NEWS

2023-06-15

Pure Polish Classic Show – 1st Edition - Białka 2.06.2023 - ECAHO “specific origin”

Author: Maciej Paweł Grzechnik

Białka Stud was founded by the Polish State in 1930, acting initially as a Stallion Depot. In 1981 Białka joined the group of other Pureblood Arabian State Studs in Poland, alongside Janów Podlaski, Michałów and Kurozwęki. Only 10 years later, Białka Stud became the organizer of the Arabian Junior Spring Show, being the yearly survey of young Polish Arabian horses. This year witnessed the 33rd edition of the Show. Since 2021, the vastly experienced Hanna Sztuka is the manager and breeder of Białka Stud. Her efforts are directed towards making Białka Stud a place not only full of charm, marked with an extraordinary grace, but also a stud characterized by order and discipline necessary to achieve the desired objectives. Thus, Białka Stud is meant to become a place where the equestrian and breeding tradition meets with modernity and the swirl of world events in horse breeding.

Organizational skills coupled with the charming location were the reasons why the Pure Polish Arabian Society chose Białka Stud as the venue of the first Pure Polish Classic Arabian Show affiliated by ECAHO in the format “specific origin”. The Society was founded in 2020, and like other similar societies in the world, for example the Pyramid Society, it aims to protect and promote a specific type of the Arabian horse, in this case the Polish type, whose extreme beauty was indivisibly linked with insurpassed bravery, that was evolving on the battle fields, and then on race tracks.

A clearly outlined goal of breeding: to breed an Arabian horse characterized by a specific bouquet as well as utilitarian features, meaning beatiful and brave, for many years conditioned the Polish breeders to consider as indispensable the training of horses and their subsequent trial on race track. As a consequence, such approach proved the cornerstone of the world success achieved by the Polish Arabian horse. The ardent work of the generations of breeders, supported by selection oriented at beauty in conjunction with correct build and excellent health proved on race track, made the Polish Arabian horses gain the reputation of “beautiful and brave”, thus also gaining unquestionable primacy in the world.

Faced with the globalization of breeding and the inevitable dominance of the show lines in the pedigrees of the Polish Arabian horses, as well as the fact that Arabian horses departing from the type recognized in Poland were allowed into the breeding (French type), the Pure Polish Arabian Society deemed it necessary to organize a special show dedicated to horses with Polish pedigrees in order to fulfill it’s mission to promote the Polish Arabian horses. Only horses meeting the definition of Pure Polish Classic are permitted to compete in the Show. The intention behind the Pure Polish Classic Show is also to emphasize the importance of the bravery trial, i.e. training on race track. Therefore, horses that are racing or have been racing are rewarded with one extra point to their score for phenotype. Such procedure is meant to level the chances as well as to encourage the breeders to put their horses in training on race track (during a transition period). Simultaneously, it is assumed that starting from 2025, racing will become obligatory for all horses denominated Pure Polish Classic.

A separate class was organized for junior horses 3-4 years old under training on race track (i.e. the age when horses in Poland are racing on track), which was possible due to the fact that the Białka Show took place at the start of the racing season.

The Show met with many well wishes and extraordinary interest, mainly amongst all those who remember the success of Arabian horses with Polish pedigrees. Horses evoked as proof of the quality of the Polish breeding due to very high selling prices fetched, such as Kwestura, Pepita or Perfinka, are all mares proven on race track with Polish pedigrees.

The problems starting to face the population of show horses in Europe is the globalization of breeding affecting the race, which in turn leads to the tightening of pedigrees and a diminishing pool of stallions promising breeding success. A longtime selection focused on a specific type and head, with little attention paid to the features of build, including legs and movement, but also health, all these factors cause problems with obtaining a good stallion.

Polish Arabian horses of today undoubtedly depart from the contemporary type preferred at the Arabian horse shows. Therefore, even presenting good movement coupled with a harmonious build, they are unable to compete with show products from the Middle East. Yet, these horses are still capable of awakening admiration, like the Janów bred Biruta by Extern. In the hands of Adam Ochman, she deservedly became the senior female champion and the winner of the title Best in Show of the First Pure Polish Classic Show.

In the same competition, the Białka bred Palert (Alert-Pericola by Kahil Al Shaqab), sire lineage Ilderim, achieved similar success as the senior male champion and Best in Show. Palert is a stallion boasting of a very interesting, double-sided Polish pedigree, though also imbued with straight egyptian horses, resulting in very interesting offspring, predominantly better than the father. His dauther, Ewidencja, also competed in the Show.

Among junior stallions, the winner is the chestnut son of Ganges, Egizon (Ganges-Egiza by HK Krystal), sire lineage Kuhailan Haifi, whose presentation was superb despite intensive training on race track. The Białka bred Chilla by Alert became the junior female champion.

Like Egizon, this season she will compete on race track. El Jazza, the extremely beautiful daugher of El Jaheez WH, sire lineage Kuhailan Haifi, bred and owned by Klikowa Arabian Stud, proved supreme in the 1-2 Years Filly Championships.

Although the First Pure Polish Classic Show revealed certain distance between horses with Polish pedigrees and horses with pedigrees imbued with foreign stallions, often very valueable ones, the said event also showed the necessity to protect the native genetic resources displaced by the global breeding. Consequently, the protection of the Polish Arabian horse through the use of stallions and mares from old lineages and families considered as Polish and the bravery trial, all this is meant not only to perserve the breeding tradition, but primarily to protect features characteristic for the Polish horses, mainly beauty accompanied by bravery and health. These efforts are vital if we wish to preserve biodiversity in the globalised breeding world of the Arabian horses.

Definition of the horse Pure Polish classic - specific origin

The definition of the term Pure Polish Classic Arabian refers a horse of the Arabian horse breed originating from one of the 7 sire lineages and belonging to one of the 15 dam fa-milies accepted by the Polish Breeding Program, with the exception of the sire line Sa-klawi I – mentioned in the Program. Horses representing the sire line Saklawi I are consi-dered as Pure Polish Classic Arabian provided they originate from the sire strain of Palas (1968 SU). The remaining strains of the sire line Saklawi I may be considered as Pure Polish Classic Arabian in the sire line of a stallion or mare only in the fifth posteriori ge-neration born in Poland, subject to completion of bravery trial. The pedigree of Pure Po-lish Classic Arabian cannot include in any generation the following stallions: Amer, Ba-roud III, Burning Sand, Dragon, St. Laurent, Tiwaiq.