JANINA BLOG POST: FOR SIGI. FOR POLAND. FOR THE FUTURE

Well, I'm finally doing it ... this "blogging" thing. Writing has always been hard for me. Looking at that big white blank screen with the keyboard cursor flashing at me, waiting for my thoughts. But since my Mom passed, I have a lot on my heart. And so I'm going to try this "blogging" thing, because Om El Arab is a family all around the world. This next chapter is a journey I do not want to do alone. So I hope you join me as I attempt to put my thoughts into words on everything "Om El Arab"... horses, travels, Luca (!) and life in this next chapter. Here goes...

My Mom loved foaling season. She loved the promise of the future that each foal brought. In the early years she foaled most of the foals herself. Once I came of age I took over that responsibility and would call her once the baby was born. She would rush into the barn, an apple in hand and would eat her apple while she admired the new baby and praised its Mother for her efforts. Once she’d eaten it to it’s core, she would give the rest to the mare. The apple was her tradition. I watched her munch on an apple foal after foal for many years. More recently, foaling out the mares has been passed on to my right (and left) hand, Yvonne. She has been taking care of our precious mares and their babies for years now and does it with so much love. (She must have been a relative in another life!) 

As a payment for Om El Bellissimo’s lease to Janow Podlaski in Poland, we were allowed to pick a Bellissimo daughter from the two foal crops that Bellissimo left behind. Dr. Marek Trela told my Mom to take her time and to watch the fillies grow up a bit before making her final decision. She went to Poland two years in a row to assess the fillies. On her second trip she fell in love with a bay filly called Alamina. Pawel trotted her in hand for Sigi and the filly moved like she was floating on a cloud. My Mom hid her enthusiasm behind a poker face because she only had the 3rd choice in fillies. She couldn’t believe herself when Dr. Trela picked two other fillies and she was able to choose Alamina. For the first time in over 25 years we were bringing a new mare line to Om El Arab, a Polish mare that happened to have Estopa in her pedigree 5 times as well through her sire Om El Bellissimo.

Alamina arrived at Om El Arab as a 2 year-old filly and immediately fit right in. She is smart, beautiful and oh so sweet. It was my Mother’s dream to breed Alamina to Om El Al Azeem and we bred her in 2015 as a three year old.

It was a bittersweet moment when Yvonne sent me a text message on May 18 in the early evening that Alamina had just foaled a beautiful grey filly. It was just 8 days after my Mom’s passing and I rushed in to the barn (I wish now that I would have brought an apple) to see the most beautiful little vision in the foaling stall. A gorgeous grey filly that embodied so many emotions: recent loss; Sigi and Poland, yet so much hope for the future.

I couldn’t help but think that she was here for Sigi, for Poland and for the future.