and so dark bay (or maybe seal brown) that she looks shiny black unless you get up close to her. I went to see her on February 29 and she was perfect. Everything I wanted plus a sweet personality, easy to breed, and a record of producing beautiful sporthorse foals. She was in foal to Odin so I could not take her home until that foal was born and weaned, but Linda agreed to keep her for me and have her bred while she was there. I rushed home and booked my breeding with Inbegriff.