Dreams do come True

DREAMS DO COME TRUE

or The Search for the Holy Grail was Simpler'

by Ilaria Dotti

This story began almost 2 years ago during a vacation spent in California when, for the first time, I saw and rode an American Saddlebred horse and I was conquered by his beauty and elegance. To be precise, I already knew about the breed, and I liked it very much, but I had only ever seen it in pictures never in the flesh'. At the same time I also had the opportunity to talk with actor William Shatner of 'Captain Kirk' fame and famous American Saddlebred owner/breeder, who told me many interesting things about them. As a result of these experiences I simply fell in love with the breed and they contributed to my decision to make my next horse an American Saddlebred... which sounds simple enough but it wasn't to prove simple to do - especially since I live in Italy! This is a country where the world of horses is not a major consideration and where even the so called experts' are not every expert. Having returned home almost a year passed as I had to continue my studies (I am a university student) and then I began my search...
My first step was to contact all the major Italian horse traders, the only people who regularly import horses from the USA because at that time I mistakenly believed that it was the only place where the American Saddlebred horse was bred and produced. I made extensive phone calls and I invariably received 2 kinds of answers... "What is an American Saddlebred horse?" and "Sure, we have lots of them... we have paints' (coloured horses), Quarter Horses, Appaloosas...". After more of my explanations, the answer I always received was "No, we can't import such a horse".		Starlight & I - "The Holy Grail!"
Mrs Rosenberger had two horses available...Starlight was the one Ilania fell for		In the meantime, I read in a horse magazine that there was a farm in Austria which had Arabian horses and some American Saddlebreds... As fate would have it these very same Austrian breeder were at the Fiera Cavalli- the most important Italian horse show held every year in Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet), so I went to the show to ask them about the Saddlebreds and they told me that their horses were beautiful and elegant, and intelligent and nice tempered and ... very expensive. I might add they were asking for $25,000 for a six month old foal - $30,000 if the foal was a paint' Saddlebred! I was frozen to the spot, hoping I had misunderstood, but no, I had heard all too well. They wanted more than twice the money I could afford.
At this point (it was December 1997) I was certainly discouraged but I was not ready to give up. It was then that an angel' came to my aide... her name is Sue Wingate, who is a good friend of mine. She gave me the address of the American Saddlebred Horse Association of GB where I contacted Mrs Cheryl Lutring, telling her what type of horse I was looking for. (Nothing special, I simply asked for a well trained horse with a nice disposition and a good head'. I was not looking for a champion who would be wasted in Italy). Mrs Lutring wrote to me saying there were no horses for sale in England to fit my requirements, but she put me in contact with Mrs Lisa Hans Rosenberger, an American trainer who lives in Germany where she breeds American Saddlebreds.	Ilaria is successfully mastering a whole new way of riding