Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> In my opinion, I prefer the OLD Polish lines;  Witez II, Wisok,
> Czubuthan, Druch, Orzel,Celebes, Comet, Kasmir; the Kuhailan type of
> Arabs.  Kuhailan's have the bigger bone, deeper body, aren't as "leggy",
> are just more substancial horses. *Czubuthan was the grandsire of Wendel
> Robie's stallion BANDOS.  Also, he was raced in Poland and was a very
> celebrated race horse.  No offspring of his remain in Poland as the
> State Stud were his bloodlines were located took a direct hit during
> WWII.  Luckily, many fine horses were imported pre WWII by General
> Dickensen of Traveler's Rest in Tennessee.   I love this line of horses,
> and they have done mightily in endurance and many great horses have
> descended from Traveler's Rest-bred horses.   Personally, I would not
> travel to Poland these days as I do not believe the working quality of
> their horses is as good as in the days when Poland had the greatest
> cavalry horses in the world pre WWII.  Hitler "liberated" some of the
> best from Poland and was intent on creating his "super race" of horses
> based on the Polish
> cavalry-bred Arabian. The Poles now breed for a show market, and have
> changed their program, adding bloodlines and breeding for "show-pretty"
> now.   So, there are some stubborn breeders left out here that are
> sticking with the old-line Polish bred horses--I am, in a small way.
> Renie Burnett
Good for you, Renie.  And I'm glad to have the direction of breeding in
Poland confirmed by someone who breeds Polish Arabs.  You are right about
the working qualities of the older lines--they were fabulous horses, and
those traits remain when breeders continue to select for them.  The Polish
breeders who have done what you are doing are very much like the CMK
breeders--intent on maintaining the riding qualities of the classic
Arabian.

> From my perspective as a CMK breeder, since we don't have a "closed"
bloodline definition and therefore can have a sprinkling of some other
bloodline in our pedigrees, I've never minded having breeding stock with
lines to the older Polish horses either, because they DO have the same
traits as what I am trying to preserve and breed on.  For my own purposes
in my own program, I draw the line after the "Patton Polish" importation
(*Witez II, *Wierna, *Wierka, *Pilot, etc.) but you are correct that there
are a few of the later imports who still represent the same kind of horse.

Because of the change in how the Poles breed horses and of how the
show-oriented American breeders have bred Polish horses, it has far less
meaning to just say that a horse is "pure Polish" than it does to say that
he is something like CMK, or Sa'ud, or Babson, or some of the other groups
where the breeding philosophy has not changed.  With Polish pedigrees, you
REALLY do have to define whether they are old Polish or modern Polish, and
whether they have been bred on with work in mind, or with showing in mind.

While it is much easier to navigate a bloodline group such as CMK where
nearly all the breeders still stick to the working standards, it IS
possible to find Polish horses that are well-suited to the sport. 
However, it requires a great deal more knowledge of specific horses and
general trends in the pedigrees (which beyond the WWII cutoff I don't
have, because I don't breed Polish horses) so that one can sort out the
older influences from the newer influences.  Additionally, I'd stay
stateside for such a search and find breeders like Renie!

Heidi


============================================================
REAL endurance is taking your non-horsey family to a ridecamp with you!
~ Heidi Sowards

ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

============================================================