The English meaning of Vonk is spark, and the story of Vonk is definitely one that makes my ideas look like a spark of genius. The truth is I never bought Vonk to be a stallion prospect. I bought him as a package deal. I was after his dam, KWB Emse, and Pramkop Sonlig's daughter, Sunbird. Truth be told I really was not looking for another stallion, because Dwasdouw Vlam was already chosen for the job.
So for the record here is what transpired... When I first went to look at the Impendulo stud back in 2013, the owner of the stud took me to look at the horses that was not on offer at that stage. I immediately took notice of the two bay mares with the bay colts. I later-on told another breeder I thought the one was the better mare but the other mare had the better foal. Little did I know I would be buying the better mare and the ugly foal at a later date. Since they were not part of the package deal on offer, I did not think much on it thereafter.
I got a call from Impendulo Stud's owner and during our chat it came up that Sunbird was still not sold. Now, I have a very soft spot for Sonlig and at that stage I thought it would be better to breed from Sonlig's daughter than Sonlig herself. So again there was a package deal that included one of the bay mares and her foal. I had to take whatever was left after another breeder took his choice of the two bay mares and their foals.
As luck would have it I though I got the butt end of the stick again when the other breeder chose the mare with the better foal. I already committed to the deal and I would have felt bad to withdraw from the offer now. So the hectic organising started to get Sunbird, Emse and Vonk into the Western Cape. They had to stand quarentine for 6 weeks. To my dispair Sunbird died from tick-bite fever during quarentine and I was desperate to get Emse and Vonk home, eventhough they were not the reason I said yes to the original deal. I was down in the dumps, lost alot of money and now I am stuck with two horses that I felt I really did not need. It just felt like terrible bad luck and maybe I should not have bought more horses.... Or so I thought....
Arrival of the ugly duckling...
I have to confess I was not home when they were offloaded at Karorado Stud, but I saw them the very next morning. I was super upset that I chugged that much money down the drain and I have nothing to show for it but this awkward looking colt and a broodmare that is trying to take-off whenever you give a step closer. I remembered how well behaved Sunbird was, and like I said I thought this was the worst possible deal ever. Chalked it up to school fees and thought I would geld Vonk and try and breed something usefull from Emse as soon as her condition was better and we could actually get close to her.
Little did I know back then that Vonk would turn into a beautiful swan, with the exact right amount of elegance from his sire, KWB Lusanthric, and the durability from his dam. He also turned out to be a very good mover, catching the eye of international judge, Rick van Miert. During the 2016 Dressage Free Movement Show Vonk scored the highest for the Non-Warmblood section. Beating a few imported non-warmbloods and making me super proud. As with everything to do with horses there is a lesson here, if God opens a door and closes another, don't try to go through the closed door and have faith to go through the opened one.
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