(Please note, I didn’t title this: “It’s a small world…” because I’d have that song stuck in my head all day. Well, too late…)

As I’ve waded through the edits on my latest novel, I’ve spent hours researching the rich history of Polish Arabians (even discovering my own horses’ ancestry). You know the story behind this novel – Witez II and his incredible journey during WWII and under Nazi occupation.

Throughout this process, there have been a series of silly coincidences. From discovering my horse is of Polish descent to finding a woman from Poland within a historical fiction writing loop I’m a part of. (She was able to double check my use of Polish—a very handy resource!)

Then, came the biggest of all.

A woman at church (and our church is not that big) mentioned she’d grown up with horses her whole life and that her mother has been a long-time breeder of horses. She was dedicated in preserving the lineage and knew everything about the bloodlines and history…

I asked what kind of horses.

“Polish Arabians.”

I could hardly contain myself. There aren’t a lot of people out there with pure Polish lines. There certainly aren’t too many in the Pacific Northwest, much less a few miles from my residence.

A sample entry from the Polish Stud Book.

I spent a wonderful afternoon with the woman on her beautiful farm, surrounded by broodmares and stallions that took my breath away (even with their fuzzy winter coats.)

We spoke history, bloodlines, stallions and mares. Imports, breeders, famous Generals, other historians. She gave me a copy of her digital archive of Polish Stud Books (a record of the mares and stallions from Poland for years.)

In.cred.i.ble. My mind is still buzzing.

It’s a small world, after all.