Duurke

Our very first Friesian was an 18 year old star mare named Duurke purchased over 10 years ago. We found her in Sulphur, LA at a Saddlebred training facility. Mark and I borrowed Amy Koch's trailer drove 14 hours down to pick her up then another 14 hours back. It was an exhausting trip but I was so thrilled to own her. Duurke was extremely well trained in dressage, all of her lateral work was fantastic and she had a wonderful attitude and beautiful gaits. We started her in vaulting and showed her with the vaulting team at the IL Horse Fair that first March. Now these were in the days I couldn't afford to buy a Friesian so all of my savings went into buying her, I borrowed from my dad and took a loan out at CEFCU for the balance with a 2 year payback. To pay back the loans I started cleaning stalls. We decided to breed Duurke, as we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to replace her. We talked to Dr. Monfort the Bridlewood vet, about which was the best option and at her age he recommended live cover so I got on the internet and found the nearest FHANA registered stallion standing in Rockford, IA. After talking to his owner, Rhoda, Sarah and I drove up to see the stallion and her place. We sent Duurke up to him in April and June 10th we got a phone call from the stallion owner that Duurke was colicking and what did we want done. Duurke was taken to Aimes IA Vet School for surgery where she died. I called and talked to the attending Vet and asked him to describe her, he told me he spent more time looking at the inside of her than the outside, then described her as a 16 hand big bay mare. Duurke was only 15.2 and black but I thought perhaps she looked bigger and probably faded if she was left out in the sun. One doesn't think very clearly when there has been the death of a valuable horse that I still owed money on. We did ask for an autopsy and got the report but again the mare was just listed as Bay Mare. We were left with huge vet bills and a loan on a dead horse that still needed to be paid. Just to relieve our minds we should have driven the 300 miles and checked to make sure it was our mare but everything was just too overwhelming right then. Grasping at straws Rhoda and I spent some time on the internet looking for Duurke hoping against hope it had been a mistake and Duurke was really alive somewhere. Years went by and we heard that the stallion passed away from colic and I felt bad for his owner, remembering the devastation I felt when Duurke died.
Last night an email came from his owner asking if Sanna was still for sale so just for fun I googled her name and was very disturbed at what came up. The very first write-up listed was from someone that claimed she had scammed them.
Now we really do wonder if it really was Duurke that colicked and died. Could she have sent a colicking mare that she could claim was a Friesian so Duurke could be sold to someone else? I guess we will never know.
I will say God is Good, if Duurke hadn't died we would NEVER have purchased Raven and Raven is FAR, FAR better than ANYTHING that would have come from breeding Duurke to any stallion.