2009 POLISH NATIONALS AND PRIDE OF POLAND SALE
“A man without a horse is like a body without a soul.” —Old Polish Proverb Visitors to the Polish National Show and Pride of Poland Sale quickly recognize the accuracy of the sale’s romantic name. Arabian horses are the pride of Poland. From the humble to the haughty, the Polish people respect the beautiful animals—almost to the point of worshipful devotion. For more than 300 years, Poland’s Arabian horses have helped preserve the repeatedly war-besieged country’s very existence. After each conflagration, there stood the horses when the smoke cleared. Raymond Mazzei’s extensive travels to Poland over the last three decades have only added to his encyclopedic knowledge of Polish Arabians. “With previous trips to Poland this year,” he begins, “I knew many of the horses in the show and sale. However, it was an eyeopener to learn that private breeders—who never existed in earlier years—are breeding growing numbers of foals. Because they are now allowed to breed their purebred mares to the state stud stallions, there has been a big step upward in quality. Private breeders’ horses are now show ring winners. “From 1980 to today, there has been a real change in the Poles’ breeding philosophy,” he says thoughtfully, “because there is a significant difference in the stallions they bring in to add new sire lines. Director Marek Trela of Janów Podlaski is in Israel right now, and he is searching for an ideal straight Egyptian stallion to incorporate into Janów’s program.
232 | AR ABIAN HORSE TIMES
“The best 2009 foals I saw in Poland this year were sired by Laheeb, a straight Egyptian Imperial Imdal son. Enzo, by Padrons Psyche, and other outcross stallions, are going to Poland’s finest mares. The result is beautiful, athletic, contemporary foals with classic good looks, and extreme quality. The new directors are breeding their greatest producers to stallions they are excited about … but that is a double-edged sword. They are very candid about what did or did not work. When a cross does not work, the directors say publicly, ‘We won’t do that again!’ “The Polish are true livestock breeders. They evaluate the crosses, unaffected by the hoopla surrounding the stallions. They offer a few of their very best horses for sale, every year. Buyers can come to a Pride of Poland Sale, confident that they will have the opportunity to own Poland’s finest.” Poland’s finest Arabian horses were unknown by a young, horse-loving British girl until one summer, visiting a French seaside town, she discovered an Arabian stallion with a band of gypsies. “I had never seen anything so beautiful!” that girl, now a grown-up Shirley Watts, remembers. “I knew then that it would always be Arabians for me.” Shirley and Charlie Watts figure prominently among Pride of Poland Sale buyers. The couple has added seven Polish mares to their Halsdon Arabians herd, each one